Resources and Opportunities for Hispanic Youth to Study Medicine in California | Navigation 34 Los Angeles KMEX

California has The shortage of doctors and nurses who speak Spanish, It is a situation that directly affects millions of Hispanics across the state. To fill this gap, more young Latinos need to study medicine and nursing. Here we present some Resources and Opportunities to enter these professions.

Hispanics make up 40% of the population in California, but only 6% of doctors speak Spanish. Additionally, only 11% of the state’s medical graduates are Hispanic each year, according to a study by Latin Public Policy Initiative (LPPI) from the University of California.

The lack of medical staff who can communicate directly with patients in their mother tongue has severe consequences, ranging from a lack of information to structural discrimination in accessing critical health services. According to the LPPI study, if the number of medical students graduating each year maintains the current average, it will take 500 years to bridge the gap.

Melissa Gonzalez, a second-year medical student at the University of Southern California, stresses that a lack of information and economic barriers can be a barrier to encouraging more young people to study the profession. “There is a shortage of doctors because sometimes we doubt we can get here, We don’t look at other Latino doctors who are like us, but if we don’t keep fighting, we won’t get there.”

There are many resources available for Hispanics to study medicine and nursing in California. These are some of the programs you can apply to for partial or full scholarships at different universities in the state.

University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine – Prime United States