Accepted Type
Oral
Code
OA1-2-2
Acceptance Declaration
Accept
Additional Information
I declare I have no actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to this program.
Was this work accepted for CCME 2020?
no
Category
General Call (Workshop, Oral Presentation, Poster Presentation)
Type
Oral
Sub Type
Education Research
Will the presenter be a:
Graduate Student
Affiliation
Considered for Poster
yes
Title
Towards greater equity, diversity and inclusion in medical and health sciences studies in Quebec, Canada : Evaluation of the "Accès médecine et santé" pipeline program of Université de Montréal
Length of Presentation
Background/Purpose
"Accès médecine et santé" is a pipeline program that aims to demystify medical and health sciences studies for youth from multicultural and disadvantaged backgrounds. Our objective was to assess the program's impact on participants' perception of medical and health sciences studies.
Methods
An online survey was sent to former participants between 2014 and 2017 who had already completed their high school and college education. Sociodemographic information and data about perception of medical/health sciences studies were collected. Descriptive statistics were computed and frequency comparisons were made between pre/post answers for perceived barriers and enablers to university-level medical and health sciences studies using McNemar's test.
Results
Participation rate was 31.6% (n=154). Participants' ages ranged from 18 to 23 years (mean= 20.3 and median= 20) with 72.7% identifying as females. 51.9% of the participants were born outside of Canada, mostly in countries of the Maghreb (20.0%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (13.8%). More than half of the participants chose to pursue university medical or health sciences studies (58.9%). Participants reported that the program helped remove some of the barriers they perceived in undertaking medical and health sciences studies. Their fear of not being "good enough" to complete these studies decreased after their participation (p < 0.001). They also reported changes in their perception of these studies. After the program, they perceived them as being less competitive (p= 0.013), unbalanced (p = 0.013) and demanding (p = 0.021) than they did initially.
Conclusion
Our pipeline program reaches a very diverse group of students. The various activities seem to have a positive impact on participants' perception of some barriers related to health sciences and medical studies.
Keyword 1
Equity and diversity
Keyword 2
Pipeline program
Keyword 3
Widening participation
Level of Training
Undergraduate
Abstract Themes
Admissions
Additional Theme (First choice)
Undergraduate
Additional Theme (Second Choice)
Additional Theme (Third Choice)
Authors
Presenter
Karina Cristea
Term 1
Yes
Term 2
Yes
Term 3
Yes
Term 4
Yes
Term 5
Yes
