вЂњThese minority providers are more likely to have a higher degree of cultural competence and understanding of where patients are coming from and what their lived experiences are.вЂќ Joy Jones, Director of NMF Scholarships and Programs.

We know that underrepresented minority providers are more likely to serve in communities that are underserved by the medical system,вЂќ says Dr. вЂњHaving a diverse healthcare workforce is critical to promoting health equity. In fact, research suggests that by providing black patients with black physicians, the black-white mortality gap could be reduced by 19 percent. Considering that black patients overall have markedly worse health outcomes than white patients, access to black doctors could help improve black patientsвЂ™ care experiences. Black patients are more likely to engage and to consent to preventive services with black physicians than they are when served by non-black physicians. The data backs up the importance of diverse medical providers. I want to leave a positive legacy in the medical field.вЂќ A lot of my family members are afraid to go to the doctor they don't trust doctors because of the long history of problems and inequities in the medical field,вЂќ says Destinee on why sheвЂ™s pursuing a career in medicine. вЂњGrowing up, I know that my family had a lot of different experiences with doctors. Programs like the NMF Primary Care Leadership Program play a key role in encouraging and elevating these diverse candidates who often later give back to their own communities. Patient access to minority healthcare professionals can help address some of these barriers -В but we need more of these diverse providers to enter the medical field. These include a higher likelihood of being uninsured language barriers lack of access to childcare, transportation or time off work cultural differences with providers as well as discrimination within the healthcare system. Minority communities disproportionately face barriers to healthcare. Programs like this are playing an important role in improving representation in medicine and making a real impact in minority patient care. (NMF) Primary Care Leadership Program (PCLP) - an effort co-founded by GE Foundation that aims to improve diversity in medicine and expand access to primary care in underserved communities. Destinee is a scholar in the National Medical Fellowships, Inc. Today, there is an increasing focus in the medical field on closing this diversity gap. Latinos are 18.5 percent of the country, but only 5.8 percent of physicians and 4 percent of nurses. population, they make up only 5 percent of doctors. For example, while African Americans comprise 13.4 percent of the U.S. While there have been slow gains in recent years, the medical community struggles to grow a representative pipeline of doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers from underrepresented minority groups. вЂњWhen I look around,В the vast majority of medical students and the vast majority of doctors don't look anything like me,вЂќ says Destinee Shipley, a first-year medical student at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta and an African American woman.

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