Relationship of personal health experiences with interest in health careers among youth from an underserved area

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Allied Health
• Personal Author:
  Todaro, Alyssa ; Washington, Shakira ; Boekeloo, Bradley O. ; Gilchrist, Brian ; Wang, Min Qi
• Description:
  Only 10% of health professionals are from racial/ethnic minority groups, and much research has been focused on encouraging minorities to enter a health career. The lack of health workforce diversity has many implications for the effective delivery of care to an increasingly diverse US population. The goal of this analysis is to examine the influence of personal health experiences on interest in a health career. "Personal Health Experiences" is a newly created scaled variable that assesses the influence of direct and indirect health experiences of respondents. In a sample of 134 predominantly minority 10th graders from underprivileged neighborhoods, the scale had adequate psychometric properties (range 1-7; mean 4.44, SD 1.46, median 4.60, Cronbach's alpha 0.72), and multivariate regression modeling revealed that it predicted increased "Interest in Health Careers" (B=0.46, SE 0.10, p<0.01). Future research is needed to determine the role that personal health experiences play in career choices and one's success in health career decisions. Such information could, for example, help to refine health profession recruitment strategies.
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Allied Health Occupations Career Choice Ethnicity Female Humans Male Medically Underserved Area Mentors
• Source:
  J Allied Health. 42(3):135-140.
• Pubmed ID:
  24013242
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC3768001
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R01 GM094574/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; R01GM094574/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; U48DP001929/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland
• Volume:
  42
• Issue:
  3
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:1c398335d12fab77e6152dcc9bdc8f8e8b39c9322743309cd442c7b8c8972b60
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/29728/cdc_29728_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 124.70 KB ]