Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

8-2024

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department

Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences

Degree Program

Public Health Sciences with a specialization in Health Promotion, PhD

Committee Chair

Brown, Aishia

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Harris, Muriel

Committee Member

Harris, Muriel

Committee Member

Immekus, Jason

Committee Member

Chenault, John

Author's Keywords

health professions student perceptions; socio-political curricula content; critical pedagogy; health equity; BIPOC

Abstract

Poorer health outcomes disproportionately impact racial/ethnically minoritized (e.g., Black Indigenous People of Color, or BIPOC) populations in the U.S. One plausible reason for the persistence of poorer health outcomes among this population is the teaching of racialized curricular content within academic health professions programs. This includes the absence of appropriate context through explicit socio-political curricular content (SPC) and critical pedagogy (i.e., social and structural determinants of health, history of racism in health care, social justice concepts; dialogue and reflective writing). Racialized curriculum is thought to initiate and/or exacerbate existing racial biases, cultural incompetence, and perpetuate dominant medical ideologies and myths that are rooted in racism and race-based stereotypes from the greater society (e.g., Black people have a higher pain tolerance than other groups). Such ideals can result in negative race-based diagnosing and treatment within health care when taught to health professions students (HPS). However the inclusion SPC and critical pedagogy into health professions education (HPE) could serve as an intervention to advance health equity of BIPOC. Moreover, participation in critical action on behalf of BIPOC, among HPS may serve as an even greater mechanism to advance health equity among this population. The researcher used a mixed method approach to understand the influence of various factors such as student perceptions and attitudes toward social justice, SPC exposure, perceptions of the equity and social missions of one’s program, and past critical action engagement (prior to enrolling in current health profession program) on engagement in critical action (since being enrolled in current health profession program), among HPS. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the inclusion of SPC, and the application of critical pedagogy, in relation to critical action, within clinical health professions programs (nursing, dental, dental hygiene, and medical) at a health sciences campus (HSC) within a University in the Midwestern U.S.

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