The new Surgeon General is calling for efforts to increase the number of minority physicians. San Antonio’s medical school is on the forefront of the push to get more Hispanics and African Americans to become doctors.
It’s a long road from medical student to doctor. Just ask the 900 students at the U.T. Health Science Center working hard to become physicians. Ronya Emory is in her fourth year with her eye on family practice.
“I knew I always wanted to be a doctor,” Emory said. “I love to serve people and I have a passion for science and medicine. It’s a perfect way to integrate both being a physician who serves the community.”
As an African American, Ronya is the exception rather than the rule. Most of the medical students in the country are white. Roughly 28% of the U.S. population is black or Hispanic, but only 6% of doctors are minorities, a figure that hasn’t changed in a century.
“It’s shocking,” stated Dr. Carlos Jaen, chairman of Family & Community Medicine at UTHSC. “And it’s unacceptable from my perspective.”
Jaen says more minority doctors would translate into better overall care. “You learn deeply about a culture,” he explained, “a learning that goes beyond just knowing the language.”
Jaen said too often, minority high school and college students are told they aren’t medical school material, or that they could never afford it, neither of which is necessarily true.
The U.T. Health Science Center is one of the top three schools in the country for admitting minority students, and still, they only make up 18% of the future physicians who go to school here.
Emory admits her choice has required great commitment. But she’s convinced it will pay off for her and her patients down the road. “Oh, it’s definitely hard,” she commented. “But my grandmother told me a long time ago that anything worth having is hard work.”
Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin says the nation has to get more minorities in medical school or there will be “a growing ethnic and racial disconnect between those who receive care and those who provide care.”
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