THURS-070 - Pre-health Student Perceptions of Medical Providers: Debunking Misconceptions to Improve Health Equity

Brief Abstract Summary: Students interested in medical careers face difficult and sometimes overwhelming decisions regarding their specific career paths. This study aimed to evaluate influences on students during their discernment process, especially how perceptions may inform career choices and professional biases via an online survey tool shared with undergraduate university students. Results highlight how degree based stigma can impact career choices, potentially contributing to provider shortages, less diversity in the workforce, limits in access to care, and reinforcement of health inequities. Results and strategies for pre-service students and their advisors will be shared. By exploring influences on student career paths, educators can help formulate better advising and training programs that focus on students’ individual strengths/interests and avoid perpetuating biases surrounding healthcare career paths, potentially increasing healthcare workforce diversity and improving health equity.

Detailed abstract description: As healthcare continues to evolve, pre-health students are faced with diverse choices in career pathways. Some of the most common medical roles include Medical Doctors (MDs), Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DOs), Nurse Practitioners (NPs), and Physician Assistants (PAs), all of which play essential roles in providing patient care. Understanding differences between career paths is critical, not only for students navigating the medical field and their career plans, but also for addressing broader systemic issues such as healthcare workforce shortages, professional bias, and health equity. This study aimed to explore how pre-health students perceive these four professional pathways as potential career choices. Data collection included an online survey containing a mixture of likert scale, forced choice, and short answer questions. Participants were recruited through social media links and a QR code shared on college campuses around Indianapolis, IN, resulting in 79 responses across 8 universities. The majority (76% were from Butler University), but institutions were represented across the United States. Student majors varied significantly and 95% were female. Findings suggest that most students perceive MDs and DOs as providing equal levels of care, but MDs were viewed as more prestigious, suggesting perceived bias and hierarchies. No distinct trends emerged between PAs and NPs in student responses with many viewing these roles as interchangeable or being unaware of key differences. This lack of distinction highlights a gap in understanding, which may hinder collaboration between providers and hamper the integration of roles to improve healthcare access and equity. Correlations were run between student perceptions of providers and their academic majors, levels of healthcare knowledge and exposure, and academic concentrations. These data will be reported and linked to the broader applications for public health advocacy and educational planning. Misconceptions or biases regarding healthcare career opportunities can contribute to resistance in exploring certain career paths, potentially leading students to pursue narrowly focused degrees, contributing to healthcare shortages or inability to address community inequities. Additionally, misperceptions related to career choices may impact workforce diversity and reinforce structural inequities in healthcare access. Better training about the diverse healthcare roles available can help to align perception with public health priorities, ensuring that all providers are empowered to serve all communities.