- Complete the Curriculum: Canvas web modules
- Learn about the issues surrounding healthcare for under-resourced and marginalized patients on our Canvas page (UW NetID required to complete assignments and quizzes).
- Who Are the Underserved? is required and is a prerequisite for the other modules. Race and Biology is required for E-23s and beyond and strongly recommended for all students.
- Complete a minimum of 10 modules.
- Live modules (events) are offered two to three times per year, and attendance at these modules — in real time — counts toward the ten required modules. Watching the recording after the event does not count toward the 10 required modules. Thank you!
- Maintain a Mentorship Relationship: longitudinal mentorship with an Underserved Pathway mentor
- Your mentor is a physician or other healthcare professional — see mentor criteria.
- Required: One meeting per quarter or a minimum of four meetings per year until you graduate.
- Meetings can occur via in-person, phone, web-based video conferencing, or email.
- Be sure to check out the UP Guide to Mentorship and the UP Mentoring Roadmap!
- Complete an Underserved-Focus Scholarly Project
- III projects completed during RUOP, GHIP and Medical Student Addiction Research Training Program (MedStAR) automatically qualify — no pre-approval by the UP Team needed.
- Some students fulfill this requirement with a health equity advocacy project and adjacent paper.
- If you are not doing RUOP, GHIP, or MedStAR, your scholarly project for UP requires pre-approval by the UP team as well as final approval once the poster/paper/project is complete. Please contact upath@uw.edu as soon as possible to discuss how you will satisfy this requirement. See relevant deadlines.
- Note for E-19 and E-20 students: this requirement was waived for you. If you completed an underserved-focus scholarly project anyway, your UP graduation certificate will include “with scholarship.”
- Complete Foundations Phase clinical experience in underserved settings
- Complete RUOP, GHIP, Primary Care Practicum (PCP), or a preclinical preceptorship in an underserved setting.
- If you plan to fulfill this requirement with your PCP, be sure to tell your PCP coordinator that you’d like to be placed in an underserved and/or rural setting to fulfill your Underserved Pathway requirement.
- We know you don’t have ultimate control over where you have these school experiences. If you are not able to complete one of the above, then please complete an additional two weeks (four credits) of clinical clerkship in an underserved setting (in addition to clinical courses below) in your 3rd and 4th years.
- Expand your knowledge: non-clinical electives
- Two credits focusing on underserved populations or issues.
- We recommend completing these credits during your 2nd or 3rd quarters of MS1 year.
- Get hands-on experience in clinical courses: clerkships in Patient Care and Explore and Focus Phases
- 12 credits (or six weeks) of clinical courses in underserved setting or serving vulnerable population(s).
- All WRITE rotations count for Pathway credit.
- Health-related community service, advocacy, and engagement
- 24 hours completed in an underserved setting.
- Must be related to health or health equity.
Current students in the Underserved Pathway are responsible for tracking their progress through the requirements on the UP Tracker page.
Can’t find what you’re looking for? Contact the Program Manager of the Underserved Pathway at upath@uw.edu for help!