P3.O295: Diversifying Pediatric Health Education for Equitable Outcomes Through Longitudinal Mentorship

Background: Diversity in medicine is critical to support the wellbeing of underrepresented individuals in the community. The Oakland University William Beaumont-La Casa Amiga Mentoring Program (OUWB-LCAMP) allows medical students to mentor K-12 students to connect with underserved communities, serve as a positive role model for kids, and gain perspectives of underrepresented populations. Pontiac is an underserved area of Michigan, and OUWB-LCAMP was created to provide mentorship and health education to children in order to address health equity needs within the community.

Project Description: The OUWB-LCAMP is a year-long commitment for medical students to serve as mentors for elementary to high school-aged students who reside in Pontiac, Michigan. One medical student mentor is matched with one student, which will be the mentor-mentor pairing for one year. Mentors are expected to contact mentees on a weekly basis through phone calls or Zoom and help with homework, provide personal guidance, and overall serve as a role model. In addition to this, there are biweekly lessons that focus on health equity topics including nutrition, mental health, alcohol and drug safety, CPR lessons, microbiology, and medical ethics for kids. This program was started in 2016 and continues to run today with an average of 30 medical student mentors per year. Pre- and post- lesson quizzes are implemented to indicate mentees' knowledge of the topic prior and to gage retention of health education information after a 1 hour lesson.

Discussion: Mentor responses indicated 73.3% of mentors identified as Underrepresented in Medicine (URiM). 93.3% of mentors reported that this experience would help them in their career as a physician, and 73.3% reported learning health-related topics during the program. All respondents reported strongly agreeing or agreeing that they now better understand the needs of children and how to communicate with children.

Conclusion: Overall, our results indicate that connecting medical students to local communities can provide greater insight into needs of underserved populations, and this experience can help encourage students to pursue primary care.