COVID-19 threatens faculty diversity: postdoctoral scholars call for action.

Despite substantial investment and effort by federal agencies and institutions to improve the diversity of the professoriate, progress is excruciatingly slow. One program that aims to enhance faculty diversity is the Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences. IRACDA supports the training of a diverse cohort of postdoctoral scholars who will seek academic research and teaching careers. The San Diego IRACDA program has trained 109 postdoctoral scholars since its inception in 2003; 59% are women and 63% are underrepresented (UR) Black/African-American, Latinx/Mexican-American, and Indigenous scientists. Sixty-four percent obtained tenure-track faculty positions, including a substantial 32% at research-intensive institutions. However, the COVID-19 pandemic crisis threatens to upend IRACDA efforts to improve faculty diversity, and academia is at risk of losing a generation of diverse, talented scholars. Here, a group of San Diego IRACDA postdoctoral scholars reflects on these issues and discusses recommendations to enhance the retention of UR scientists to avoid a "lost generation" of promising UR faculty scholars.

Understanding Student Preferences in the Selection of a Graduate Allied Health Program: A Conjoint Analysis Study.

ISSUE: As the healthcare landscape rapidly changes, graduate allied health programs must position themselves to educate the next generation of healthcare professionals in a highly competitive landscape. No studies have directly measured the relative importance of attributes in program selection by prospective healthcare students. METHODS: We surveyed graduate healthcare management program applicants in the 2018 admissions cycle (n=512) to determine which attributes were most important in program choice. We utilized conjoint analysis to estimate utilities and importance scores of six attributes: program ranking, cost, work experience, geography, distance to home, and salary. We then conducted a market simulation to predict relative market share of academic programs. OUTCOMES: The most important attribute to prospective students was the projected starting salary, with US News and World Report ranking and tuition cost the second and third most important attributes, respectively. Each attribute was relatively inelastic respective to tuition cost. CONCLUSION: While future leaders placed the most value on earnings when selecting a program, they also valued rankings and cost. By focusing on these factors, programs can target their marketing efforts to recruit the best potential future healthcare leaders, while this method can be replicated to gauge the most important relative attributes for a variety of healthcare professions.

Monetary and Nonmonetary Costs and Benefits of a Public Health Master's Degree in the 21st Century.

As postsecondary tuition and debt levels continue to rise, the value proposition of higher education has been increasingly called into question by the popular media and the general public. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics now show early career earnings and debt, by program, for thousands of institutions across the United States. This comes at an inflection point for public health education-master's degrees have seen 20 years of growth, but forecasts now call for, at best, stagnation.Forces inside and outside the field of public health are shifting supply and demand for public health master's degrees. We discuss these forces and identify potential monetary and nonmonetary costs and benefits of these degrees.Overall, we found a net benefit in career outcomes associated with a public health master's degree, although it is clear that some other master's degrees likely offer greater lifetime earning potentials or lower lifetime debt associated with degree attainment. We outline the issues academic public health must engage in to successfully attract and train the next generation of public health graduates.

Importancia del conocimiento del costo para el Estomatólogo General Integral / Importance of cost awareness for the Integral General Stomatologist

Se realizó un estudio descriptivo transversal con el propósito de conocer el nivel de conocimiento acerca del costo-beneficio, costo- efectividad, costo-utilidad de la especialidad de Estomatología, en residentes de dicha especialidad en la provincia Guantánamo, durante el primer trimestre del año 2017. El universo quedó constituido por 76 residentes, a los que se les aplicó una encuesta, con el objetivo de obtener un diagnóstico acerca del tema y trazar estrategias de trabajo para eliminar las deficiencias identificadas. Entre los resultados se encontró: mayor el número de residentes femeninas, en el grupo de 23-27 años se concentró el conocimiento superior sobre el tema. Las conclusiones indicaron que en la población estudiada existe desconocimiento acerca del costo y necesidad de capacitarlos(AU)

A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out due to the following problem: What is the knowledge about cost / benefit, cost /effectiveness, cost / utility, of residents of the specialty of General Intensive Stomatology (EGI) in Guantanamo province during the first quarter of 2017? The universe was constituted by 76 residents, who were surveyed, with the objective of obtaining a diagnosis on the subject and drawing up work strategies to eliminate, identified deficiencies. Among the results was found: greater the number of female residents, in the group of (23-27) concentrated the superior knowledge on the subject. The conclusions indicated that in the studied population, there is a lack of knowledge about the cost and the need to train them(AU)

National Survey on Doctoral-Level Education in Health Information Management: Perceptions and Rationale.

Objective: The purpose of this survey was to understand the perceptions and educational goals of the health information management (HIM) workforce in regard to pursuing doctoral-level degrees. Method: Survey data were collected from members of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) to gain further insight into their interest in pursuing a doctoral degree, their reasons for obtaining such a degree, their methods of learning, and their financial support for an advanced degree. Descriptive characteristics were collected from AHIMA profile information. Results: A total of 13,020 surveys were electronically sent to selected AHIMA members, of which 1,453 were returned, for an 11 percent response rate. Of the 651 respondents who indicated that they were interested in obtaining a doctoral-level degree, close to half would like to start their doctoral-level study in the next one to five years. Discussion: This research points to recommendations for efforts to increase student funding opportunities, to increase the number of accredited HIM schools/programs, to create opportunities for doctoral-level study in HIM, to offer options for blended online learning, and to increase the number of doctorally prepared and qualified HIM faculty.