A diversity gap exists within cardiothoracic (CT) surgery that might be addressed
with currently available medical student pipeline programs. We sought to assess CT
surgery residency/fellowship program directors’ (PD) awareness of and participation
in underrepresented in medicine visiting medical student clerkship programs (UIM-VMSCPs).
We reviewed the ACGME program finder database and medical school websites to identify
thoracic surgery training programs that: (1) offer visiting student clerkships (VSCs),
(2) are affiliated with an institution offering a UIM-VMSCP, (3) are at an institution
where the existing UIM-VMSCP specifically offers rotations in CT surgery. The PDs
in the second group were surveyed via e-mail, assessing their level of awareness of
UIM-VMSCPs at their institution, participation in UIM-VMSCPs over the past 3 years,
and desire to participate in a UIM-VMSCP in the future. All (n = 76) ACGME CT surgery
training programs were affiliated with institutions that offered VSCs in multiple
disciplines. Over half, 55.3%, of the programs offered access to visiting students
and 61.8% were at institutions with existing UIM-VMSCPs. Our response rate for the
47 PDs from institutions with UIM-VMSCPs was 38.2%. Of the respondents, 61.1% were
aware of the UIM-VMSCP at their institution and 44.4% participated in the past 3 years.
Most, 88.9% were interested in participating in their institution's UIM-VMSCP in the
future. Only half of CT surgery training programs offer VSCs and even fewer are at
institutions with an existing UIM-VMSCP that offers a CT surgery clerkship. This is
a lost opportunity to broaden exposure to the specialty and increase diversity within
the CT surgery workforce.
Graphical Abstract
Graphical Abstract
Keywords
Abbreviations:
AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education), CT surgery (Cardiothoracic surgery), PD (Program Directors), REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture), UIM (Under-Represented in Medicine), UIM-VMSCPs (Underrepresented in Medicine Visiting Medical Student Clerkship Programs), VMSCs (Visiting Medical Student Clerkships)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 17, 2021
Footnotes
UC Davis IRB waived the need for Informed Written Consent for Publication.
Funding: This research was supported by the UC Davis Medical Student Research Fellowship. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of University of California Davis Health Graduate Medical Education.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.
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Copyright
© 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- Commentary: Increasing Awareness of Medical Student Programs to Improve Cardiothoracic Surgery Training and Workforce DiversitySeminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular SurgeryVol. 34Issue 4
- PreviewThe United States has become an increasingly diverse nation.1 At present, however, our cardiothoracic (CT) surgery workforce does not reflect our racially and ethnically diverse patient population.2 Lack of medical student exposure to CT surgery may be at the forefront of this problem.2 In this issue of the Seminars, Martin and colleagues highlight current utilization of Underrepresented in Medicine Visiting Medical Student Clerkship Programs (UIM-VMSCPs).3 The authors surveyed CT surgery program director's (PD's) awareness and current utilization of general visiting medical student clerkships (VMSCs) as well as UIM-VMSCPs in CT surgery.
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- Commentary: Awareness: The First Step to ChangeSeminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular SurgeryVol. 34Issue 4
- PreviewThe last few years have witnessed the growing awareness and need for increasing workforce diversity within the field of cardiothoracic surgery. Lack of exposure to the field of cardiothoracic surgery has been identified as a major barrier to the diversification of the field.1 In this regard Martin and colleagues conducted a survey among the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) program directors to measure the awareness and utilization of underrepresented in medicine visiting medical student clerkship programs (UIM-VMSCPs).
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