Do We Have a Problem? Underrepresented Racial Minorities in Pharmacy

• In Event: 35.077 - MTCC Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 35.077-4 - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Professions

Abstract

Diversity is fundamental to academic institutional advancement, the preparation of health science professionals, and the provision of safe and effective patient care. Many of these appeals for diversity in the health professions stem from the understanding that the United States is becoming more diverse, which leads to diverse patients that are often served by a homogenous group of health professionals. This increase in racial diversity across the country is not reflected in the cadre of practicing pharmacy professionals nor within schools/colleges of pharmacy. Across America neither the student populations nor pharmacy faculties reflect the racially diverse society they serve.

The pharmacy profession recognizes the need to increase the racial diversity of faculty, a situation made more difficult by a faculty shortage in recent years. Most recently, the Executive Vice President and CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) penned an op-ed in the Pharmacy Times affirming the organization’s commitment to “…foster an inclusive community and leverage diversity…” To be successful, she continued, “…we must ensure that our faculty and staff are similarly diverse…”. Linking diversity and professionalism, Chisholm-Burns asserts, “…one of the missing links to professionalism is ethnically and culturally diverse student and faculty bodies within colleges of pharmacy.” ,

There have been several calls to explore diversity in pharmacy education stemming from the increased diversity in the country and the potential healthcare implications. , , , A special report by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s (AACP) Argus Commission indicated that more work must be done to demonstrate a commitment to diversity. A viewpoint article written by Hayes ends with a call to action stating, we must “…actively enlist in this campaign for the benefit of our profession…”.

Regardless of this agreement, the pharmacy profession has not been successful in achieving diversity. Chisholm-Burns et al. examined the trends of pharmacy faculty and administrators identifying as women and underrepresented racial minorities (URM) from 1989 to 2009 revealing “little to modest growth.” In 2009, 11% of pharmacy faculty at the assistant professor level identified as URMs, a two percent increase from 1989, while URM representation at the dean level increased from 6% to 11%. The percentage of URM faculty at the associate professor and professor levels remained below 10% during the 10-year span. Currently, full-time faculty members identifying as URMs make up only 7.7% of all full-time pharmacy faculty. ,

Why does this matter? The dearth of minority faculty is apparent to URM students , and manifests in undesirable impacts on their experiences, including amplifying their feelings of isolation and decreasing their sense of belonging. However, the presence of minority faculty, though few, and opportunities to engage with them resulted in a source of motivation and inspiration for underrepresented students. ,

We need to know more. Our review indicated only 11 research articles exploring diversity in the past 20 years amplifying the need for empirical research concerning the experiences of diverse individuals within pharmacy.

Author

• Antonio A. Bush, Association of American Medical Colleges