Diversifying Physical Therapy through Mentorship: The Minorities in Healthcare Mentorship Program
Purpose:
The Minorities in Healthcare Mentorship Program is a year-long program for minority high school seniors who are interested in pursuing a career in healthcare. Mentees are paired with current graduate student mentors and together they complete a curriculum centered around professional development, health career exploration, financial literacy, and cultural competency. Successful completion of this program qualifies eligible students for a small scholarship ($500). The purpose of this platform is to help other clinicians, educators, and administrators understand the importance of representation in clinician-patient/teacher-student relationships. The lack of ethnic/racial minority healthcare providers may hinder minority patients’ adherence to, and participation and cooperation in rehabilitative programs, thus reducing the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions. By increasing diversity in the field to better represent the population we serve, we can potentially help alleviate health disparities, increase access to care, and address health issues specific to certain populations. We want to emphasize the importance of cultural competency in education programs and use our program as a potential model for institutions to follow or learn from to better serve minority students in the classroom. Representation of minority professionals in the clinic and the classroom significantly impact the learning environment for students of color and can positively influence their success in these environments. Guided mentorship is a viable way to address the barriers identified in the research the Minorities in Healthcare Mentorship Program is founded upon. Our hope is that the audience walks away feeling motivated and inspired to help us with our primary goal of increasing diversity in academia and in the workplace, discuss ways to promote cultural competency, and empower young students of color to pursue higher level education.
Description:
In this presentation, the speakers will identify the barriers underrepresented minority students face pursuing graduate-level degrees in healthcare supported by the literature, provide a description of the program curriculum, outcomes from the first year, and present plans for sustainability and future projections, followed by a Q&A with the co-founders.
Summary of Use:
This program is intended to provide a model for cultural competence education and diversifying the health field through hands-on mentorship. The data shared will be used to demonstrate the impact of the first year and highlight projections for improvement in the future.
Importance to Members:
This platform is designed to introduce clinicians, educators, and administrators to ways they can support students of color in their programs and actively play a role in diversifying the field of physical therapy. The results of our pilot year identified key resources and factors that will promote future generations of students to be successful in academia and in the workplace. This program demonstrates the effectiveness of making an effort to promote diversity and inclusion and the potential impact it can have on improving population health.