Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP) is a summer enrichment program to academically and professionally develop underrepresented students.
The LSUHSC-New Orleans, Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Public Health Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP) is a free summer enrichment program supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The program is designed to improve access to information and resources for college students attending either four-year or community college institutions, who are interested in the health professions. The goal of SHPEP is to support the academic and career development of underrepresented/underserved students in the health professions, thereby preparing them for a successful application and matriculation to health professions schools. Students of focus include, but are not limited to, individuals who identify as African American/Black, Native American/American Indian, Alaska Native, and Hispanic/Latino, and/or who are from communities of socioeconomic and educational disadvantage. Formerly known as the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program (SMDEP), the SHPEP was expanded in 2016 to include a broader scope of health professions.
The Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP) at LSUHSC-New Orleans is strongly committed to increasing the number of students from underrepresented/underserved, rural, and/or disadvantaged backgrounds who are skilled, confident, and motivated to remain and succeed in challenging academic programs/majors that are designed to support health sciences careers. Therefore, our program will incorporate our Health Sciences Center’s Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Public Health, with support from our Center for Interprofessional Education & Collaborative Practice (CIPECP) and our HBCU partner Xavier University at Louisiana, College of Pharmacy. The skills that will be addressed support the development of inter/intrapersonal, critical thinking, and reasoning competencies, as well as science competencies as defined by the AAMC, but are also relevant to all health professions disciplines. Our program content is crafted around academic enrichment in selected gateway undergraduate basic science and quantitative courses, such as Organic Chemistry, Physics, Anatomy & Physiology, Microbiology, and the Introduction to Biostatistics & Epidemiology, as well as topics such as the Introduction to Public Health and Health Policy. Additionally, our program provides professionalism skills and knowledge development in areas of cultural competency, health equity, and National Program Office (NPO)-directed professional careers’ financial planning, as well as social determinants of health, medical ethics, and patient quality initiatives.
