The Health Equity Scholars Program: Innovation in the Leaky Pipeline

Abstract

Despite attempts to increase enrollment of under-represented minorities (URMs: primarily Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American students) in health professional programs, limited progress has been made. Compelling reasons to rectify this situation include equity for URMs, better prepared health professionals when programs are diverse, better quality and access to health care for UMR populations, and the need for diverse talent to tackle difficult questions in health science and health care delivery. However, many students who initiate traditional "pipeline" programs designed to link URMs to professional schools in health professions and the sciences, do not complete them. In addition, program requirements often restrict entry to highly qualified students while not expanding opportunities for promising, but potentially less well-prepared candidates. The current study describes innovations in an undergraduate pipeline program, the Health Equity Scholars Program (HESP) designed to address barriers URMs experience in more traditional programs, and provides evaluative outcomes and qualitative feedback from participants. A primary outcome was timely college graduation. Eighty percent (80%) of participants, both transfer students and first time students, so far achieved this outcome, with 91% on track, compared to the campus average of 42% for all first time students and 58-67% for transfers. Grade point averages also improved (p = 0.056) after program participation. Graduates (94%) were working in health care/human services positions and three were in health-related graduate programs. Creating a more flexible program that admits a broader range of URMs has potential to expand the numbers of URM students interested and prepared to make a contribution to health equity research and clinical care.

Institutional and Faculty Partnerships to Promote Learner Preparedness for Health Professions Education

“…Despite the success of pipeline programs, concerns have been raised that the STEM pipeline is leaking: i.e., learners are not progressing through STEM training to enter health careers, and existing programs do not accommodate enough learners to meet the demand [ 12 , 13 ]. Specific challenges facing these programs include underprepared students, time constraints, instructional challenges, loss of autonomy, and resistance to change, to name a few.…”

Incentivizing Physician Diversity in Radiology

“…URMs and women are disproportionately underrepresented in radiology compared with other specialties [13]. The small URM applicant pipeline pool suffers from a "leaky pipeline": URMs complete medical school but do not pursue radiology [30]. The attrition of diversity from medical school to residency may in part be influenced by the lack of diversity requirements that residency programs are expected to meet.…”

Increasing STEM Transfer Readiness Among Underrepresented Minoritized Two-Year College Students: Examining Course-Taking Patterns, Experiences, and Interventions

“…Initiatives to increase the numbers of students who complete degrees in STEM must engage and retain students from racial and ethnic groups that have been historically excluded from full participation in higher education and actively discriminated against in the context of STEM education and research (Malone and Barabino, 2009;Benish, 2018;McGee, 2020). Interventions that support students' efforts to pursue a STEM career pathway while addressing institutional practices and policies that limit access to or complicate the navigation of such pathways hold the greatest promise for impact and sustainable change (Whittaker and Montgomery, 2012;Upshur et al, 2018;Wilson et al, 2018).…”