Effective strategies and programs to increase minority participation in the health professions for the 21st century.

Efforts in the 1960s and early 1970s aggressively met the national health care challenge to increase minority enrollment in health professions schools. These efforts resulted from an academic and community-based collaboration supported by public and private funding. This review was undertaken to inventory the strategies and programs of that period and to highlight effective strategies. A literature review of minority program studies was conducted to catalog specific strategies and programmatic activities. Criteria used to evaluate effectiveness were also assessed. Publication of any studies and evaluations of these programs are limited; longitudinal studies are scarce. Evaluative criteria of that time combined quantitative and qualitative measures that were not applied uniformly and consistently. The inventory of programmatic activity ranged from career awareness days to establishment of health career "magnet" schools. The review found that three strategies--awareness development, enrichment/reinforcement, and prematriculation--were effectively applied in programs across all areas of the health professions studied, that is, MODVOPP (medicine, optometry, dentistry, veterinary science, osteopathy, podiatry, and pharmacy), nursing, and allied health. Today these strategies continue to be effectively applied, but the hostile social climate and dwindling funding threaten the progress made. Revitalization of past efforts is imperative.

Parental educational background and residency training selection of minority and nonminority medical students.

The subject of background variables influential in the choice of postgraduate medical specialty training has been described in numerous papers. Few, if any, have examined the influential patterns in minority students' residency training selection when compared with nonminority students. No studies reviewed examined the differential patterns that may have an impact on specialty selection in these subgroups, especially in regard to maternal and paternal educational status. This study analyzes the interrelationship between minority and nonminority medical students, their parental educational background, and selection of postgraduate specialty, and suggests that parental educational background be investigated further as a predicative indicator of medical student specialty career selection.

The impact of MCAT intervention efforts on medical student acceptance rates.

This study examines the role of Medical College Admissions Test review course in medical school admissions, and evaluates the relationship between undergraduate grade point average and MCAT scores. The results indicate that enrollment in a MCAT review course enhances medical school admissions for minority students.

The impact of a medical-school-based summer program on the acceptance of minority undergraduate students into health professional schools.

A summer program for minority-group undergraduate students who are oriented toward careers in health was established at the Tulane School of Medicine in 1968. Students were admitted independent of their performance in undergraduate science courses. Beginning in 1972, follow-up statistics were maintained on all participants; utilizing these statistics, the authors evaluated the impact of summer program intervention on the acceptance rate into health professional schools of 303 participants between 1972 and 1979. The results show that 209 (70 percent) of the participants were accepted by a health professional school, compared with 37 percent of 212 applicants to the 1976 summer program who were not selected for summer program participation. These results strongly suggest that summer program intervention plays a positive role in the student's attempt to gain admittance to a health professional school.