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4 Sharing Visions and Working Toward the Future
Pages 58-75

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From page 58...
... Minorities in the health professions remain significantly underrepresented. The Institute of Medicine's Committee on Increasing Minority Participation in the Health Professions envisions a health professions workforce for the future that looks more like America.
From page 59...
... To meet the needs for health care, education, and research in an increasingly diverse society, the committee tried to formulate a strategy that would ensure a significant increase and a continuous supply of minority health professionals. The committee believed it critical to recommend greater emphasis on the "throughput"*
From page 60...
... They have failed to address the root cause the need to develop the applicant pool at earlier stages of the educational process. While searching for intervention programs that emphasize a systematic, integrated approach, the committee identified a model developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
From page 61...
... In applying the AAAS model to the goal of broadening the landscape of minority participation, current isolated projects would become linked into a national educational network committed to ensuring an increasing and continuous supply of minority health professionals. Instead of seeking merely to remedy educational deficits at the level of the professional school, the university would establish linkages with colleges in an effort to increase the supply of well-qualified candidates for the applicant pool.
From page 62...
... Teachers who are well trained and enthusiastic about their subject, who are effective communicators, who can advise, mentor, and encourage, are especially important in motivating minority students to pursue graduate study in science. The committee also sees the need to create a more inclusive academic environment for math and science training, one that incorporates understanding and appreciation of diversity as part of the effective teaching of these disciplines.
From page 63...
... . Studies show that a critical factor for minority students' academic success in math and the sciences is studying and discussing academic issues with other students outside class, rather than working alone and separating their academic and social lives.
From page 64...
... " The perception that educational attainment in math and science is directly related to innate ability, rather than to hard work and committed effort, is challenged in a number of recent studies and surveys. A new National Urban League study indicates that intellectual development is not dependent on special innate gifts, but is more the result of hard work and organized effort JIoward, 1993~.
From page 65...
... A number of studies indicate that, in most cases, the academic problems of minority students are remedial and transient (Fullilove et al., 1988; Action Council on Minority Education, 1990; Kahn, 1992~. Many problems are actually problems of acculturation to the medical school environment and reflect the inability of the medical school to integrate a racially diverse student body.
From page 66...
... Many minority faculty members, especially at majority institutions, believe they are penalized for spending too much time with students, who may indeed make extraordinary demands on their time 03lackwell, 1989~. The scarcity of minority role models and mentors among practicing health professionals and in academe contributes to the problem of attracting minority students to the health professions and reinforces the perception that it is probably unrealistic for minority youngsters to consider this career option.
From page 67...
... The use of electronic media and interactive communications to disseminate the latest data about educational opportunities, special programs, and financial aid would contribute significantly to broadening the interest and information base in this area. Improved, Coordinated Resources Further efforts to improve the targeting, coordination and administration of federal programs directed at minority health can help ensure the most effective use of scarce federal dollars.
From page 68...
... Minority schools such as Howard, Meharry, and Morehouse struggle for financial survival while remaining responsible for the successful training and mentorship of a disproportionate share of underrepresented minority students. Incentives and rewards also should be directed at those academic health science centers willing to develop concerted efforts to increase the ranks of minority students and faculty.
From page 69...
... Academic health centers, however, through their development offices have a unique opportunity to solicit extramural funding for diversity efforts. This may generate corporate support to attract minority youth to worksites, research units, and professional educational opportunities only a health science center can generate.
From page 70...
... A minority faculty member in a leadership position often provides the atmosphere conducive to the recruitment, development, and retention of minority staff and faculty (Wilson, 1992; Epps et al., 1993~. Minority students should be exposed to meaningful research experiences early in their academic careers, as early as at the high school level.
From page 71...
... The committee developed blueprints for intensive but broadly based community initiatives, outlined strategies for enhancing the minority presence in academic health centers, and considered multimedia campaigns that could help capture and convey the excitement and rewards of a health professions career to minority youth. Community-Wide Initiative The committee recommends that foundations, through a number of demonstration projects, sponsor communities that develop their own comprehensive plan for systematic reform and implement a dynamic, multifaceted community effort directed at minority health professions training, together with a goals statement and implementation plan.
From page 72...
... The committee recommends that a national info'7nation network and clearinghouse be developed that provides timely information on activities relevant to minority health professionals. The committee believes that such a network would prove invaluable to students, faculty, and administrators.
From page 73...
... Similarly, the committee joins others in recommendingformal inclusion of some level of community service among the criteria for academic recognition and advancement, in addition to the timehonored measures of scholarly and clinical achievement. Academic health centers need increasingly to form community partnerships with local schools and colleges to nurture the curiosity and develop the talents of students who may have an interest in health careers.
From page 74...
... The Media and Health Camers The committee calls on the corporate sector to develop and support multimedia campaigns to attract youngsters into the health professions. The committee suggests that relevant regulatory organizations within the communications industry establish a time bank, into which a defined percentage of all radio and TV time periods be deposited.
From page 75...
... SHARING VISIONS AND WORKING TOWARD THE FUTURE 75 community involvement may best be able to address the spectrum of disincentives economic, educational, social, cultural, and attitudinal that today deter minorities from careers in medicine and science. This agenda calls for bold and demanding measures.


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