May the Force Be With You: Initiatives to Revitalize and Sustain the Pediatric Workforce

Chair(s)

• 

  Kenya McNeal-Trice, MD (she/her/hers)

  Professor of Pediatrics, Senior Vice Chair of Education
  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

National organizations, such as the AAMC, AMA and NIH, have been sounding the alarm for many years of the rapidly approaching physician workforce shortage. Several national initiatives have been implemented over the past 20 years to address physician shortages including the opening of new medical schools, increasing class sizes, and HRSA funding of residency training positions in underserved areas. Despite these initiatives, the decline in the pediatric physician workforce is accelerating beyond that of other specialties. Multiple factors further amplify the decline in the pediatric physician workforce as compared to other specialties, including fewer pediatric educators and preceptors within undergraduate medical education (UME), lower exposure to pediatric curricula in UME, educational loan debt, length of subspecialty training and lower compensation in practice. Many medical schools are reporting lower numbers of students entering pediatrics. The Match Week in March of 2024 bore witness to only 91.8% of pediatric residency slots filling prior to the supplemental phase of the match.

This panel is comprised of members of the National Association of Distinguished Educators in Pediatrics. Panelists represent multiple clinical subspecialties and expertise within clinical practice, education, research, and public policy. The panel will present innovative and successful programming prioritizing multiple access points in the pathways to pediatric medical education, training, practice, research and leadership. The session will emphasize the vital importance of collaboration across health systems, academic centers, communities, and government entities to effectively address the decline in the pediatric physician workforce and Implement sustainable solutions.

Presentations:

• 1:00pm – 1:10pm HST

  May the Workforce Be with You: Initiatives to Revitalize and Sustain the Pediatric Workforce
  

  Speaker: Kenya McNeal-Trice, MD (she/her/hers) – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 1:10pm – 1:22pm HST

  Star Wars – a New Hope: Pathway Programming to Support Successful Recruitment and admissions into Medical School
  

  Speaker: April Buchanan, MD (she/her/hers) – University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville
• 1:22pm – 1:34pm HST

  The Empire Strikes Back: Prioritizing Pediatric Curricula, Mentoring, and Advising Within UME
  

  Speaker: Priyanka Rao, MD (she/her/hers) – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
• 1:34pm – 1:46pm HST

  Return of the Jedi: Identification, Development, and Sustainability of Pediatric Preceptors in Clinical Settings
  

  Speaker: Emma Omoruyi, MD, MPH – John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Medical School part of UTHealth at Houston
• 1:46pm – 1:52pm HST

  The Force Awakens: Recruitment, Retention, and Well-being of Pediatric Resident and Fellowship Trainees
  

  Speaker: Su-Ting T. Li, MD, MPH (she/her/hers) – University of California Davis
• 1:52pm – 1:58pm HST

  The Force Awakens: Recruitment, Retention, and Well-being of Pediatric Resident and Fellowship Trainees
  

  Speaker: Dewesh Agrawal, MD (he/him/his) – Professor of Pediatrics & Emergency Medicine, Children's National Hospital
• 1:58pm – 2:04pm HST

  The Rise of Skywalker: Developing Faculty to Thrive in Academic and Research Settings
  

  Speaker: Louis Halamek, MD – Stanford University School of Medicine
• 2:04pm – 2:10pm HST

  The Rise of Skywalker: developing Faculty to Thrive in Academic and Research Settings
  

  Speaker: Jennifer L. Trainor, MD (she/her/hers) – Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago