Improving stereotypes: The impact of interprofessional education in pre-health students

Perceived Success After Participation in the Summer Health Professions Education Program

Importance

The number of active health care professionals has not kept pace with the increasing number of minoritized individuals in the US. The Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP) was developed to alleviate this underrepresentation in the health workforce.

Objective

To evaluate students' changes in perceived barriers and motivators for entering and succeeding in professional school after SHPEP participation.

Design, Setting, and Participants

For this cohort study, anonymous electronic surveys were sent to the 2017 to 2021 SHPEP participants at an academic health center at a large university in the southern US. Participants were first- and second-year undergraduates interested in the health professions and enrolled in the SHPEP. Program participants were invited to complete the study.

Exposures

An anonymous electronic survey was administered before and immediately after program completion.

Main Outcomes and Measures

The SHPEP Career Barriers Survey (SCBS) is composed of 22 questions on motivators and 20 questions on barriers to entering and succeeding in health professional school. Students responded using a 5-point Likert scale, with 1 indicating strongly disagree and 5 indicating strongly agree. Mixed analysis of variance was used to analyze the program's latent factors.

Results

Of all 402 SHPEP participants (mean [SD] age, 19.32 [0.88] years) from 2017 to 2021, 325 completed the preprogram survey and 259 also completed the postprogram survey. Of the 325 initial participants, 4 identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander (1.2%); 12 as Asian (3.7%); 188 as Black (57.8%); 95 as Hispanic or Latino (29.2%); 7 as White (2.2%); and 16 as multiracial (4.9%). Two hundred twelve participants were female (65.2%), and 226 were first-generation college students (69.5%). Results of the SCBS indicate that the SHPEP had a significant small to moderate association on perceived motivators (mean [SD] x̅ = 84.60 [9.67] vs 80.95 [8.93]; P = .001) and decreases in perceived barriers (mean [SD] x̅ = 48.02 [13.20] vs 51.72 [11.39]; P = .008). There was no significant difference in program success between studied years.

Conclusions and Relevance

In this cohort study, the SHPEP appeared to provide essential support for underrepresented students as measured by improved perceived motivators and reduced perceived barriers to entering professional education. Knowledge from this study can assist educators and health care professionals who wish to implement similar enrichment programs.

The intersectionality of professional and personal identity formation in a virtual pre-health pathway program

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

To describe the development and implementation of professional and personal identity formation content in a virtual pre-health pathway program.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING

Content within a six-week pre-health program for underrepresented and/or disadvantaged college students was redesigned to a virtual format with enhanced focus on professional and personal identity formation. Sessions on personal identity formation were also enhanced through a partnership with local mental health clinicians specializing in trauma-informed care and culturally relevant practices and strategies.

FINDINGS

The 2020 and 2021 programs were restructured to include pharmacy professional identity formation content around the following weekly themes: Roadmap to Pharmacy, What Does it Mean to be a Pharmacist?, Expanding Knowledge of Pharmacy, Gaining Insight and Dispelling Myths, Practicing Knowledge and Exploration, and Moving Forward. These pre-pharmacy components emphasized diversity of career paths, pharmacy-based clinical services, and the pharmacist's role in promoting health equity. Overarching components of interprofessional collaboration coupled with health policy applications further emphasized the professional identity of a pharmacist in the collaborative design and delivery of health care. New personal identity formation sessions were implemented in tandem with this content and centering around the following themes: Supporting Scholars in Self-Authorship, Building a Community among Peers, and Strategies for Coping in Times of Challenge.

SUMMARY

This project has the potential to serve as a model for the implementation of both personal and professional identity formation initiatives at other programs to promote pharmacy as a desirable and attainable career to pre-health students.

Professional identity, job satisfaction, and intention to stay among clinical nurses during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic: A mediation analysis

AIM

This study aims to examine the relationship between professional identity and job satisfaction and their impact on intention to stay among clinical nurses in China during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted from April 30 to May 25, 2021, in China. Data were collected using professional identity, job satisfaction, and intention to stay questionnaires from 1425 clinical nurses. A single mediation analysis was utilized to test the interrelationship among the variables, and the STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) checklist as a reporting guide.

RESULTS

Nurses indicated a medium level of professional identity, job satisfaction, and intention to stay, with mean scores of 3.85, 3.25, and 3.47, respectively. The professional identity displayed positive indirect effect on nurses' intention to stay through job satisfaction (indirect effect = 0.498, 95% CI [0.439, 0.558]).

CONCLUSION

Cultivating professional identity among nurses can increase their job satisfaction and ultimately enhance the intention to stay in the nursing profession. However, this study also suggests paying more attention to job satisfaction to keep nursing retention. These may be helpful to retain the nursing workforce.

Enhancing the Facilitation of Interprofessional Education Programs: An Institutional Ethnography

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) among health care professionals has been identified as essential to enhance patient care. Interprofessional education (IPE) is a key strategy towards promoting IPC. Several factors including the nature of facilitation shape the IPE experience and outcomes for students. Stereotypes held by students have been recognized as a challenge for IPE and IPC. This study aimed to explore institutional rules and regulations that shape facilitators’ work in IPE interactions problematized by students’ stereotypes at a university in Atlantic Canada. Employing institutional ethnography as a method of investigation, data were collected through observations, interviews, focus groups, and written texts (such as course syllabi). Participants included three facilitators, two undergraduate nursing students, and two IPE committee members of an IPE program. Findings revealed four work processes conducted by facilitators in local IPE settings related to students’ stereotypes. These processes were shaped by translocal discourse and included the work used to form teams, facilitate student introductions to team members, facilitate team dynamics, and provide course content and context. Study results included the identification of several strategies to address student stereotypes and enhance collaboration, including directions for future curriculum decisions and the pedagogical organization of IPE.