A Model Partnership: Mentoring Underrepresented Students in Medicine (URiM) in Emergency Medicine

Abstract

Introduction: Creating a racially and ethnically diverse workforce remains a challenge for medical specialties, including emergency medicine (EM). One area to examine is a partnership between a predominantly white institution (PWI) with a historically black college and university (HBCU) to determine whether this partnership would increase the number of underrepresented in medicine (URiM) in EM who are from a HBCU.

Methods: Twenty years ago Emory Department of Emergency Medicine began its collaboration with Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) to provide guidance to MSM students who were interested in EM. Since its inception, our engagement and intervention has evolved over time to include mentorship and guidance from the EM clerkship director, program director, and key faculty.

Results: Since the beginning of the MSM-Emory EM partnership, 115 MSM students have completed an EM clerkship at Emory. Seventy-two of those students (62.6%) have successfully matched into an EM residency program. Of those who matched into EM, 22 (32%) have joined the Emory EM residency program with the remaining 50 students matching at 40 other EM programs across the nation.

Conclusion: Based on our experience and outcomes with the Emory-MSM partnership, we are confident that a partnership with an HBCU school without an EM residency should be considered by residency programs to increase the number of URiM students in EM, which could perhaps translate to other specialties.