Diversity in academic medicine no. 1 case for minority faculty development today

Abstract

For the past 20 years, the percentage of the American population consisting of nonwhite minorities has been steadily increasing. By 2050, these nonwhite minorities, taken together, are expected to become the majority. Meanwhile, despite almost 50 years of efforts to increase the representation of minorities in the healthcare professions, such representation remains grossly deficient. Among the underrepresented minorities are African and Hispanic Americans; Native Americans, Alaskans, and Pacific Islanders (including Hawaiians); and certain Asians (including Hmong, Vietnamese, and Cambodians). The underrepresentation of underrepresented minorities in the healthcare professions has a profoundly negative effect on public health, including serious racial and ethnic health disparities. These can be reduced only by increased recruitment and development of both underrepresented minority medical students and underrepresented minority medical school administrators and faculty. Underrepresented minority faculty development is deterred by barriers resulting from years of systematic segregation, discrimination, tradition, culture, and elitism in academic medicine. If these barriers can be overcome, the rewards will be great: improvements in public health, an expansion of the contemporary medical research agenda, and improvements in the teaching of both underrepresented minority and non-underrepresented minority students.

The State of Diversity in the Health Professions a Century After Flexner

“…13 Yet, in 2007, these groups accounted for only 8.7% of physicians, 6.9% of dentists, 9.9% of pharmacists, and 6.2% of registered nurses. 14 …”

“…32 Although there have been a number of reports about the need to diversify academic faculty, 13 An inhospitable academic climate, perceived institutional discrimination in promotions and tenure, inadequate mentoring, and "academic isolation" of minority faculty in academic health centers have been reported by numerous authors. 37,38 Price et al 39 report a recent study showing that URM faculty were significantly more likely to feel that faculty recruitment was biased, were less likely to be satisfied with the level of racial/ethnic diversity in their institution, and were less likely to feel that they would remain in the same institution after five years.…”

“…40 In addition, minority faculty may be positioned to take on excessive mentorship responsibilities, at times mentoring students who have great social and academic needs. 13 These activities may place undue burdens on minority faculty, making it difficult for them to develop a strong research program and possibly impeding their faculty development and academic promotion.…”

Learning to Thrive: Building Diverse Scientists’ Access to Community and Resources through the BRAINS Program

“…Such challenges include a weak sense of belonging to the community, isolation and solo status, inequitable access to resources that impact career success, and marginalization from both informal networks and mentoring relationships (Sandler and Hall, 1986; Wunsch, 1993; Milliken and Martins, 1996; Boice, 2000; Smith et al. , 2000; Futrell and Walter, 2001; Trower and Bleak, 2004; Niemeier and Smith, 2005; Stanley and Lincoln, 2005; Nivet et al. , 2008; Turner et al.…”

“Fair Play”: A Videogame Designed to Address Implicit Race Bias Through Active Perspective Taking

“…lack faculty are persistently underrepresented in academic health centers 1 despite evidence that increasing faculty diversity is a potent strategy for diversifying the science and healthcare workforce 2,3 and for helping to reduce health disparities. 4 Factors such as constrained economic resources, fewer opportunities for academic preparation, and less access to social capital, as well as overt (i.e., ''explicit'') race bias, hinder the advancement of blacks in academic science and medicine.…”