Abstract
Introduction
Wilderness medicine is a growing medical subspecialty. The number of associated medical school elective rotations has been expanding. Limited data exist pertaining to medical school elective wilderness medicine rotation student demographic composition. The characteristics of the students who elect to take an elective wilderness medicine rotation need to be better defined to ensure that courses are reaching a diverse, equitable, and inclusive student population.
Objective
We sought to study the demographic composition of students electing to rotate in a unique university wilderness medicine student elective.
Methods
A single public university wilderness medicine elective rotation was chosen for study. The rotation began in 2009 and comprised a biannual 2-wk rotation consisting of a maximum of 15 students per session. A unique institutional review board–approved university deidentified database that linked multiple university student datasets was utilized via a deterministic linkage method. The relevant demographic characteristics were identified and descriptively assessed.
Results
A total of 434 students enrolled during the study period, with 53% males and 47% females. The mean age was 26.4 y (range, 22–42 y). US citizens comprised 97% and foreign citizens 3%; the percentage of the medical student population that had foreign citizenship during the same time period was 2.8%. The rotator’s race was represented as follows (percent student rotators/percent medical student population during the same time period): White (62.0%/49.8%), Asian (10.8%/20.1%), Hispanic (12.7%/9.4%), Black (2.8%/8.1%), multiracial (2.8%/4.1%), or other (8.9%/8.5%).
Conclusions
Wilderness medicine is a growing medical subspecialty with the goal of exposure to a broad student demographic mix. This single-university rotation demonstrated a diverse student population but was overrepresented by White and Hispanic medical students compared to Asian and Black students. As wilderness medicine electives are advertised to medical students, course directors need to ensure that they reach all medical students, especially minority-represented students.
Keywords: student, diverse, wilderness rotation, race, demographic