According to a recent Washington Post article, medical schools are turning to outreach programs to help them create more diverse student bodies. Medical schools have always had trouble attracting students from underrepresented groups. For example, of the 77,722 medical students in America today, only 7% are African American and 8% are Hispanic. The majority of medical school students are white (at 61%) with a growing percentage of Asian students (at 22%). The remaining 2% account for other traditionally underrepresented student groups, including Native Americans.
Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that diversity in medical school is important as it helps prepare doctors for working with a varied patient population. Doctors who attended more racially and ethnically diverse medical schools expressed that they were better equipped to interact with and care for a diverse patient pool than doctors who attended less-diverse med schools.
A representative from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the group responsible for accrediting medical schools, says, “Each medical school must have policies and practices to achieve appropriate diversity among its students, faculty, staff, and other members of its academic community.”
Recent efforts to increase diversity include recruiting underrepresented minority high school students and offering them a month-long program after graduation that exposes them to various jobs in the health care sector. The program, hosted by George Washington University’s medical school, accepts high school seniors who have already gotten into college and offers them stipend money for the duration of the program, as well as scholarship money for college. The students, or “scholars” as they’re called, are then set up with mentors who counsel them through their academic careers.
Another diversity initiative, this one carried out by Georgetown University School of Medicine, targets college graduates from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds. Georgetown’s program, the year-long Georgetown Experimental Medical Studies program (GEMS), gives these students (about two dozen of them) an opportunity to take a few first year med school classes, as well as take courses that teach testing and studying skills, to help them prepare for the rigorous pre-med school and med school work. The program is mainly for students with degrees in science.
Related Accepted.com Resources:
- Med School Personal Statements for Non-Science Majors
- Applying to Medical School as an Older Applicant
- Medical School Application Advice
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