Diversifying the Health Professions Pipeline: A Multi-component Psychoeducational Workshop Approach
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Nichole Data
CoPIs:
Vanessa Gamarra, Amanda Nunes, Jennifer Block-Lerner, Michael Camacho, Joel Bocanegra
College:
The College of Health Professions and Human Services
Major:
School and Clinical Psychology
Faculty Research Advisor(s):
Aaron Gubi
Abstract:
Homes, schools, and other spaces thrive on a spirit of active, warm acceptance of diverse experiences. Higher education is no different: culturally diverse rooms not only empower marginalized populations but invite all to be themselves (Turi et al., 2022). Yet, from cultural norms to tuition costs, numerous factors within graduate-level program admissions may function as barriers to fostering vibrant communities and a practitioner pipeline representative of our broader society. Responsive, empathetic training that accounts for historical harm, exploitation, and systematic disadvantage of minoritized populations is critical (Mohatt et al., 2014). To serve this aim, recent scholarship focuses on diverse recruitment and general awareness of school psychology; this work suggests that representation and whole-person contexts are essential (Bocanegra et al., 2015; Grapin et al., 2016; Dieker et al., 2013). However, specific, scalable solutions with a whole-person view have not been proposed. This project centers around a multicomponent psychoeducational workshop for a diverse recruitment population that features faculty representation from target programs, a mixed-media approach to share information, and a reflective discussion on the values and needs of individuals and their communities. This study aims to explore the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of this psychoeducational workshop to hone related offerings in the service of recruiting a diverse community of health professional trainees.