Moderated by Sylvia Nelson
Session Coordinator: Marta Ambrozewicz

AWARD NOMINEE
Presentation 1 - Physician Assistant Workforce Diversity: A Qualitative Examination of the Nation’s Top-Performing Programs
Vanessa Bester    
Augsburg University

Purpose
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the Physician Assistant workforce will increase by 31% in the next ten years. Despite the growth in the profession, the percentage of individuals from underrepresented minority groups is disproportionally small compared to national demographics. The lack of diversity in the PA workforce is contributing to a profound negative public health effect. The inequalities affect access to quality care, patient-provider concordance, treatment compliance, reduced linguistic and cultural competency. Although measurement is a key part of any diversity strategy, there are no standardized practices available for PA programs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to ascertain characteristics and strategies of success that programs attribute to the recruitment and retention of diverse PA students.

Methods
Ground theory and critical action framework research was used to conduct 41semi-structured qualitative interviews from the 61 top-performing diversity PA programs. All coding, inter-coder reliability tests, consensus of emergent codes, data visualization and analysis was completed using qualitative software by 4 researchers.

Results
Four overarching themes were identified across programs. Characteristics and attributes for success are 1) alignment of mission, inclusive action, and striving to improve program outcomes; 2) significant effort directly related to diverse community outreach and the PA pipeline; 3) dedication to student retention and support; and 4) commitment to diverse and inclusive learning environments.

Conclusion
Physician Assistant programs are the pathway for the development of a diverse PA workforce. This study provides empirical evidence that with intentional effort PA programs can actualize their diversity missions and create inclusive environments to enhance workforce diversity.
 

AWARD NOMINEE
Presentation 2 - Investigation of Underrepresentation in Cultural Groups in the Medical School Admissions Process
Vicky Zhang    
Nova Southeastern University

Purpose
Diversity and inclusion is a core initiative in the medical school admissions process. Pipeline initiatives are historically approached via generalized categories. While this broad approach has improved recruiting of underrepresented groups in medicine (URiMs) it fails to capture success for individual cultural groups. Our previous work sought to utilize census and AAMC admissions data to examine underrepresentation via country of origin. We present a broader exploration of our findings on a national, state, and county level and propose granular utilization of population data as a guideline to URiM recruitment.

Methods
Demographic data for US allopathic schools' matriculation was extracted from the AAMC's publicly available reports. US and regional demographics were extracted from the US 2020 Census data. Subgroups were distinguished based on groups identified by AAMC.  Recommendations were organized for each US Allopathic Medical school based on the state and county of each institution.

Results
Representation of individual immigrant groups dramatically varied at national, state, and county levels.  Distinct recommendations were identified for each school based on community representation. Individual groups in the Asian demographic showed the most dramatic variations. Students that identified as Indian were overrepresented relative to the overall representation in the United States while Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese students were significantly underrepresented relative to overall representation. Similarly, our findings showed Latinx underrepresentation was dramatically highest in the Mexican population.

Conclusion
Pipeline programs are an effective method of addressing disparity underrepresented racial groups.  As of this publication a granular pipeline program to target individual immigrant groups has yet to be implemented. Our data provides a guide for medical schools to identify community level underrepresentation.  Notably, our work shed light that a central repository of medical school URiM initiatives is not currently available. Our work highlights the need to take a granular approach toward inclusion and creation of a central repository of pipeline programs.

Presentation 3 - Recipes for Success: A Description of Student-Led Medical Education Collaboration
Isra Abdulwadood    
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine

Purpose
Student-led medical school success guides, such as Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine Arizona's (MCASOM AZ) Recipes for Success (RfS), are centralized resources for disseminating pertinent information necessary to succeed in medical school. Many of these guides began as manuals made by students for students to fill a gap that the medical school was not managing. This encourages collaboration and equitable information exchange, especially benefiting students who are first-generation and/or underrepresented in medicine by serving as a resource to demystify aspects of the hidden medical curriculum.

Methods
The first independent MCASOM AZ RfS guide was disseminated in 2021 as a PDF in order to serve as a portable, centralized resource. In early 2022, we transitioned to a live website format in order to incorporate more immediate, consistent updates and garner real-time feedback from all classes.

Results
The primary measure to determine the effectiveness and accumulate feedback for the RfS guide is a survey that has been administered to all MCASOM AZ students. The survey inquires about three main concerns: 1) how students interact with the guide, 2) how useful the guide is for them, and 3) feedback for future updates. Preliminary data reports favorable attitudes concerning the RfS guide and an interest in the development of clerkship-success guides. We project to receive both quantitative and qualitative data results for impact analysis and to develop actionable goals for improvement by January 2023.

Conclusion
While many guides exist in a variety of formats, currently, a description of such a resource like the “Recipes for Success†guide has not been reported in the literature. Through this description of the RfS guide, we aim to highlight the benefits and empower other medical students, especially those at newer institutions, to adopt a similar model to foster collaboration and peer-mentorship- important values for medical student success.