Health Careers Opportunity Program: A Pathway to Increase Providers in Underserved Communities

Abstract The current critical shortage of primary care physicians (PCPs) in rural communities has been well documented. To respond to this shortage, the Federal Bureau of Healthcare Workforce has encouraged medical schools to recruit students from disadvantaged backgrounds to apply to medical schools and upon graduation to work in rural communities. This paper presents four programs the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) has implemented toward that end, with focus on the Ambassador program. MethodsThe UWSOM Office of Rural Programs offers a Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP). The HCOP summer programs recruit, train, and provide academic and social support to underrepresented students from rural and underserved areas. The students are thereby encouraged to enter medical school and eventually to practice in those communities. The Ambassador program recruited these students by e-mail with assistance from various health professional schools. Selection criteria were educational and/or economic disadvantage backgrounds and currently attending a health professional school. ResultsThe UWSOM program’s pathways have engaged high school and undergraduate students in its summer preparation programs. For students in three of the four pathways (high school, undergraduate, and medical school), the initial numbers are small, but the trajectory demonstrates an encouraging trend. The HCOP Ambassador program has 50 students, most of whom are medical and physician assistant students. Ambassadors found the program helpful, especially regarding the interprofessional education and mentoring of high school and undergraduate students interested in becoming future PCPs. ConclusionPreliminary results show an encouraging trend in recruiting and retaining students willing to serve in rural and underserved communities. Our goal is to build upon this favorable trend by continuing recruitment and training of underrepresented students, learning from each cohort the changes needed to optimize future recruitment and training, and so create a healthcare workforce to serve these populations. Conflict Disclosure: No conflict of interest from all authors