Improving patient outcomes has long been the rationale supporting calls to reform health care delivery systems and health profession education programs (Greiner, 2002; Institutes of Medicine, 2001, 2004; O’Neil & Pew Health Professions Commission, 1998). In 2003, the Institute of Medicine shared its vision statement for health professions education, asserting that “[a]ll health professionals should be educated to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interdisciplinary team, emphasizing evidence-based practice, quality improvement approaches and informatics” (Knebel & Greiner, 2003, p. 3). Despite the importance placed on teamwork in health sciences education, little attention has been devoted to understanding underlying factors influencing student attitudes towards team learning (Curran, Sharpe, Forristall, & Flynn, 2008). The purpose of this study is to explore the importance of emotional and cultural intelligence in shaping pre-health students’ attitudes towards team-based learning. A non-experimental, cross-sectional study design was used employing correlational and multivariate regression analysis. Findings indicate: a) significant relationships between emotional and cultural intelligence to the value students place on group work; and, b) emotional intelligence accounts for approximately 3% of variance above and beyond the Big Five personality factors in predicting student attitudes towards group work. This study will inform interprofessional education policy and practice in two fundamental ways. First, the study provides insight on the importance of non-academic factors in shaping students’ attitudes towards team-based learning. Secondly, increasing understanding of emotional and cultural intelligence in early stagse of a student’s development influences their preparation for health professions careers.

Many medical school admissions personnel and pre-health advisors advise premedical students not to take the medical school prerequisite courses at two-year colleges because they believe the courses are less academically rigorous than the same courses at four-year institutions (Losada, 2009; Marie, 2009; Thurlow, 2008, 2009a, 2009b). According to this belief, premedical students who complete the medical school prerequisite courses at a two-year college could be at a disadvantage in regard to medical school admission compared to those students who complete the medical school prerequisite courses at a four-year institution. In an effort to analyze these perceptions, this study examined factors pertaining to the enrollment of premedical students in the medical school prerequisite courses at two-year colleges. This research study examined the enrollment statuses and grades of matriculants to medical school from the University of Central Florida between 2007 and 2011. Specifically, the type of student enrollment of the matriculants who completed any of the medical school prerequisite courses at a two-year college was examined, and both their type of institutional enrollment and grades in the organic chemistry courses were also examined. The results indicated that there were significant differences in types of student enrollment in most medical school prerequisite courses at two-year colleges, and based on these differences, the researcher identified whether completing certain prerequisite courses as certain types of enrollment were either “more acceptable” or “less acceptable” for premedical students. In addition, the results indicated that there were not significant differences in organic chemistry grades based on the type of institution where the courses iv were taken. Based on these results, the researcher could not categorize the courses at either type of institution as “more rigorous” or “less rigorous” than the other, but the researcher also recommends that these results should be perceived cautiously until additional, more in-depth research can be conducted on this topic. Finally, recommendations and implications for premedical students, pre-health advisors, medical school admissions personnel, two-year colleges, and four-year institutions were discussed.

For many years graduate and professional education programs for the health professions have sought to increase the diversity of their student body to include students from a wider variety of backgrounds. Increasing the diversity of healthcare providers is an essential component of addressing inequities in healthcare. However, despite initiatives to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the health professions, these professions remain largely White and female. Previous researchers have sought to identify the reasons that racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in healthcare, and the barriers to persistence and success. Little research exists explaining why men are underrepresented in the healthcare professions, though many healthcare professions have historically been perceived as caregiving professions, and therefore, as “female work.” The purpose of this qualitative study was to add to the existing body of literature on underrepresented pre-health students by exploring the experiences of racial/ethnic minority and male undergraduate students on pre-health paths. This study included 11 participants who self-identified as intending to pursue a graduate or professional healthcare program and as African American, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Hispanic, or male; all were enrolled at one mid-sized, regional university in the southeastern United States. I utilized semi-structured interviews to investigate the experiences of the participants. The themes that emerged among the experiences of pre-health students, included common influences on career choice, what pre-health students believe they need to do to be competitive, challenges, fears and worries about the future, motivation to persist, resources and support utilized, and planning (or lack of planning) for alternate career paths.