School of Medicine EMPACT Program Provides Underrepresented Med Students With Mentoring Opportunity
To deliver the highest quality care, Emory’s School of Medicine needs a team with various ethnic, cultural, and experiential backgrounds. Thirty percent of Emory’s current medical student population identify as historically underrepresented in medicine (URiM). To address the unique needs of groups traditionally underrepresented in medicine, the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) established the EMPACT program in 2019 to support URiM students as they progress through medical school.
“Diversity is not enough. Once students have gained access to medical school, students of color lack mentorship opportunities, face bias in the educational setting, and more frequently experience microaggressions and racism,” explained EMPACT program director and associate professor of medicine Dr. Tracey Henry. “This leads to disproportionate feelings of isolation, self-doubt, and fear compared to their peers.”
With the mission of Engage, Mentor, Prepare, Advocate for, Cultivate, and Teach, EMPACT provides experiences that foster timely and successful matriculation through medical school. Students are paired with a faculty mentor, but also operate as a peer or near peer mentors as senior medical students mentor their junior. This structure enables participants to learn more about medicine and ways to handle pitfalls that are more common to their demographics and medical school cohort.
Symbiotic Mentorship
M2 student and EMPACT mentee Josué Rodriguez recognizes the unique challenges and barriers URiM students face in medicine. “Having a network of mentors that understand your background, circumstances, and challenges helps mitigate barriers. Not only does it set us, learners, up for success professionally, but it also creates a sense of belonging and family. Talking to my EMPACT mentor is not only an opportunity to learn about career development and professional success, but it also serves to remind me that I belong here.”
Students are not the only ones who benefit from engagement with the EMPACT program. Josué’s faculty mentor, Dr. Tricia Smith, assistant professor of emergency medicine, illustrates the symbiotic relationship with her mentee. “I’m probably unique as a mentor in the sense that I am an immigrant who did not attend medical school in the United States,” Dr. Smith explains. “Josué is actually helping me learn a lot of the day-to-day experiences of what the curriculum has been historically and how Emory is a national leader in changes that improve the student’s experience and patient care.”
Program Success
To measure the program’s impact, EMPACT program director Dr. Henry administered a pre- and post-engagement survey during the program’s pilot year. Measures of success for the EMPACT program illustrated achievement in program goals, including fostering a sense of community and strengthening social support. For example, mentees reported an increase of 25% to 65% in readiness to handle clinical rotations, an increase of 26% to 56% in possessing insight on day-to-day activities of an attending, an increase of 79% to 94% regarding sense of belonging at Emory’s School of Medicine, and a decrease of 85% to 57% in feeling the need to have an advocate.
Similarly, mentors revealed an increase in their awareness of the concepts of microaggressions, imposter syndrome, and sense of community. For example, Dr. Henry’s pre- and post-engagement surveys discovered that mentors, often junior faculty members and women of color, were able to foster personal and professional growth through ideas their mentees introduced. For example, some mentors were unaware of the concept of the “imposter phenomenon” until they engaged in the EMPACT program. After their engagement, 100% of mentors now recognize what imposter phenomenon is, that their mentees often face it, and it provides a term for a feeling they sometimes face as well.
Investing in the Future of Medicine
Recognizing the value of dismantling the barriers that URiM Emory faculty, learners, and staff face, Emory alumna Dr. Barbara Williams (1979) recently pledged a generous gift to the EMPACT program. Dr. Williams’ generosity will amplify Emory’s commitment to equity and inclusivity and provide the long-term funding necessary to support students traditionally underrepresented in medicine in negotiating obstacles along their path of learning, training, and pursuing careers in the healthcare field.
“There is no better area for me to direct my giving than toward the correction of the continuing inequities in healthcare for disadvantaged communities of color,” explained Dr. Williams. “Those of us practicing medicine are acutely aware of not only the disparities in the delivery of good medical care but also in training physicians who can better deliver good care in an equitable way.”
Dr. Henry reflects on Dr. Williams’ donation saying, “Her generosity shows that in addition to institutional alignment, we also have both community and cultural alignment of the awareness and importance of DEI and anti-racism in medicine. Now we must pivot and go beyond diversity toward inclusion and belonging.”
With the help of alumni like Dr. Williams, EMPACT is investing in the next generation of physicians as the future of medicine. “We are at a moment in history where there is much focus on ‘doing the right thing,’ but I’ve seen such moments before,” described Dr. Williams. “Unfortunately, time has a way of dimming even the passions of good people, and we settle back into the status quo. As such, I appreciate your consideration in joining me in dismantling the barriers that URiM Emory faculty, learners, and staff continue to face.”
About EMPACT
The EMPACT program is housed in the Emory School of Medicine’s Office of Multicultural Affairs and is directed by Dr. Tracey Henry (General Medicine). Dr. Henry and her work supporting URiM has been recognized locally and nationally. The mentoring program has won first place at Emory’s Department of Medicine Health Equity Day, first place in the American College of Physicians Georgia chapter abstract poster competition, and first place at the American College of Physicians (ACP) 2022 annual meeting. ACP is the largest medical-specialty organization in the country with over 160,000 members.