Outcomes 1. Describe palliative care training at schools with high numbers of underrepresented (UR) medical students 2. Explain key components of a palliative care summer research program for students from UR backgrounds and schools that lack access to palliative care 3. Develop action items to enhance palliative care exposure and training for UR medical students across the United States Many medical schools across the United States lack access to palliative care educational opportunities. This is especially true at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and predominantly Latino-serving institutions that generally are not resource rich. Opportunities for exposure to palliative care during medical school have two purposes. First, it can increase diversity by encouraging students who are underrepresented (UR) to specialize in palliative care. Second, UR physicians are more likely to care for patients who look like them. Therefore, improving palliative care training can enhance the care that UR patients with serious illness receive. Given the shortage of specialty-trained palliative care physicians, providing opportunities to introduce palliative care early in medical training will help to enhance primary palliative care skills for these future physicians. In this concurrent session, we will first discuss the limited options that schools with high numbers of UR students have to obtain palliative care training. Next, we will discuss an innovative palliative care summer research and career development program for medical students from UR backgrounds and schools that lack access to palliative care. In thinking through the program, we will lead a discussion with participants regarding the core knowledge, skills and attitudes that should guide a palliative care summer program for medical students. We will then describe the pilot program we have developed at the University of Pittsburgh and discuss feedback from the initial cohort class. Financial, staff, and other barriers, particularly in the time of COVID, will be shared, with possible solutions. The goal will be to help programs develop action items to improve palliative care exposure and multidisciplinary mentorship for medical students from UR backgrounds and schools that do not have a palliative care program.
Palliative Care Exposure and Career Development Mentoring for Medical Students from Underrepresented Backgrounds and Schools That Lack Access to Palliative Care (FR253)