Balancing the Scales of Opportunity Ensuring Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Health Professions (1994) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-10
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Major social forces and strong political leadership helped to bring about the increases in minority enrollment in the health professions that began in 1968. At that time, the climate of the Civil Rights era 1
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Some of the loss of momentum has been attributed to a slower economy, rising deficits, a diminished domestic agenda, and declining interest in providing educational support in the form of scholarships to minority students in part a response to a broadly publicized study produced in the 1980s, which predicted an oversupply of health care professionals by the year 2000. Minority students also report an insidious set of less tangible barriers both academic and social that stood in the way of educational advancement and the pursuit of a health professions career: denial of access to quality education; teachers who expect too little of students; anti-intellectual peer pressure; and a cultural gap between the world of study and that of their families and neighborhoods.
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Further, minorities practicing medicine, teaching classes, and conducting research with other health professionals can lead to more empathetic communication and health care for minority patients and patients in general. Indeed, the Clinton administration's plan for health care reform calls for the "creation of a new health workforce" and enhanced investment in "recruiting and supporting the education of health professionals from population groups underrepresented in the field." There is every indication that any reform strategy will provide incentives for enlarging the ranks of primary caregivers, nurses, and allied health professionals who enter community practice, a focus that represents promising career opportunities for minorities.
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Only by moving away from ancillary activities aimed at helping students survive the current educational climate to changing the climate in which students are educated, can we significantly affect the participation of minorities in health science careers. Collaboration and linkages among all levels of the institutions and organizations related to the educational process must characterize future efforts to increase minority participation in the health professions.
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The committee feels strongly that faculty members teaching science must be convinced that recruiting minority students to math and science, not weeding them out, is a major priority. · The committee urges a shift in perspective to an achievement modelfor minority education throughout the pipeline.
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i] The committee suggests that federal funding increasingly reflect the importance of supporting programs that improve the size and quality of the minority applicant pool by focusing on earlier interventions.
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The high cost of medical education may be a critical factor constraining the size of the minority applicant pool and may make the quicker financial rewards of other career paths more attractive. Outstanding debt for indebted medical school graduates has grown significantly over the past 15 years, the result of major tuition increases and a decline in the availability of scholarships.
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Recommendations Through the contributions of the workshop participants, the committee developed six recommendations it feels, if followed, will lead to a strategic action and research agenda for increasing minority participation in the health professions. · The committee mcommends that foundations, though a number of demonstration projects, sponsor communities that develop their own comprehensive plan for systematic "fonn and implement a dynamic, multifaceted community effort directed at minority health professions training, together with a goals statement and implementation plan.
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Over the years, many of the nation's academic health centers and the Association of Academic Medical Colleges (AAMC) have made impressive contributions to advancing minorities in the health careers.
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If the leadership of a medical school decides to make minority enrollment and faculty development a top priority, that school is likely to improve its record in this area. Instituting meaningful incentives and sanctions to promote desired outcomes, assigning staff time, and appointing a high-level administrator to address the issue are signs that institutions are serious about enhancing the presence of minorities in the nation's health care enterprise.
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