In 2024, AMCAS and ERAS applicants have an opportunity to discuss "Other Impactful Experiences" that define their motivation to pursue medicine/residency. This is a great opportunity for alumni of pathway programs to reflect on the impact of their experiences. Preliminary data from HPSA/SDN surveys reveals the topics prospective applicants consider for this new prompt, but educational opportunities (like pipeline programs) were rarely mentioned. Students may need guidance or encouragement from program directors and admissions professionals to submit an effective and authentic response.  By crowdsourcing insights from conference participants, a guide for AMCAS/ERAS applicants can be drafted and ultimately distributed to alumni of pathway programs.  How are candidates encouraged to reflect on a pathway program's impact on their readiness for a health professional career?

Introduction 

The Center for Pathway Programs works to coordinate efforts and resources across programs to support students in their educational and career journeys. Many of these programs intentionally focus on URM advancement, and all of them require support from institutional leaders to champion their work and their missions. This highly collaborative session will explore strategies and “shortcuts” to secure institutional buy-in and sustain these initiatives.

Relevance

This session addresses a core challenge many pathway programs face. By creating space to share challenges, successful strategies, and practical solutions, this session provides valuable insights and actionable advice for ASPBP members. The discussion will enhance attendees' ability to advocate for and sustain their programs, ultimately contributing to the broader, shared goal of increasing participation, diversity, and inclusion in STEMM.

Importance 

Institutional support is imperative for program longevity and effectiveness. Without buy-in, programs struggle to secure funding and resources necessary for program and participant success. We aim to address this critical need and empower scalability and impact. Sharing sponsorship strategies helps streamline advocacy efforts so dedicated admins can redirect focus toward excellent programming and meaningful outcomes.

Rationale

This collaborative session is for attendees navigating the complexities of advocating for programs with Deans, department heads, and other decision-makers. Whether establishing, sustaining, or revitalizing programs, admins must make their case. Often overlooked, these challenges underscore the need for dialogue and peer learning. The session calls for administrators and decision-makers alike to discuss strategies for gaining and retaining institutional buy-in. This roundtable fills a critical gap by addressing these seldom-discussed challenges in pathway program advocacy.

Challenges Addressed

Pathway program administrators often face challenges like vying for funding, justifying programs amidst budget cuts, and convincing institutional leadership of program value while shouldering administrative burdens. While The Center for Pathway Programs is building a tool to address many administrative hardships, much remains to be learned about securing enthusiastic institutional support for such innovations. This session seeks to surface strategies that secure buy-in and influence decision-makers to champion our missions to support learners.

Objectives

1. Identify and avoid common pitfalls in securing institutional buy-in.
2. Transform peer insights on successful strategies into actionable plans for buy-in at attendees' institutions.
3. Gather feedback to optimize messaging for communicating the value proposition of pathway programs and tools that optimize their efficacy. 

Prompts

1. What are your most significant challenges in securing institutional buy-in for your pathway programs?
2. Can you share specific examples of successful strategies that have worked in gaining institutional support?
3. What pitfalls have you encountered when soliciting institutional support, and how did you navigate them?
4. How do your institutional leaders talk about pathway programs?
5. How do you demonstrate the impact of your pathway programs to justify funding and support?
6. What tools, products, training, etc., have your institutional leaders invested in to enhance programs?

Introduction/Background

Outreach and Pathway programs (OPPs) to promote entry into STEMM have existed for decades. As OPP organizers, we expect that program participation leads to entry into and persistence in STEM-associated majors. We seek to improve this gap among our OPP participants by 1) incorporating and promoting activities that cultivate pre-matriculation competencies and learning skills and 2) developing assessments for measuring the specific learning skills and competencies mentioned above. Despite these efforts, the number of URM and low-income students matriculating into medical school remains disproportionately low. Pathway programs are evaluated by perception-based assessments, college matriculation rates, and the grade point averages of participants. Therefore, we created a way to assess the direct implications of outreach programs on participants’ learning skills and competencies. To that effect, we developed a situational judgment case scenario that measures the application of participants’ self-directed learning abilities upon experience with OPPs.

Relevance to ASPBP

Our session is useful for members of the ASPBP organization who are actively involved in developing outreach and pathway programs for students at various levels e.g. high-school students, undergraduates, etc.

This roundtable discussion offers a unique opportunity for ASPBP members to:

a) Learn strategies to evaluate their participants' learning competencies after administering the outreach program

b) Address and overcome challenges and generate ideas to assess their program's impact on participants' immediate learning skills and competencies.

c) Explore situational judgement case-based assessment method that goes beyond perception-based assessment of OPPs.

Importance of the Topic or Problem

With OPPs we focus on the long-term impact of STEMM admission and retention. However, it is very important to assess what skills and competencies program participants acquire through these programs as these are the skills that eventually affect STEMM persistence and retention. 

Rationale for the Roundtable/Problem-Solving Session

Perception-based assessments are one tool for measuring student learning skills and competencies, but situational judgment cases allow us to see how students apply their skills. This enhances our ability to assess students.

Challenges/Concerns/Gaps in the Field Being Addressed

There is a lack of literature assessing what students learn from participation in outreach and pathway programs. This work will improve out abilities to assess whether our programs are promoting learning skills and pre-matriculation competencies needed for success in STEMM careers.

Learning Objectives (limit 3-5)

• Identify a learning theory to be assessed among students
• Learn how to construct or utilize a previously published theoretical framework
• Formulate a situational case that mimics the application of real-life learning competencies
• Map the situational case to a predetermined framework
• Identify mechanisms to validate situational judgment cases

Discussion Triggers

• How and why do you validate an instrument?
• How do we assess pre-matriculation competencies and learning skills?
•  How do you construct or identify a theoretical framework?
• What are the learning skills we want students to have when they matriculate?

Introduction/Background

Pre-matriculation programs – defined as programs offered to entering pre-health students who have been accepted but have not yet formally matriculated/begun their health education program - are increasing in popularity in medical education. With the increase in pre-matriculation programs offered, there is increase in the diversity of program models, as well as heterogeneity in target audiences, desired outcomes, strategies, and methods of evaluation.

Relevance to ASPBP

Pre-matriculation programs represent an important element within the larger landscape of pre-health pathways programs. Understanding the goals and challenges of pre-matriculation programs is crucial for pathway programs to effectively adapt and address them to ensure that students are better prepared to transition into medical school.

Importance of the Topic or Problem

Understanding the different pre-matriculation models currently in existence – as well as those in development – is important for any educators/administrators currently engaged in pre-matriculation programming or seeking to establish a pre-matriculation program at their own institution.

Rationale for the Roundtable/Problem-Solving Session

This roundtable discussion will allow opportunity for informal sharing among participants about their current understanding regarding pre-matriculation programs. The discussion will allow time sharing about the different pre-matriculation models known to discussion participants and for comparison of the advantages and drawbacks of each model. Such informal discussion is often one of the most sought-after needs of educators/administrators engaged in work in specific types of programming such as the pre-matriculation space.

 Challenges/Concerns/Gaps in the Field Being Addressed

One challenge in the pre-matriculation space is the plethora of program models available. It is essential for medical schools to adapt them to the unique circumstances of each medical school. Another is the relative absence of literature on best practices for developing and implementing pre-matriculation programming.

Learning Objectives

Through this roundtable discussion, participants will:

1. Describe different models of pre-matriculation programs.
2. Compare and contrast pre-matriculation programming models.
3. Identify avenues for learning more about pre-matriculation resources.
4. Identify challenges in developing and implementing pre-matriculation initiatives

Discussion Triggers

1. What pre-matriculation program models are you aware of or have experience with?
2. Does your institution currently offer pre-matriculation programming? If yes, briefly describe the program offered.
3. What are some of the successes of your programs?
4. What challenges have you encountered or do you foresee with this program model?
5. What strategies are you implementing or could you implement to address these challenges?
6. What advice do you have for someone charged with developing and implementing a new pre-matriculation program at their institution?