Introduction

While diversity within the United States increases, the number of healthcare providers identifying as first-generation or low-income continues to fall short. Pathway programs aim to address this issue by expanding opportunities to students underrepresented in medicine and prepare them to matriculate into graduate and medical schools. Emory University School of Medicine’s pathway program, the Health Professions Readiness Education Program (HealthPREP), has successfully had 137 participants complete this 8-week summer program since 2018. However, HealthPREP alumni desired more ways to network and stay connected after the program ends. Our study aims to be the first to conduct research on the effectiveness of a long-term engagement framework among alumni of a pathway program. We hypothesized that alumni’s sense of community, career-related support, and self-efficacy would show an improvement in these three themes after participating in alumni engagement activities and through the creation of an alumni networking platform.
 

Methods

A pre-survey was disseminated to all HealthPREP alumni, with the goal of evaluating their sense of community, career-related support, and self-efficacy before the launch of alumni engagement activities. After the pre-survey, a LinkedIn private group for alumni was created as the networking platform. Virtual activities included panels on various career-related topics, mentorship, and networking. These engagement events took place over a 3-month span. The post-survey was distributed to gauge how their sense of community, career-related support, and self-efficacy was impacted by the alumni framework. Surveys collected demographics, Likert scale scores, and short answer responses.
 

Results

Out of 137 HealthPREP alumni invited to take the pre- and post- surveys, 16 alumni completed both surveys and participated in at least one engagement opportunity. There was a significant difference (p<0.05) within one Likert scale statement (pre- vs. post- survey score) within the sense of community theme. Otherwise, there was a slight increase but insignificant statistical difference, in the other themes for 16 alumni. To understand the lack of significant difference for these alumni, the pre-survey data for the 16 alumni was compared to alumni who only completed the pre-survey (n=22). Analysis showed that baseline scores for the 16 participants were higher than those that did not participate in any alumni engagement, leading to the lack of significance. Thematic analysis of short answer responses highlighted individuals’ positive experiences within the three themes.
 

Conclusions

This study examines the effects of a long-term engagement framework on sense of community, career-related support, and self-efficacy among alumni of a pathway program. Lack of significance in many statements indicates a possible self-selection bias in participants of the framework already having higher pre-survey scores than those who did not participate. This phenomenon emphasizes the need for efforts to reduce this bias. The thematic analysis highlights how this framework was a valuable tool in alumni's journey to matriculate into their desired healthcare career.