The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) conducts annual demographic data collection for all medical school applicants and matriculants, revealing a concerning trend of underrepresentation of minority groups. Among these, the data from 2018 to 2023 showed a low underrepresentation of Latine women, with only a 3% representation among those who applied and matriculated into medical school. This low representation serves as an indicator that Latine women are encountering challenges during their premedical education journey, requiring the need for an action research study to investigate and develop an intervention to help the issue. The action research study is aimed at understanding and supporting the attrition of Latine women in their premedical education journey. The study employed a mixed methods approach, in understanding societal, academic, and cultural barriers that often limits their progress. Reoccurring themes of: family, motivation, advising, confidence, and mentorship led to the development of an intervention to fill the gaps these themes represent. Latine en Medicine: La Fuerza Within ten-week mentorship was designed to equip participants with essential premedical education resources and interpersonal skill development, helping them build confidence and empowerment to persist in their premedical education journey. The program aimed to address the gaps identified within the recurring themes and provide tailored support to ease the barriers faced by Latine women. Feedback from participants demonstrated the reflective impact of the intervention. Participants reported an increase in familial support, a heightened sense of connection to their premedical education journey, and improved self-confidence. In conclusion, this action research study showcases the importance of understanding and addressing the challenges faced by Latine women on their premedical education journey. The intervention offers an approach to bridge the gaps identified in this study and supporting inclusivity, empowerment, and increased representation of Latine women in the premedical education journey. This intervention represents a helpful step towards supporting the important cause of an equitable and diverse healthcare workforce.

Certification in the public health workforce is key to professionalizing public health. However, professionals who are certified in public health (CPH) are allowing certification to lapse by failing to report earned public health continuing education (PHCE) credits. As a result, the National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE) is not able to track continuing education of the public health workforce or to ensure that their public health knowledge remains current and within standards of best practice. To address this problem and increase rates of maintenance of certification, a sequential quantitative, qualitative action research study was designed using the theory of planned behavior as the theoretical framework. Implementing an intervention that was designed following the principles of the endowed progress effect, recently certified CPH certificants were invited to participate in the intervention, which trained participants to report PHCE and then offered one PHCE credit for completing the training. After the intervention was implemented, the CPH certificants were asked to complete a theory of planned behavior questionnaire. The questionnaire participants were divided into two study groups and independent measures t-tests were conducted to determine if participants who had completed the intervention displayed greater intention to maintain certification and higher rates of PHCE reporting. Individuals displaying the highest intention were then interviewed and profiled to further contextualize the results of the questionnaire. The study group that participated in the intervention demonstrated higher intention to maintain CPH certification and reported a statistically significant higher number of PHCE credits.

Interprofessional education (IPE) is an accreditation requirement and an important component of training for future registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs). The dietetics program at the University of Arizona (UA) prepares students to become RDNs and has an online program to increase access to dietetics training. The existing face-to-face program incorporated in-person IPE into the curriculum. However, there was limited IPE available to dietetics students in the online program due to logistical and resource issues. To address this problem of practice, an online IPE module was developed providing dietetics students the opportunity to build collaborative skills with students in other UA healthcare training programs. A mixed methods action research study was designed to answer two research questions: (1) How and to what extent did participation an online IPE module impact online dietetics students’ interprofessional attitudes? and (2) After participating in an online IPE module, in what ways did online dietetics students change their thinking regarding the roles of healthcare professionals? Participants were dietetics students enrolled in an upper-division online dietetics course. Data gathered included a retrospective pre-post survey, online team discussion responses, reflection journal entries, personal constructs related to health professional roles, and focus group interviews. Results suggested that the online IPE intervention had a positive impact on dietetics students’ attitudes of interprofessional practice and enhanced their understanding of the roles of members of the interprofessional team. Both the quantitative and qualitative results indicated that after completing the intervention, participants’ were more attuned to the importance of interprofessional practice and the need to collaborate to provide quality patient care. There was also evidence that participants’ thinking regarding different healthcare professionals’ roles were more defined. The opportunity for participants to work on a final project as part of an interprofessional team likely contributed to the positive shared learning experiences and overall growth in interprofessional collaboration. In relation to practice, results indicate IPE should be included throughout dietetics training, and embrace students from a variety of public health disciplines. Future research should focus on exploring new approaches to engaging students in the online environment and evaluating the impact of IPE on students’ future practice.

Interprofessional educators increasingly recognize the importance of establishing graduated interprofessional learning strategies to socialize and prepare learners to work in collaborative care environments. Interprofessional socialization (IPS) is the process of bringing students together from different disciplines to learn from, with, and about each other. However, education programs struggle to systematically integrate evidence-based interprofessional learning. Community-engaged learning, a pedagogical tool adaptable to diverse circumstances, offers an opportunity to expand IPS. The purpose of this mixed methods action research dissertation study was to explore the factors that contribute to IPS through participation in a community-engaged learning course and how IPS evolves among early learners. In this study, I explored several factors, including theoretically-grounded and contextually relevant teaching and learning strategies pivotal to IPS. Specifically, I created and facilitated an innovative pilot Interprofessional Education and Community Health course, guided by experiential learning theory, asset-based and critical pedagogy and flow theory. I found that these theoretically guided instructional techniques nurtured the benefits of team-based experiential learning, inspired a community of confident learners through praxis, and promoted optimal engagement in challenging and meaningful health promotion activities. The learner’s diverse backgrounds, meaningful community-engagement, and challenging collaborative assignments contributed to IPS. The shared novel real-world experiences ignited emotional reactions that nurtured their relationships; facilitating their ability to address conflicts. They sustained motivation to participate in community-engaged learning and maintained a consistent strong belief in the importance of working as a team. Whereas, their understanding of interprofessional teamwork, comfort and preference working on interprofessional teams grew over time. Four pedagogical strategies pivotal to interprofessional socialization emerged for use with community-engaged interprofessional education: 1) purposeful community partnerships, 2) structured collaborative written assignments, 3) intentional conversations, and 4) welcoming cultural assets.