Have each other's back: A peer mentorship framework for ethnically underrepresented in medicine (URiM) residents

With an increasingly diverse patient population, efforts to enhance the ethnic and racial representation of the surgeon workforce are critically important. Unfortunately, ethnic representation in academic surgery is regressively disproportionate with Black and Latino physicians representing 4.7% and 3.1% of surgical residents and 2.9% and 5.6% of surgical faculty, respectively. 1 Butler P.D. Longaker M.T. Britt L.D. Major deficit in the number of underrepresented minority academic surgeons persists. Ann Surg. 2008 Nov; 248 (PMID: 18948795): 704-711https://doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0b013e31817f2c30 Crossref PubMed Scopus (108) Google Scholar Recognizing that not all US minority groups are underrepresented in the physician workforce, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) coined the terminology ethnically underrepresented in medicine (URiM), amplifying the lack of physicians from Black, Latino, and indigenous backgrounds. 2 Association of American Medical CollegesUnderrepresented in medicine definition. https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/urm/Date accessed: March 25, 2023 Google Scholar The historical void of ethnically diverse provider representation has been implicated in suboptimal patient-provider interactions. For example, Black patients who reported provider racial discordance, rated their clinical experiences as poorer in communication quality, information-giving, and participatory decision making as compared to White patients with racially concordant providers. 3 Shen M.J. Peterson E.B. Costas-Muñiz R. et al. The effects of race and racial concordance on patient-physician communication: a systematic review of the literature. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2018 Feb; 5 (Epub 2017 Mar 8. PMID: 28275996; PMCID: PMC5591056): 117-140https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-017-0350-4 Crossref PubMed Scopus (411) Google Scholar Increasing URiM surgeon prevalence bolsters culturally sensitive healthcare, invigorates investigative studies highlighting minority specific health care needs, and provides culturally concordant role models and mentors to train future generations. 1 Butler P.D. Longaker M.T. Britt L.D. Major deficit in the number of underrepresented minority academic surgeons persists. Ann Surg. 2008 Nov; 248 (PMID: 18948795): 704-711https://doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0b013e31817f2c30 Crossref PubMed Scopus (108) Google Scholar ,3 Shen M.J. Peterson E.B. Costas-Muñiz R. et al. The effects of race and racial concordance on patient-physician communication: a systematic review of the literature. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2018 Feb; 5 (Epub 2017 Mar 8. PMID: 28275996; PMCID: PMC5591056): 117-140https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-017-0350-4 Crossref PubMed Scopus (411) Google Scholar (see Fig. 1)