Barriers Preventing Minoritized Individuals From Being Accepted into Medical School

As it currently stands, there are many barriers preventing racial minority students from being accepted into medical school at the same rates as their White peers. This has broad reaching effects that shape how medicine is practiced. In order to help mitigate this issue, different schools and medical groups have begun to develop programs designed to assist students in being accepted into medical school. In this literature review, I further examine these programs by selecting 12 articles to further examine the programs they mentioned. From this examination, trends in the types of programs and the target demographics emerged. The types of programs included academic enrichment, research and lab exposure, mentorship, admissions preparation, counseling, postbaccalaureate or master’s programs, pre-entrance, and recruitment programs. Target demographics varied in age which affected the format of the program. Analyzing different programs revealed the ways in which minority students are currently being assisted and that there is no current standardized measure of the effectiveness of these programs. It will be important to determine effectiveness in order to eliminate these disparities which will be crucial in reducing health disparities nationally.