Underrepresented Minority Students’ Experiences at Baylor College of Dentistry: Perceptions of Cultural Climate and Reasons for Choosing to Attend

Abstract

A study was conducted at Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry (TAMBCD) in fall 2011 to identify the reasons underrepresented minority (URM) students chose to attend TAMBCD, the factors that supported their success as enrolled students, and their perceptions of the institution's cultural climate. A survey distributed online to all URM students received a 79 percent response rate (129/164). The respondents were primarily Hispanic (62 percent Mexican American and other Hispanic) and African American (33 percent) and had attended a college pipeline program (53 percent). The top reasons these students chose TAMBCD were reputation, location, and automatic acceptance or familiarity from being in a predental program. Alumni had most inluenced them to attend. Regarding support services, the largest percentage reported not using any (44 percent); personal advising and tutoring were reported to be the most commonly used. In terms of climate, discrimination was reported by 22 percent (n=29), mostly from classmates and clinical faculty. The majority (87 percent) reported their cultural competence program was "effective" and agreed that faculty (83 percent), staff (85 percent), and students (75 percent) were culturally competent. Overall, the students were "satisied" with how they were treated (88 percent), their education (91 percent), and the services/resources (92 percent). This information is being used to continue to improve the school's cultural climate and to conduct a broader assessment of all students.

Sense of belonging predicts persistence intentions among diverse dental education students: A multi‐institutional investigation

“…Lack of same-race faculty members, who might serve as role models or guides, can have a deleterious effect on URM dental students, as it may raise questions about their "fit" in the field, which in turn, can hijack their academic abilities, deflate their confidence, keep them for seeking help when needed, compromise their sense of belonging, and even lead to dropout behaviors. 4,5 Sense of belonging predicted persistence intentions for dental students in this sample, affirming findings from the broader higher education literature. 28 Though related to prior work, quantitative analyses of the relationship between sense of belonging and dental students' persistence intentions were nonexistent until this study.…”

“…Another promising strategy may be "grow your own" programs that focus on encouraging URM dental students to consider research and teaching careers. 5 Dental faculty rewards structures should also incentivize or encourage faculty to recruit URM students, get to know them personally, and help them persist by keeping in touch, offering advice along the way, addressing their cultural concerns in class, and connecting them to valuable professional opportunities.…”

“…Such roles must be more than ceremonial or "tokenism" and carry with them the authority, resources, and decision-making power to hold people accountable for fostering belonging and inclusive excellence. 5 The primary limitations of this study include the relatively modest sample size and the fact that the focus of the original study was directed at graduate students, not dental students per se. Acquiring data from a broad swath of graduate students across fields required us to field general questions, which prevented us from asking specific questions about dental education (e.g., clinicals, coursework).…”

“…Dental school is difficult for all students, but many URM students, especially African Americans, experience additional challenges that may be unique such as social isolation (based on their race) and subtle forms of racism and discrimination. 5 Persistence in dental school also is related to a number of dispositional factors. Recent findings from extensive studies have shown that dental school success is determined, in part, by personality traits, 11 motivation, 12,13 and grit, i.e., sustained perseverance with passion toward attainment of long-term goals.…”

Assessment of Psychometric Properties of an Oral Health Care Measure of Cultural Competence Among Dental Students Using Rasch Partial Credit Model

“…Further studies that utilize much larger sample sizes across wider areas with various minority groups are needed. Previous studies reported that a high level of color blind racial attitudes and pervasiveness of racial stereotypes existed among clinical faculty members 31 , 33 . Ancis et al found that clinical faculty racism was a potential stressor for URM students, so we recommend examining DSF effects across students and faculty from different racial groups 32 …”