Interest in Serving the Underserved: Role of Race, Gender, and Medical Specialty Plans

Abstract

Introduction: Medical students often express their plans to care for medically underserved populations, but little is known about how this interest remains during medical school (MS). This study examined how self-reported interest in working with medically underserved communities may change during MS training based on several student characteristics. Methods: A secondary data analysis of all student records in the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) from 2005 to 2010 is presented. Predictors included gender, under-represented in medicine (URiM) status, age, academic metrics, career interest, and medical specialty choice. Outcomes included interest in caring for medically underserved populations when entering MS, graduating MS, and graduating MS controlling for entering interest. Results: The total population included 6890 student records (49.5% women and 18.2% URiM). Women had a higher likelihood of being interested in practicing in underserved communities when entering and graduating MS (odds ratio [OR] 1.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.37–1.77; OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.09–1.40). For all outcomes, URiM students had a higher likelihood of planning on a career with underserved populations compared with their non-URiM peers. Compared with Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine/Pediatrics and Family Medicine had a higher likelihood of plans to work with underserved populations upon entering, graduating, and at graduation controlling for entering interest. Discussion: Gender, race, and specialty choice all had meaningful associations with a student's plans on practice in an underserved community. This study's findings can help support efforts to improve MS diversity nationally and drive study on cultural effects embedded within medical specialty identity.

Diversity elements on maternal-fetal medicine fellowship websites: opportunity for improvement in recruitment and representation

“…Stakeholders reviewed and provided feedback on 5 to 7 iterations of proposed DEs for this project based on previous studies (see below), personal experience, and DEI member discussion with at least 1 of the senior authors (C.P.V or T.A.O.). In addition, DEs were identified based on previous research into important DEI components of residency websites 9 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ; important elements identified by other URIM interviewees in making their final training decision, including community demographics, cost of in-person interviews, or a desire to serve the underserved 21 , 22 , 23 ; and novel elements identified by DEI stakeholders (see above), such as diversity publications discovered in the preliminary review of the University of Arizona's departmental websites conducted for DEI office internal review (unpublished data).…”

US Medical Student Plans to Practice in Underserved Areas

“…3,4 No recent study has explored medical students' intent to practice in underserved areas, and previous analyses combined racial and ethnic identities and did not include sexual orientation or an intersectional lens. 3,5,6 We analyzed medical students' intent to practice in underserved areas from 2019 to 2021 by demographic characteristics.Methods | The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) administers a web-based questionnaire to individu-als graduating from an allopathic US medical school. The AAMC linked survey responses from 2019, 2020, and 2021 to AAMC sources that included demographic factors previously provided by responders.…”

“…3,4 No recent study has explored medical students' intent to practice in underserved areas, and previous analyses combined racial and ethnic identities and did not include sexual orientation or an intersectional lens. 3,5,6 We analyzed medical students' intent to practice in underserved areas from 2019 to 2021 by demographic characteristics.…”

“…Studies conducted before 2013 reported racial and ethnic minority medical students were more likely to primarily intend to care for underserved populations . No recent study has explored medical students’ intent to practice in underserved areas, and previous analyses combined racial and ethnic identities and did not include sexual orientation or an intersectional lens . We analyzed medical students’ intent to practice in underserved areas from 2019 to 2021 by demographic characteristics.…”

Racial Inequities in Female Family Physicians Providing Women’s Health Procedures

“…To combat disparities in the provision of women's health procedures, institutions should support URIM female FPs who wish to provide these procedures and work to dismantle barriers, such as credentialing challenges, inadequate training, 5,6 and poor reimbursement. 7 Training institutions should ensure that medical students and residents receive training in women's health procedures.…”