Background: Modern healthcare’s dynamic climate demands provider flexibility and advanced preparation. To meet these demands, traditional and non-traditional students alike are pursuing post-baccalaureate and master’s degree programs as preparation pathways for professional degree programs. Recognizing the challenges in transitioning to graduate healthcare education pace, volume, and rigor, the Master of Health Sciences (MHS) program at Meharry Medical College launched The Meharry Masterclass, a preparatory bootcamp for incoming students. This initiative was designed to enhance academic readiness, confidence, and equitable success by bridging knowledge gaps and equipping students with essential tools for academic success. The bootcamp offered a structured review of foundational science concepts, critical thinking, problem-solving, study and test-taking strategies, and guidance for managing high-volume learning environments. These resources were provided to ease the transition into graduate -level coursework and improve student outcomes.Methods: Offered at no cost and voluntarily, all incoming MHS students (n=309) were invited to participate. The bootcamp was provided over the two weeks before classes started. Anonymous pre-bootcamp surveys (n=100) assessed confidence in study skills, test-taking strategies, and foundational science knowledge on a 5-point Likert scale. Anonymous post-bootcamp surveys (n=34) measured perceived gains in readiness, clarity of graduate-level expectations, and satisfaction with bootcamp structure and delivery. A non-anonymous post-test self-reflection assessment was administered between the first and second course examinations (n=16) and were categorized by incoming academic profile (undergraduate GPA 3.5) to gauge how learners with different academic starting points applied bootcamp strategies and to explore whether specific subgroups benefited differently from the skills emphasized during the program.Results: Baseline confidence ranged from 2.1 to 3.1 across domains on the 1-5 scale. In the post-bootcamp survey, 69% of participants reported increased confidence in their ability to manage graduate -level expectations. Program organization and communication were rated at 4±1 on average. Most (68%) of respondents described the pacing as just right. GPA-stratified reflections indicated that learners across all academic backgrounds used bootcamp strategies to support early performance improvements. In the post-test self-reflection assessment, students entering the programcoming in with GPAs 3.5 emphasized improvements in efficiency and conceptual integration.Conclusion: The MHS bootcamp effectively strengthened learner confidence and preparedness for the demands of graduate biomedical education. The combined focus on foundational knowledge, higher-order cognitive skills, and practical learning strategies provided meaningful benefits to students with varied educational backgrounds. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.
Battle et al. (Fri,) studied this question.