Antiracism in Action: Development and Outcomes of a Mentorship Program for Premedical Students Who Are Underrepresented or Historically Excluded in Medicine

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Black, Latinx, and Native American and Alaska Native people are underrepresented in medicine. The increasingly competitive medical school application process poses challenges for students who are underrepresented in medicine or historically excluded from medicine (UIM/HEM). The University of California, San Francisco-University of California, Berkeley (UCSF-UCB) White Coats for Black Lives Mentorship Program provides a novel and antiracist approach to mentorship for these premedical students. METHODS: The program recruited UIM/HEM premedical and medical students through a survey advertised by email, on the program's website, social media, and by word of mouth. The program paired students primarily with race-concordant mentors, all of whom were UCSF medical students. From October 2020 to June 2021, program mentees engaged in skills-building seminars based on an antiracism framework and received support for preparing medical school applications. The program administered preprogram and postprogram surveys to mentees, which were analyzed via quantitative and qualitative methods. RESULTS: Sixty-five premedical mentees and 56 medical student mentors participated in the program. The preprogram survey received 60 responses (92.3% response rate), and the postprogram survey received 48 responses (73.8% response rate). In the preprogram survey, 85.0% of mentees indicated that MCAT scores served as a barrier "a great deal" or "a lot," 80.0% indicated lack of faculty mentorship, and 76.7% indicated financial considerations. Factors that improved most from preprogram to postprogram were personal statement writing (33.8 percentage-point improvement, P < .001), peer mentorship (24.2 percentage-point improvement, P = .01), and knowledge of medical school application timeline (23.3% percentage-point improvement, P = .01). CONCLUSION: The mentorship program improved student confidence in various factors influencing the preparation of medical school applications and offered access to skills-building resources that mitigated existing structural barriers.