Number of Latinos in the medical field in the United States. However, this fact is more apparent when it comes to women.
“I remember from a young age they never told me you could become a doctor. ‘Why don’t you try to become a nurse?'” recalls Dr. Lourdes Adam, who works at Altamed PACE.
They were invisible rules but with sexual implications.
A pair of friends known as the “Foos in Medicine” are trying to inspire the next generation of Latino doctors. Reported by Enrique Shipra.
“They don’t let us dream,” says Dr. Adam.
According to a recent study by the University of California, Latinas make up only 2% of doctors in the United States.
“[Hay que] “Change that system from saying, because you’re a woman, and you’re going to have kids, we’re not going to invest in you,” says study co-author Dr. Serra Santizo-Greenwood. “Because it could be an investment that brings us nothing.”
A woman’s first steps are those that will determine her future
“If there is a young girl in the platform who wants to become a doctor, the education system should embrace those opportunities because that is where she is empowered,” says Dr. Santizo Greenwood.
But there are young Latina women seeking to break down these barriers, like Urania Argueta Raya, who remembers the hardships her mother and grandmother faced.
“Her doctors didn’t speak the same language as her,” says Argueta Raya, who studies medicine at UCLA. “They gave her instructions and she didn’t know how to read those instructions.”
Others get motivated to succeed at home, like Laura Solano. Her father’s example is the driving force that keeps her in her goals.
Organizations like Doctor Mentors mentor the next generation of healthcare professionals.
“He’s already 65 years old, and he’s still working. He gets up as early as 5 a.m., and he never complains,” Solano says.
“When something is difficult, I remember it. “I shouldn’t complain, I have the honor of being here to study.”
With this effort, it is getting a little closer to the goal of ending the shortage of Latino doctors soon.
“There are many peasant workers, including my father, uncles, [que] “They can never take time off work to go to the doctor,” says Lucia Diaz, a medical student at UCLA.
Bernard G. Tyson College of Medicine provides the opportunity to study medicine for free to students who qualify for its program.
Like Dr. Adam, the three students plan to return to their communities to pursue their careers. But, above all, to be a role model for other girls.
“The three of us will dedicate ourselves to making the path easier for girls coming up in the next generation, to have more Latina doctors,” says Argueta Raya.
According to the study, Latinas take on more responsibilities at home, which hinders their dream of becoming doctors. In addition, lack of financial aid and lack of mentors also become barriers.
