[PHP-7] Preparing Minority Youths for Health Careers
Joy Okereke-Arungwa, PhD, Compass Communications Inc., Bowie, MD
Compass Communications Inc., 3407 Embassy Lane, Bowie, MD 20716
Compass Communications facilitated the development and production of health communications careers videotape by students of Eastern Senior High School in Washington DC. The project is a pilot designed to encourage minority youths to enter health careers and thus help close the gap in racial disparities that presently exist in health professions (see Healthy People 2010).
The students were drawn from senior and junior classes and were in the midst of making career choices. The project focused on creating awareness of a variety of health careers and indicating student capabilities to be successful in the demonstrated careers.
Students were involved in producing the videotapes. The videotapes are also planned for community-wide distributions to other youths. This strategy is based on previous researches which show that youths listen and learn quicker through practice, visuals/demonstration, and peer presentations.
Measurement of project outcomes has not been concluded at the point of completing this abstract because several of the student participants are yet to begin post-high school career. However, preliminary results from post-production surveys indicate that more than 70% of the student participants indicated interest in pursuing a heath career. We expect the actual numbers that choose a health career to be lower but still indicating a substantial choice of health careers. We are convinced that projects like this go far in encouraging students to choose a health career.
