As someone who suffered from chronic strep throat infections, Central Valley resident Vanessa Mora needed to go the doctor a lot as a kid.
In the rural agricultural community of Fowler, California, it could take weeks to get an appointment. Medical visits involved a long drive, a long wait, a huge medical bill, or all three.
The program is looking to recruit medical students who want to return home to serve the area where they grew up โ providing much-needed care to families in the region. Among the fastest growing, poorest and least healthy regions of California, the San Joaquin Valley also has the lowest number of doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners per , people of any region in California. An added concern: Roughly 30 percent of this already stretched workforce is nearing the age of retirement.
The shortage of medical care providers constitutes its own health care emergency, said Dr. Katherine Flores, a family medicine physician in Fresno. As a child, Flores grew up in a family of migrant workers, living in communal housing and traveling to follow the harvests. Lack of access is just the start. Those without paid time off or their own transportation cannot easily get to a health care provider, be it for preventive or acute care.
We need doctors who understand it. More than 50 medical school graduates have completed the program, many of whom are now working in the Valley as residents or fully licensed physicians. Along with having grown up in the community, many are native Spanish speakers, a huge benefit in a community where Spanish is often the primary language. It also helps that Mora can relate to their concerns: Her own father, a welder, was often injured on the job and never saw the doctor, even when he lost part of his finger.
