University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), 3901 Rainbow Blvd, Kansas City, KS, 66160 Project Director: Dave Burnett, Assoc Dean, 913-588-9499, dburnett@kumc.edu School of Health Professions: https://www.kumc.edu/school-of-health-professions.html KUMC: https://www.kumc.edu Total funding requested: $3,244,844 Project Description There is a well-known shortage of healthcare workers in the United States. This shortage is particularly dramatic in healthcare workers from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, despite growing evidence that a more diverse workforce provides better access and healthcare to underserved populations.1, 2 Multiple factors contribute to this problem. For example, disadvantaged students from diverse backgrounds are often precluded from health profession programs because they can face challenges that other students might not, such as low socioeconomic status, lack of positive mentorship, family responsibilities, cultural norms, and working while attending school.5-8 One solution to this problem is the development of programs designed to matriculate disadvantaged students to bachelor’s degrees (and beyond). Indeed, respiratory therapists (RTs) who extend their academic career beyond an associate degree, have considerably higher salary earning potential and chances of transitioning into a health services management position.9 Therefore, developing innovative education programs for disadvantaged students will allow for higher education attainment in these underserved communities, helping to close the health disparity gap. The project proposed here will leverage our institution’s current resources, building upon our collaborations with education community stakeholders (e.g., high schools and community colleges). For example, KUMC’s fully accredited RT program has established partnerships with several community colleges that enroll disadvantaged students in underserved areas of Kansas. We will utilize these resources
to create the Underserved Community Has a Medical Provider (U-CHaMP) program to support the HCOP Academies. The U-CHaMP program will consist of a collaborative group of stakeholders, including: educators, students, college advisors and recruiters, clinicians, researchers, hospital administrators, and state agencies. It will provide immersive, curricular and extracurricular experiences to students, with the idea of generating a feed-back loop where disadvantaged students who take part in the program will go onto inspire, recruit, and serve other disadvantaged populations in the future. The U-CHaMP program will do so through the following overarching goals: 1. Increase awareness of health profession degree opportunities and recruit disadvantaged students to the U-CHaMP program. 2. Provide disadvantaged students with the opportunity for a transformative learning experience that includes immersive mentoring and clinical rotations in underserved communities. These students will be comprised of: - High school students in health career tracks who choose to matriculate into a respiratory therapy (RT) bachelor’s degree advancement program. - Allied health profession RT students in community colleges who choose to matriculate into a RT bachelor’s degree advancement program. - Adult/non-traditional learners including military service personnel who choose to matriculate into a RT bachelor’s degree advancement program. 3. Inspire student interest in careers practicing in underserved communities. 4. For sustainability, foster a community of mentors, preceptors, hospital administrators, students, and faculty who are passionate about healthcare in underserved communities.