The Right Thing to Do, The Smart Thing to Do: Enhancing Diversity in the Health Professions

The Symposium on Diversity in the Health Professions in Honor of Herbert W. Nickens, M.D., was convened in March 2001 to provide a forum for health policymakers, health professions educators, education policymakers, researchers, and others to address three significant and contradictory challenges: the continued under-representation of African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans in health professions; the growth of these populations in the United States and subsequent pressure to address their health care needs; and the recent policy, legislative, and legal challenges to affirmative action that may limit access for underrepresented minority students to health professions training. The symposium summary along with a collection of papers presented are to help stimulate further discussion and action toward addressing these challenges. The Right Thing to Do, The Smart Thing to Do: Enhancing Diversity in Health Professions illustrates how the health care industry and health care professions are fighting to retain the public’s confidence so that the U.S. health care system can continue to be the world’s best.

• Front Matter
• The Right Thing to Do, The Smart Thing to Do: Enhancing Diversity in the Health Professions
• The Role of Diversity in the Training of Health Professionals
• Increasing Racial and Ethnic Diversity Among Physicians: An Intervention to Address Health Disparities?
• Current Legal Status of Affirmative Action Programs in Higher Education
• College Admissions Policies and the Educational Pipeline: Implications for Medical and Health Professions
• Toward Diverse Student Representation and Higher Achievement in Higher Levels of the American Educational Meritocracy
• Trends in Underrepresented Minority Participation in Health Professions Schools
• Inequality in Teaching and Schooling: How Opportunity Is Rationed to Students of Color in America
• Lost Opportunities: The Difficult Journey to Higher Education for Underrepresented Minority Students
• Systemic Reform and Minority Student High Achievement
• Sustaining Minorities in Prehealth Advising Programs: Challenges and Strategies for Success
• Rethinking the Admissions Process: Evaluation Techniques That Promote Inclusiveness in Admissions Decisions
• How Do We Retain Minority Health Professions Students?
• Addendum