Knowledge, Perceptions, and Attitudes regarding Health Equity Concepts among California Medical Students
Gustavo Valbuena, Professor
Public Health
Applications for Fall 2024 are closed for this project.
The necessity for integrating health equity concepts into medical education is critical now more than ever considering the recent years marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened awareness of racial injustices. These events have highlighted the critical disparities in health outcomes across marginalized communities, emphasizing the urgent need for an equity-centered approach in medicine. Medical institutions have started to revise their curricula to incorporate topics such as anti-racism, health equity, and social determinants of health.
This project aims to explore how M.D. medical students in California conceptualize and perceive topics of anti-racism, social determinants of health, health justice, and structural racism, among others. Through qualitative interviews, our team's goal is to highlight the knowledge, feelings, and perceptions that medical students have regarding health equity concepts and teachings in their medical programs. These perspectives will be crucial for informing future educational strategies and fostering a more equitable healthcare system.
Role: The undergraduate Research Apprentice will assist with:
1. Qualitative coding of medical student interview transcripts in Dedoose, summarizing key themes from coded interview content, and meeting with Graduate Student Researcher and Principal Investigator to discuss analysis and findings.
2. Literature review
Qualifications: *Prefer students majoring in public health, sociology, social work, public policy, or related fields.
*3rd or 4th year students preferred.
*Strong writing skills and attention to detail
*Interest in or familiarity with research literature in the following or related areas: public health, social determinants of health, health equity, medical education, structural racism
*Proficiency with MS Word and online library and journal search engines
*Experience with qualitative software and coding preferred, but not required
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Camila De Pierola, Graduate Student
Hours: to be negotiated
Off-Campus Research Site: Remote work with virtual Zoom check-ins. The student should be comfortable working on their own on data analysis and able to prepare products to review/discuss every other week.
Biological & Health Sciences Social Sciences