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Compassionate Off-Ramps: The Availability of Terminal Master's Degrees in US Medical Schools

Medical students who underperform or find they are not a “good fit” for medicine have limited options. A terminal master's degree represents an exit alternative that recognizes students’ completed coursework and acknowledges their commitment to the medical sciences. Although medical educators h...

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Autores principales: Petersen, Kristina H, Jain, Neera R, Case, Ben, Jain, Sharad, Solomon, Sarah L, Meeks, Lisa M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10017952/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36936180
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23821205231164022
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author Petersen, Kristina H
Jain, Neera R
Case, Ben
Jain, Sharad
Solomon, Sarah L
Meeks, Lisa M
author_facet Petersen, Kristina H
Jain, Neera R
Case, Ben
Jain, Sharad
Solomon, Sarah L
Meeks, Lisa M
author_sort Petersen, Kristina H
collection PubMed
description Medical students who underperform or find they are not a “good fit” for medicine have limited options. A terminal master's degree represents an exit alternative that recognizes students’ completed coursework and acknowledges their commitment to the medical sciences. Although medical educators have called for the creation of such programs, termed “compassionate off-ramps,” the prevalence of degree offerings in US programs is unknown. In the fall of 2020, a survey was sent to Student Affairs Deans at 141 LCME-accredited MD programs; 73 institutions responded (52%). Terminal master's degrees were offered by 19% of respondent institutions (n = 13). While 85% of those without a terminal master's (n = 48) endorsed degree benefits, only 36% (n = 21) had plans to create the degree. This study demonstrates that few US medical schools offer a terminal master's degree, leaving students who exit medicine with high levels of debt without an avenue for a degree to support employment or future academic pursuits. The authors identify implications for students, particularly those who are at a higher risk of failing Step 1, such as students who are underrepresented in medicine, socioeconomically disadvantaged, or who have a disability and are unaccommodated. Potential barriers to terminal master's program creation are identified and mitigating strategies are recommended.
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spelling pubmed-100179522023-03-17 Compassionate Off-Ramps: The Availability of Terminal Master's Degrees in US Medical Schools Petersen, Kristina H Jain, Neera R Case, Ben Jain, Sharad Solomon, Sarah L Meeks, Lisa M J Med Educ Curric Dev Original Research Article Medical students who underperform or find they are not a “good fit” for medicine have limited options. A terminal master's degree represents an exit alternative that recognizes students’ completed coursework and acknowledges their commitment to the medical sciences. Although medical educators have called for the creation of such programs, termed “compassionate off-ramps,” the prevalence of degree offerings in US programs is unknown. In the fall of 2020, a survey was sent to Student Affairs Deans at 141 LCME-accredited MD programs; 73 institutions responded (52%). Terminal master's degrees were offered by 19% of respondent institutions (n = 13). While 85% of those without a terminal master's (n = 48) endorsed degree benefits, only 36% (n = 21) had plans to create the degree. This study demonstrates that few US medical schools offer a terminal master's degree, leaving students who exit medicine with high levels of debt without an avenue for a degree to support employment or future academic pursuits. The authors identify implications for students, particularly those who are at a higher risk of failing Step 1, such as students who are underrepresented in medicine, socioeconomically disadvantaged, or who have a disability and are unaccommodated. Potential barriers to terminal master's program creation are identified and mitigating strategies are recommended. SAGE Publications 2023-03-14 /pmc/articles/PMC10017952/ /pubmed/36936180 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23821205231164022 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Research Article
Petersen, Kristina H
Jain, Neera R
Case, Ben
Jain, Sharad
Solomon, Sarah L
Meeks, Lisa M
Compassionate Off-Ramps: The Availability of Terminal Master's Degrees in US Medical Schools
title Compassionate Off-Ramps: The Availability of Terminal Master's Degrees in US Medical Schools
title_full Compassionate Off-Ramps: The Availability of Terminal Master's Degrees in US Medical Schools
title_fullStr Compassionate Off-Ramps: The Availability of Terminal Master's Degrees in US Medical Schools
title_full_unstemmed Compassionate Off-Ramps: The Availability of Terminal Master's Degrees in US Medical Schools
title_short Compassionate Off-Ramps: The Availability of Terminal Master's Degrees in US Medical Schools
title_sort compassionate off-ramps: the availability of terminal master's degrees in us medical schools
topic Original Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10017952/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36936180
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23821205231164022
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