Faculty Mentor(s)
Adviser Dr. Kelly Brown
Reader Dr. Houston Thompson
Project Type
EdD Colloquium - ONU
Scholarship Domain(s)
Scholarship of Discovery
Abstract
Despite a more diverse U.S. population, racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the U.S. healthcare professions. Further, increasing the enrollment of Underrepresented Minority (URM) students in health professions is a challenging and urgent issue. The literature had not explored a comparison of racial and ethnic groups’ exposure to allied health professions. This current study investigated URM and non-URMs’ exposure to and knowledge of allied health fields; in order to determine, whether some of the groups are getting exposed differentially to different methods, and to identify the resources necessary to expose and provide knowledge of allied health professions to recruit students into allied health programs. The researcher conducted a quantitative study with African American (n = 21), Caucasian (n = 137), and Hispanic (n = 67) allied health students. Participants completed an Exposure to Allied Health Fields survey about their exposure to, and knowledge of allied health fields. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc tests were conducted to analyze the differences between the three groups. Results revealed statistically significant differences between the three groups with respect to exposure to allied health fields; however, there was no statistically significant difference of knowledge of allied health fields between the three groups. Additionally, results showed that African American and Hispanic students were less exposed to health careers courses and social media used to promote allied health careers. Future research needs to identify other significant factors for URM not pursuing allied health professions.
Permission Type
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
An Analysis Of Underrepresented Minorities' Exposure to Allied Health Fields
Wisner Auditorium
Despite a more diverse U.S. population, racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the U.S. healthcare professions. Further, increasing the enrollment of Underrepresented Minority (URM) students in health professions is a challenging and urgent issue. The literature had not explored a comparison of racial and ethnic groups’ exposure to allied health professions. This current study investigated URM and non-URMs’ exposure to and knowledge of allied health fields; in order to determine, whether some of the groups are getting exposed differentially to different methods, and to identify the resources necessary to expose and provide knowledge of allied health professions to recruit students into allied health programs. The researcher conducted a quantitative study with African American (n = 21), Caucasian (n = 137), and Hispanic (n = 67) allied health students. Participants completed an Exposure to Allied Health Fields survey about their exposure to, and knowledge of allied health fields. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc tests were conducted to analyze the differences between the three groups. Results revealed statistically significant differences between the three groups with respect to exposure to allied health fields; however, there was no statistically significant difference of knowledge of allied health fields between the three groups. Additionally, results showed that African American and Hispanic students were less exposed to health careers courses and social media used to promote allied health careers. Future research needs to identify other significant factors for URM not pursuing allied health professions.