Curricular Offerings

Students and trainees can take advantage of a variety of diversity and inclusion-related curricular, co-curricular and experiential learning activities to enhance their educational experience.

Undergraduate Medical Education

Specialized M.D. Pathways:
• Care of the Underserved Pathway - The pathway coordinates current offerings on underserved care and presents them to students in a more formal and organized fashion across the four years of the M.D. Program.
• Health Policy Pathway - The pathway will expose students to the fundamental principles of business, management, and the health policy issues that affect doctors, patients, and society.

Courses:
• Patient, Physician and Society 1, 2 & 3 (required)
• MEFAM-530 Underserved Care Clinics (Volunteering)
• MEPED-565 Hiding in Plain Sight: Identify/Understand Vict. of Violence
• MEOSA-409 Cultural Diversity and Sensitivity in Health Care
• MEPED-562 It Takes a Village: Foundations of Pediatric Advocacy
• MEMED-593 Beyond the Exam Room: Physician as Advocate
• MEFAM-408A Medical Spanish I
• MEFAM-408B Medical Spanish II

Programs:
• Team Launch - Team Launch provides innovative, interdisciplinary learning opportunities that will prepare students in the School of Medicine, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and School of Health Professions for careers in team-based science and healthcare.

Graduate Medical Education

Residency Programs:
• Family Medicine Residency Programs: Categorial Track
• Internal Medicine Residency Programs: Categorical Track, Primary Care and Medicine-Pediatrics
• Obstetrics/Gynecology Residency Programs: Categorical Track
• Pediatric Residency Programs: Categorical Track, Lead and Acquire: Pediatric Primary Care for Vulnerable and Underserved Populations, and Global Child Health Pediatrics
• Psychiatry Residency Programs: Categorical Track and Clinician-Educator Track

Fellowship Programs:
• Family and Community Medicine: Primary Care Research Fellowship
• Medicine: Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes Fellowship
• Obstetrics and Gynecology: Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship
• Pediatrics: Academic General Pediatrics Fellowship, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Global Health Fellowship, and Pediatric Hospitalist Medicine Fellowship
• Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship

Programs: 
• Team Launch - Team Launch provides innovative, interdisciplinary learning opportunities that will prepare students in the School of Medicine, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and School of Health Professions for careers in team-based science and healthcare.
• SMART (Summer Medical and Research Training) Program - The Summer Medical and Research Training (SMART) Program was developed to provide frontier-level, biomedical summer research projects for undergraduates in a supportive environment with supplemental educational activities. 
• BCM PREP Program - The BCM PREP program, funded through a grant from the National Institute for General Medical Sciences, helps under-represented college graduates prepare for biomedical Ph.D. study. Scholars will complete the program within 12 months, depending on each scholar's individual development plan. There are seven positions available each year. 
• Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity (IMSD) - The IMSD Program, funded from a grant from the National Institute for General Medical Sciences, provides a comprehensive, individualized education and training program for scientists from populations that have been traditionally under-represented in the sciences.
• IRACDA (Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Awards) - The NIH-funded REACH IRACDA Program provides post-doctoral fellows with support to conduct frontier level research with Baylor faculty and gain training experience teaching two courses at local minority serving institutions in the 2nd-4th year of the post doc.
• BCM-HGSC Minority Diversity Initiative - The BCM-HGSC Minority Diversity Initiative, funded with the support of the NHGRI, aims to encourage minority students to pursue a career in the genomic sciences and to address the historical underrepresentation of minorities in the field. Our diversity initiative actively collaborates with colleges in the local academic community, including Prairie View A&M University, Jarvis Christian College, the University of Houston, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and University of Texas at El Paso.

Programs:
Team Launch - Team Launch provides innovative, interdisciplinary learning opportunities that will prepare students in the School of Medicine, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and School of Health Professions for careers in team-based science and healthcare.

Doctor of Nursing Practice - Nurse Anesthesia Program Courses:
NAAHA-63401 Advanced Health Assessment: This course focuses on the development of advanced practice nursing skills in health assessment for diverse populations. Critical thinking, diagnostic reasoning and communication techniques will be developed through individual and group interaction, as well as case-guided learning experiences.

NAEMH-83106 Ethical and Multicultural Healthcare: This course will provide a basic theoretical framework that will enable students to apply multicultural health care principles and concepts in their professional practice. An awareness of cultural influence on the biological, psychological, sociological, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions of the individual will be developed and specific health care values and practices of different cultural groups will be identified. International healthcare perspectives and issues will be explored.

Physician Assistant Program Courses:
The longitudinal cross-cultural learning experience (CCLE) offered students enrolled in the PA Program is intended to increase awareness of and expose students to the influences of culture and language on health-related behaviors. The CCLE begins with the start of the didactic phase and ends with completion of the clinical phase of the curriculum. Each of the required learning experiences is described in further detail below.

PACC 62401 Cultural Competency 1: The course delivered during the first four months of didactic curriculum is used to initiate the sensitive discussion of diversity issues in the context of health disparities. Readings, lectures, case vignettes, discussions and practical exercises are used to raise awareness of the 12 domains within the Purnell Model of Cultural Competency. Critical analysis using reflection journals is introduced to facilitate the early application of students' knowledge about cultures and language in a sensitive manner.

PASPN 62441 Spanish Language Elective: The elective exposes students to conversational Medical Spanish. Among the many exercises required of students is translation of the interview and physical exam into Spanish coupled with practice interviewing teenage, adult, and elderly members of the Latino community served by the Ripley House Neighborhood Health Center. Spanish-speaking standardized patients are used to evaluate students' ability to complete the medical history, give directions for the exam, and provide feedback on the patient's health status in Spanish. 

PACC 71521 Cultural Competency 2: Critical incident analysis using journals continues throughout the clinical phase of the curriculum that takes place in an array of public and private ambulatory and in-hospital settings. These settings expose students to persons disadvantaged based on age, gender, income, insurance coverage, English language skills, or beliefs and practices different from those of the majority culture. Discrepancies between personal beliefs and assumptions surfaced during patient encounters drive the critical reflection process. Approached in this manner, reflection is used to engender the openness and flexibility essential to making continued adjustments in one's attitudes and beliefs leading to enhanced sensitivity, cultural competence, and the avoidance of bias in medical decision making.