Effective strategies and programs to increase minority participation in the health professions for the 21st century

Efforts in the 1960s and early 1970s aggressively met the national health care challenge to increase minority enrollment in health professions schools. These efforts resulted from an academic and community-based collaboration supported by public and private funding. This review was undertaken to inventory the strategies and programs of that period and to highlight effective strategies. A literature review of minority program studies was conducted to catalog specific strategies and programmatic activities. Criteria used to evaluate effectiveness were also assessed. Publication of any studies and evaluations of these programs are limited; longitudinal studies are scarce. Evaluative criteria of that time combined quantitative and qualitative measures that were not applied uniformly and consistently. The inventory of programmatic activity ranged from career awareness days to establishment of health career "magnet" schools. The review found that three strategies--awareness development, enrichment/reinforcement, and prematriculation--were effectively applied in programs across all areas of the health professions studied, that is, MODVOPP (medicine, optometry, dentistry, veterinary science, osteopathy, podiatry, and pharmacy), nursing, and allied health. Today these strategies continue to be effectively applied, but the hostile social climate and dwindling funding threaten the progress made. Revitalization of past efforts is imperative.