Latino Doctor Shortage

Latino Doctor Shortage
News Channel 10, Jun 12, 2009

Foster parent Doris Mejia says many of her latino friends hate going to the doctor becausewhen they ask questions to the doctor and they find it hard to make themselves understood.

She'd like to see more latinos work in medicine but right now less than 8 percent of medical students have hispanic heritage.

Texas Tech's Medical School is working on that by reaching out to latino organizations, hiring spanish speaking faculty and making contact with minorities in high school. All to let latinos know "that there are open arms and we want a diverse class. And that we want to provide the best care we can to all of our population,'' Regional Dean Richard Jordan said.

Michael Caglia is a latino student at Tech. He says the recruitment efforts need to start earlier.

"A lot of them have no idea how to apply to college and think that money is always an issue ... There needs to be education on how to get educated," he said.

Mejia doesn't care how it gets done, she just hopes there's more latino doctors before it's too late for one of her friends.