Within this subgroup, over 20% of students identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, or Black, and 40% of students identifying as Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, were the first in their families to attend college. Another part of the issue is the woeful lack of racial diversity within the physical therapy provider workforce. What elements of diversity should physical therapy boards be working on? White C, Louis B, Persky A, et al. I recognize that this, all around, is a very tough topic to discuss, but its one that we absolutely cannot ignore, especially when the US in the midst of so much racial turmoil. 2009;101:836-851. The response rate to the survey was low. J Phys Ther Educ. Ruggie practiced in various clinical settings including acute care, in-patient rehabilitation, nursing home and long-term care, and in-school pediatrics. Utzman RR, Riddle DL, Jewell DV. Bernadette Williams-York is professor in the Department of Physical Therapy in the College of Health Sciences at Alabama State University. Importantly, unconscious bias and false stereotypes about pain levels and drug use have resulted in a deep mistrust of the healthcare system. And I don't understand the argument that diversity would compromise integrity. The PT profession has not examined the disadvantaged profile of its applicant pool or student demographic, but this expanded URM definition now supports . Within the nine closed-choice questions: two questions inquired about race/ethnicity; 1 question probed the extent of underrepresentation and disadvantaged background of each student; five questions targeted support systems and exposure from middle school through college, including advising, health care focused programs and clubs, and STEM programs that might have influenced decisions to pursue application to DPT programs; and 1 question asked what communication and social media tools are used by students. Her primary passion is being a key advocate for her patients and aiding to diminish health disparities among minority groups through avenues of mindfulness and optimizing health & wellness. 2017;4(4):599-606. doi:10.1007/s40615-016-0263-7. These themes should be visibly incorporated into recruitment strategies and evident on educational program and/or professional websites. According to CAPTE, in 2019, the majority of graduates from PT programs were White, and, at 77%, it is a more significant share than the 71% for PTA graduates: Additionally, forPTs in practice from 2016-2017, there is still little diversity: While the PTA workforce has seen growing diversity, the PT workforce compared to graduates actually shows a slight increase in White PTs. Each theme addresses opportunity gaps that occur based on inequities and disparities in the educational system and the deeply entrenched history of educational and economic disadvantages for many underrepresented groups.15-17 The PT educational community has not systematically developed these initiatives, although academic programs recognized for minority initiatives and achievement often have one or more of these initiatives very intentionally developed.18. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion | APTA America has a problem with systemic racism. The survey was then administered by APTA through the Formsite.com website. The open-ended questions of the survey allowed us to probe the utility of the data collected through PTCAS, and indeed the outcomes are meaningful toward informing recruitment strategies. Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox. Ruggie served as Board Vice-chair from 2014 to 2018, and as Board Chair from 2018 to 2019. The adoption of the new URM definition and its application to data collection through PTCAS begins to change the way we approach diversity in education, which should ultimately change the way the profession measures its progress toward meeting the diversity needs of the health care workforce. Use of demographic and quantitative admissions data to predict performance on the National Physical Therapy Examination. Economically disadvantaged background was reported by 9.6% of the total sample. In December 2018 and November 2020, the board held diversity strategic planning meetings. For example, they may have concerns about exclusion and inclusion or how that information might be used. This article is based on a 2020 Annual Meeting Webinar panel discussion with Anne Wallestad, Ruggie Canizares, Nancy Kirsch, and Adrienne Price. One of the best things individual therapists can do to cultivate diversity and mitigate potential unconscious bias is to self-educate and listen. This may also provide the opportunity for alumni and practitioners of color to engage as mentors into the profession, in a manner that academic programs with limited or no minority faculty are unable to provide. However, URM students reported more frequent use of Google or another search engine than a college advisor and were less likely to consult with a faculty member, compared to non-URM students. Your message has been successfully sent to your colleague. After looking into the problem, the organization realized that the judges could hear the women auditioners high heels and, thus, could identify their gender. Additionally, nonwhite and disadvantaged students did not report career path decisions after age 30. Im going to say this outright: diversifying the therapist pool and making an active effort to combat our biases will not hurt us. Racial Disparities in Physical Therapy - Verywell Health This "disorder" was thought to be a mild form of leprosy in which the only cure was to become white. Quick facts: United States. We propose that identifying potential differences in how URM students achieve this decision will support the development of recruitment strategies to specifically target URM groups. The PTCAS addition of questions for self-report of disadvantaged background positions the profession to better collect and track URM data in PT education. Each communication included the link to the survey. URM definition. This position paper continues important conversations about supporting URM students into the PT profession. met to extract themes from the responses and develop the coding scheme for the data. There are plenty of resources available to those who wish to learnfrom . 3. She owned a private practice for twenty-five years and currently practices in a school-based setting. Elected in October 2018, Ruggie is currently serving his first term as FSBPT Treasurer. When surveyed about the role of minority faculty in decision-making for applying to or attending a DPT program, all students disagreed more than agreed that minority faculty impacted their decisions (Table 6); however, both Hispanic and nonwhite students compared to non-Hispanic and white students reported that the presence of minority faculty was impactful. Diversity in counselling, healthcare, and other key industries . 2023 Dotdash Media, Inc. All rights reserved, Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. The historical roots of racial disparities in the mental health system Keyword Highlighting Students who identified as white (alone or in combination with other categories) responded to the survey more than any other group; compared to white respondents, only 11.91% of respondents represented all other racial categories, alone or in combination. 10) All students were influenced by career assets and career exploration. This suggests lack of relationships with academic and professional mentors. They need to know the board will accept and listen to them to feel comfortable. Access EIM Classroom for your coursework, videos, quizzes, and any other course material. It can be a challenge for both parties to have the courage to ask uncomfortable questions and answer them. She practiced in a variety of settings including in-patient rehabilitation, acute care, long-term care, and home care. To be able to achieve this goal, PT educators must be culturally competent as well. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a long-standing treatment choice for disorders such as depression when pharmacological treatments have failed. For example, a group of White colleagues talking about Black Lives Matter may think it is not okay to talk about that around a black colleague. Brett Sears, PT, MDT, is a physical therapist with over 20 years of experience in orthopedic and hospital-based therapy. Although personal experience with physical therapy was the primary influence on white students' decision to pursue a PT career, values and interests were equally impactful on this decision for disadvantaged students. White paper on pharmacy admissions: Developing a diverse work force to meet the healthcare needs of an increasingly diverse society. The ACAPT DTF identified a need to determine what factors most significantly contribute to a student's decision to pursue a PT career and, within this, to understand the similarities or differences in the process by which URM students make this decision. Seek learning opportunities on the causes and effects of systemic racism in healthcare and the physical therapy community. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal's Web site (www.aptaeducation.org). There was one theme in our Facebook comments that really stood out to me. 9) Both nonwhite and disadvantaged students were influenced by values and interests, the patienttherapist relationship, and by inclusion and diversity; inclusion and diversity, in contrast, was barely identified by white students. As an African American female PT with more than 25 years in the field, I couldnt agree more. It is also notable that in the more than twenty years since BoardSource has been collecting data, this has continued to be a problem with minimal incremental progress. Efforts really need to begin in middle school. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners Students who identified as having disadvantaged backgrounds were nearly equally impacted by factors related to values + interests as they were by personal experience in making their decisions to pursue a PT career. Factors Influencing Minority Students' Choice of Physical Therapist Although all students reported low referrals to DPT programs for advising, nonwhite students identified a slightly higher influence of DPT programs on their decision-making process. Phys Ther. Research indicates that, in some cases, Black Americans suffer from worse rehabilitation outcomes when compared to white, non-Hispanic counterparts. In determining the most significant challenges facing professional PT education relative to URM student recruitment and retention, the DTF conducted and reported on a survey of program directors of professional PT education programs.5 Forty-five programs responded to the online survey representing 21.02% of the professional PT education community at the time. In a recent incoming class at Rutgers University, 51 percent of students identified themselves as part of an underrepresented minority. Smith SG, Nsiah-Kumi PA, Jones PR, Pamies RJ. With a projected attrition rate of 3.5%, APTA estimates the country will have a shortage of 26,969 physical therapists by 2020. RC 11-17: Diversity in Physical Therapy? - PT Think Tank The ages at which students from URM backgrounds make their decisions to pursue PT as a career tend to be shifted a bit later relative to non-URM students, which may reflect that URM students take longer to complete their undergraduate degrees and/or are less aware of careers or engaged with career mentoring at earlier academic stages. 2008;63(8):860-866. doi:10.1093/gerona/63.8.860, Leukhardt WH, Golob JF, McCoy AM, Fadlalla AMA, Malangoni MA, Claridge JA. A lack of diversity could prevent patients from feeling wholly comfortable in a medical setting, which could then prevent them from engaging in open dialogue with their providers, thereby preventing them from receiving the best possible care.