AAMC Reporter: June 2006

Revamped Summer Program Engages Minority Medical, Dental Students

Berenisse Mares, Jaser Diaz, Leslie Scruggs, and Carin Doughty at the Dental Branch Summer Enrichment Program, a precursor to SMDEP at the University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston

Organizers hope a renewed spirit of cooperation, a new multidisciplinary focus, and some novel approaches to education will help rejuvenate a program that helps disadvantaged students work their way into the health care profession.

The newly named Summer Medical and Dental Education Program (SMDEP) kicked off in late May. Known until this year as the Summer Medical Education Program and, before that, the Minority Medical Education Program, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation created the initiative in 1988 as a way to increase the number of highly qualified medical school applicants from minority groups that are underrepresented in medicine — primarily African-American, Hispanics, and Native Americans.

The free, six-week preparatory program is geared toward undergraduate college students interested in medical or dental school and offers career counseling and instruction in such core areas as math, chemistry, and communications skills. The AAMC has administered the program since 1993.

The program's changes are in more than just the name. As federal support for similar health care programs erodes, the SMDEP is dressing for success in its first year with a dentistry component.

"I think 'different' is the operative word for this year's program," says Kevin Harris, M.S.A., SMDEP deputy director in the AAMC's Division of Diversity Policy and Programs.

"This is now a full-blown medical-dental program designed to help students make good choices, develop some important skills, and get some exposure to these professions so they can decide what's really best for them. Health issues are pretty complex. At a basic, raw level, we need the best people, no matter their ethnicity, to bring the best ideas to the table and get the best results possible in patient care."

SMDEP leaders express enthusiasm over the partnership.         

"The excitement is that we have two major professions working together on the same issue," says W. David Brunson, D.D.S., associate director of the Center for Equity and Diversity at the American Dental Education Association, which this year joins the AAMC as a program administrator.

"We're putting holes in the wall that tends to form between our groups sometimes," Brunson says. "There has of course been collaboration before, but not like this. Health involves more than just your arms or your teeth or your brain. One profession can't possibly know all the nuances. So to have good collaboration between the professions, and having students learning about all of these areas as a way to eventually bring good overall health to all our patients, is critical."

Nine of the program's 12 sites will include the dentistry component. Each site enrolls 80 students.

Organizers made other changes to the program, partially as a reaction to President Bush's proposal to virtually eliminate the Health Resources and Services Administration's Title VII programs, which emphasize recruiting health practitioners for underserved areas. Lawmakers claimed the programs were not providing hard evidence that they were fulfilling their mission. To that end, SMDEP organizers are making more of an effort to keep in touch with SMDEP participating students after they leave the program and continue encouraging them in their professional pursuits. The AAMC's new minority marketing campaign also includes an effort to build a dialogue between the association and SMDEP participants.

"We're taking some very significant steps on the front end to build in a tracking system," Brunson says. "So we know about the program's impact on students and how it actually helps a student advance his or her agenda forward. Are we getting a good result for our money?"

Keeping Students Engaged

Novel thinking is also evident inside the SMDEP curricula, with each site coming up with its own initiatives designed to maximize learning while optimizing a student's personal experience.

"There are a number of summer programs that focus more on the testing aspects, but I think this program goes a step further," Brunson says. "We want them to get good test scores, but we want them to get good GPAs in the meantime and develop other skills as well. There's a community that's being formed here. These students get to know one another as people and as scholars."

While some areas of instruction are standard at all SMDEP sites, individual programs have significant leeway with the details and in how certain skills are taught.

Joseph T. Williams, M.P.A., director of the Office of Multicultural Programs at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, says the SMDEP at his school puts a special emphasis on literacy.

"Reading is a very important skill. If they know the material on the MCAT but aren't competent readers, they won't move along at a fast enough clip to do well. We mail out books to each of the participating students before they get here, and we tell them to be prepared to answer questions on it the very first day. We want to create a buzz about a book — and about reading in general."

The Case Western SMDEP encourages students to borrow from its 400-book library, rate or critique books in an online community, and hold discussions via satellite with students at the SMDEP at Duke University School of Medicine.

Paula N. O'Neill, M.Ed., Ed.D., associate dean for educational research and professional development and professor of diagnostic sciences at the University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston, says Houston's SMDEP, in addition to the basic science courses that will be the major part of the experience, will take a more artful approach to assisting students with study skills. Students will develop and enhance their communications skills through a collaborative program with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where they will examine paintings and describe their impressions.

"They will look at art and then verbalize what they are seeing," O'Neill says. "We're teaching them to articulate in a formal setting. These skills are going to be necessary when interviewing for medical and dental school, as well as for when they become health care professionals with the responsibility of patient care."

Students also will see and discuss a play titled "Primary Care," which depicts medical students making patient decisions, and will pay a visit to "Body Worlds 3: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies," a controversial exhibit featuring real human and animal bodies and organs that have undergone a treatment that halts decomposition. The exhibit will run through September at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

"They will communicate verbally and in writing the thoughts and emotions that they are feeling after all of this," O'Neill says. "And we'll address those emotions as well as help them understand that dentists and physicians interact with patients who have a strong need for clarity when communicating with their health care professionals."

Williams says the education transcends academics. "Part of it is academic. We provide them with enrichment and help them think about the world beyond where they live and go to school," Williams said. "But there are also a lot of intangibles to the program. Many students who come from historically black colleges and universities really don't know how they compare with students from other schools. Here, they can find out where they stand. And for minority students coming from white colleges, it's often the first time they are in the majority in a science classroom."

O'Neill says SMDEP can bring more minorities into medicine.

"Some students who didn't have this, if they had had it, they may have made some different choices," she says. "If they don't get hooked into the system early, it quickly becomes too late to correct academic deficiencies."

"It's a real confidence builder," Williams says. "They've been told they can't make it in medicine or dentistry or other fields like this. And then they come here, and they realize that's a lie. It may take a little longer, may take a little more effort, but there are hundreds of students each year who come to this program and move ahead."

Contact Us    © 1995-2010 AAMC    Terms and Conditions    Privacy Statement    Supported Browsers