Unpublished PhD thesis, Ohio University, 2021/08, 258, type of study: ,qs,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Free full text   (https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_olink/r/1501/10?clear=10&p10_accession_num=ohiou1627574067134105)

Keywords:

medical students [693]
osteopathic medicine [2108]
programs [139]
qualitative study [290]
rural healthcare [29]
underserved areas [16]
USA [1751]

Abstract:

This dissertation explores medical students’ emerging professional identities as they learn to work with rural and urban underserved communities. Utilizing interpretive and creative ethnographic research practices, I worked with the Rural and Urban Scholars Pathways (RUSP) program, a place-based, narrative focused co-curricular within the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine aimed at preparing doctors for careers in underserved medicine. Guided by narrative and poststructural feminist sensibilities, I explored RUSP activities and gathered student experiences within the program over the course of 18 months. During this time, I collected observational data at cultural immersion experiences and Clinical Jazz sessions, co-facilitated a summer session of the Open Book Project elective, and conducted 27 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with RUSP students and faculty. This project was informed by four research questions: How do students construct a sense of self and others through RUSP? How is underserved medical care constructed by RUSP? What normative values, habits, and rituals are developed through RUSP? What is the role of narrative pedagogy in preparing future physicians for medically underserved care? I present my analysis in chapters three, four, and five. In chapter three, I highlight five themes that arose from my observational data and interviews with medical students and faculty as they articulated what it means to practice medicine in an underserved setting. In chapter four, I offer two collections of poetic representations conveying what it means, “to be a doctor”. In chapter five, I contribute a series of lesson plans based on my fieldwork and interviews to be incorporated in the Open Book Project elective. Finally, in chapter six, I conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications as well as future directions.