Physicians who are URiM are even more under-represented in academic medicine, pediatrics and pediatric subspecialties. The literature discusses the many reasons why this is so. One of the reasons is lack of exposure and mentoring.
With funding from UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh medical staff, Pitt Pediatrics offers a virtual elective for URiM medical students that will allow students to see what a residency in pediatrics looks like as well as the opportunity to interact with various pediatric subspecialists.
This interdisciplinary virtual elective for UIM trainees establishes a cohort interested in the various subspecialties in pediatrics, from general pediatrics to pediatric surgery. We recruit UIM medical students with an intentional outreach to historically Black medical schools. Students will receive elective credit and a stipend. The focus will be three-fold: medical education concentrating on exposure to various pediatric subspecialties, an anti-racism and social justice curriculum, and social interactions for trainees to get to know each other as well as our city and its history and culture around our Black and Latinx communities.
Demographics
A 2019 ACGME paper on demographics of trainees reveals the number of Black trainees by specialty and subspecialty:
| Subspecialty | Number of Trainees |
|---|---|
| General Pediatrics | 599 |
| Cardiology | 16 |
| Hematology-Oncology | 14 |
| Nephrology | 8 |
| Rheumatology | 3 |
| Pediatric Surgery | 5 |