Alexandra Blood, DO, Resident, Family Medicine

Nanette Lacuesta, MD, System Program Director, Student Outreach

Webinar Recording (Slides and audio)

Slide Deck Only 

Addressing racial disparities in health care has been identified as a key initiative in medical education and in national medical advocacy groups.  A key recommendation by the AAMC to address this initiative is to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of the U.S. physician workforce.   This interactive seminar will help you identify the needs of your residency program for recruiting underrepresented in medicine (URM) students, identify metrics for success, and create strategies to use mentoring and other tactics as to meet your goals.  The participants will learn about a unique recruitment mentoring program created by an independent academic medical center with over 380 residents in over 30 residency programs in response to a need to increase the diversity of the medical staff, in partnership with affiliated medical schools. The mentoring program provides personal support, a longitudinal curriculum for professional development, an annual stipend for travel and other professional development, and opportunities for loan repayment if the student successfully matches into a residency program within the hospital system.  Retention data, return on investment, and lessons learned along the journey of developing this 10-year old program will be shared.  A resident physician who participated in the program as a medical student will share their personal reflections on how the program impacted their personal and professional development and influenced their decision to continue in the hospital system.  At the end of the session, the participants will have a guided session to craft a proposal for implementing program-specific initiatives in mentoring and other tactics for recruitment of URM students into their residency programs.  Future work to address key issues for URM recruitment, including rotation access, unintentional effect of filters in ERAS, and perception of social isolation, will also be shared.