Role of HBCUs in training African American health professionals

Introduction: African Americans (AAs) have historically been and continue to be underrepresented in many health professions, including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, and public health. This work will discuss the potential role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in efforts to achieve equity in representation of AAs in the health professions. Methods: IPEDS, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System of the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics are sources of data on degrees conferred and employment rates. Results: In 2008, 4.2% of all dental school graduates were AA; it was 6.9% for medical school, 9.6% for registered nurses, 6.7% for pharmacists, and 15.6% for public health. While larger percentages of AA health profession school graduates were from HBCUs (8.23% in public health to 46.23% in pharmacy), only a small percentage of health profession school graduates were from HBCUs (1.37% in medicine to 4.87% in pharmacy). The number of graduates from nursing and public health are skyrocketing, but they are not from HBCUs. Conclusion: Increasing the number of AA health professionals (so that it is proportionate to the percent of AA in the U.S. population) will help to address the ultimate goal: eliminating AA health disparities. To do so, there needs to be better use of HBCUs in training AA health professionals. Strengthening HBCU health profession programs (e.g., improving infrastructure, increasing the number of faculty, increasing community-based research) will increase the representation of AAs in health professions.