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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing |
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Back to Annual Meeting
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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing |
José Ramón Fernández-Peña, MD, MPA, Health Education, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, HSS_301, San Francisco, CA 94132 and Nancy Mullenax, PhD, San Francisco Welcome Back Center, 1860 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA 94117, 415-561-1833, nmullena@ccsf.edu.
According to the Sullivan Commission, “the lack of minority health professionals is compounding the nation's persistent racial and ethnic health disparities.” To address this issue it is imperative to infuse the health workforce with a cadre of workers who speak the languages and understand the cultures of the patient populations being served. This disparity between the demographic profile of the health workforce and the general population is acutely evident in California where, for example, 31% of the population is Latino while only 4% of the nurses, 4% of the physicians, and 6% of the dentists are Latinos. The Welcome Back Initiative has developed a model to assist immigrant health professionals already living in the U.S. re-enter the health workforce. This model of service builds on community assets to achieve a higher degree of social capital among immigrant populations. The model is currently in operation at three sites in California and a fourth one in Boston. The project serves the health sector by increasing the number of licensed and culturally diverse health professionals, thus enriching healthcare institutions throughout the state and nation. It benefits the community at large by increasing diversity in the health workforce, hence, improving access to health services. Finally, the program helps reduce professional shortages throughout the health sector, with a strong commitment to supporting the staffing needs of the safety net. To date, the Initiative has returned over 700 individuals to the health workforce. This session will discuss the lessons learned after 4 years of operation.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to
Keywords: Health Workers Training, Immigrants
Related Web page: www.e-welcomeback.org
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Not Answered
The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA