As a minority faculty member I feel compelled to add to the story.  As
stated, the problem is complex.  Some institutions have created
mentoring programs, and some, like ours, have been centers of excellence
for the mentoring, recruitment, development and promotion of minority
students, residents, and faculty members.  I am proud to be the result
of the first Hispanic Center of Excellence class of New Jersey Medical
School.  I was fortunate to have excellent mentorship, both minority and
non minority.  As a career, I chose internal medicine and decided early
on to stay in the community, to care for my own, and to see more
students, like me, interested in science and medicine, that can benefit
from my experience.

I agree that we need to start at an earlier age, and that minority
mentors should be doing the mentoring.  Our program starts as early as
middle school.  However, this is not the only solution to the problem.


The complexity starts with unequal education particularly in areas
where minority populations are the majority, poor financial incentives,
the beliefs of families that if you are poor you have no access to
higher education (a truth to some extent), the socialization of
education at the university level, the competition of graduate and
medical schools for those minority students that excel, etc, etc....

With regards to the mentoring, in an academic institution, the minority
faculty find ourselves in the same complex environment:  we are expected
to be part of committees, take administrative roles and teach.  On one
end institutions need diversify their committees to be politically
correct; on the other hand, we as minorities feel responsible to
understand and be part of the administrative process, or accept the
consequences of not being there.   We are also expected to take care of
patients that look like us.  At the same time, we need to find ways to
protect our time,  continue our career paths, excel in our chosen
fields, and achieve our own personal goals.  Not an easy task.  This is
in part why after so many years many minority and women faculty find
themselves in the same starting point with minimal advancement, because
the balance is not there.  Minority faculty should not be the core of
mentoring programs, mentoring should come from multiple levels, and
multiple individuals, with the vision to change the future of the
healthcare delivery system.




Ana Natale-Pereira, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Academic Medicine, Geriatrics, and Community Programs
Medical Director
Focus Community Health Center
449 Broad Street
Newark, New Jersey 07102
973-972-0980
973-972-0984 Fax

[log in to unmask]




>>> [log in to unmask] 9/22/2004 9:52:12 AM >>>
The problem is greater and more complex than simply offering
scholarships.
Several years ago when I was on a faculty committee we  recruited a few
well
qualified minority students by offering full scholarships  with
stipends for
the Pennsylvania College of Podiatric Medicine.  We lost  these
students when
another Medical School outbid us.  As part of our  outreach program we
searched
and could not find other qualified students.

Over the years I have been involved with many groups trying to overcome
 this
problem by developing mentoring programs.  The difficulty is that the
mentoring program MUST be started in grade school and continued through
graduate
school.  When you start recruiting at high school or later level the
student
has already established a course and is reluctant to go back to make up
 missed
science or other needed curriculum.  It is my belief that the that
the
solution to the problem is to have mentoring programs in place with
minority
mentors.  This requires a cooperative program involving primary school
systems,
secondary schools, colleges and graduate or professional schools.   The
minority
communities must be involved from the beginning. It requires strong
commitment from the mentor and involvement of the families.

Marvin J. Rubin DPM

-------------------
Problems/Questions? Send it to Listserv owner: [log in to unmask]


To unsubscribe, send the following message in the text section -- NOT the subject header --  to [log in to unmask]
SIGNOFF SDOH

DO NOT SEND IT BY HITTING THE REPLY BUTTON. THIS SENDS THE MESSAGE TO THE ENTIRE LISTSERV AND STILL DOES NOT REMOVE YOU.

To subscribe to the SDOH list, send the following message to [log in to unmask] in the text section, NOT in the subject header.
SUBSCRIBE SDOH yourfirstname yourlastname

To post a message to all 1000+ subscribers, send it to [log in to unmask]
Include in the Subject, its content, and location and date, if relevant.

For a list of SDOH members, send a request to [log in to unmask]

To receive messages only once a day, send the following message to [log in to unmask]
SET SDOH DIGEST

To view the SDOH archives, go to: http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/sdoh.html