Background: The University of California San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente Undergraduate Research Internship/Pre-med Enrichment Program was developed in 2009, as a pre-medical pipeline program focused on racial and ethnic minority and first generation students currently enrolled at University of California Berkeley. This successful program focuses on giving participants access to clinical and research experiences along with individualized mentoring over an 8 week period. In 2015 a parallel leadership curriculum was developed and implemented to improve self-efficacy. Currently there are no published studies about leadership development programs in this setting. This study evaluates this pilot leadership curriculum.
Methods: Sixteen students per year are selected for this program. The leadership curriculum is based on the True North Authentic Leadership Program developed at Harvard Business School. The curriculum, which has been modified to pre-health students includes didactic lectures, opportunities for each student to lead a small group with self-assessment and direct feedback. The curriculum culminates with presentations to discuss their individual leadership plan. Students were surveyed before and after the program and after each small group session with an electronic survey technique. Post-program evaluations were reviewed to identify recurrent themes.
Results: A total of 32 students have participated in the undergraduate summer internship program with the leadership curriculum. The following themes were identified: increased confidence, identification of mentors in health care, development of peer support, and improved leadership skills. Additionally, self-efficacy was noted to increase from pre-program to post-program evaluation.
Discussions: Integration of a leadership curriculum in the pipeline program provides students with opportunities to work with peers and faculty to develop leadership skills, while reflecting on values, support, challenges and goals for the future. The structure of the program allows students to develop close relationships and a greater sense of belonging with peers, and identification of mentors. In the long term we expect that this will increase the diversity of leadership in health care, which translates into quality health care for diverse communities we all serve.
Keywords: Career Choice, Cultural Diversity/Cultural Competency, Curriculum Development/Evaluation, Leadership Organizational Development, Mentoring, Minority Recruitment
Topics: CREOG & APGO Annual Meeting, 2017, Student, Faculty, Professionalism, Interpersonal & Communication Skills, UME,
Jeannette Lager, MD MPH, University of California, San Francisco - OBGYN; Matthew Leavitt, BA; Peter Movilla, MD; Andrea Jackson, MD; Juan Guerra, MD; Patricia Robertson, MD
