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Addressing Hispanic Underrepresentation in the Health Professions

Policy Date: 1/1/1996
Policy Number: 9613

The American Public Health Association,
Recognizing that Hispanics are underrepresented in the health professions both in enrollment in training and education programs as well as in the numbers of practitioners;1-3 and
Recognizing that the Hispanic population in the United States is projected to be the largest minority population by the year 2010 with much of that growth attributed to legal immigration;4 and
Noting that the recent release of reports by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) on the US physician supply and the Pew Health Professions Commission on examining critical issues regarding the future of the health professions have received noticeable media attention;5,6 and
Observing that the media, being given these reports, focuses attention, and thus public perceptions, only on the issue of the surplus of health professionals, and not on other critical recommendations of these reports;7 and
Further, observing that the newspaper articles about these reports continue to emphasize that the increase of international medical graduates is a major factor affecting the surplus of US physicians and, by implication, other health professionals;7 and
Agreeing with the recommendations of these reports on the need for training students that represent the rich ethnic diversity of this society as well as being culturally sensitive to ensure understanding and appreciation of such diversity; and
Expressing concern with inaccurate portrayals of the Hispanic community in the media;8
Denouncing discrimination against foreign-born Hispanics and strongly advocating increased professional development for both foreign-born and US-born Hispanic health care workers;4-6 and
Understanding that there is a legitimate concern about more than adequate numbers of physicians and other health professionals within the US health care systems that may not be well distributed geographically, by specialty, and/or demographically;5,6,9 yet
Realizing that this legitimate concern could set up barriers to achieving the rich ethnic diversity noted above by leading to calls for reduction in training slots and/or numbers of graduates without clear caveats about ensuring increased Hispanic participation within the health professions, including schools of public health;5-7,10 and
Concluding that this concern is antithetical to the purposes of the IOM and Pew reports and past policies of the Association;10 therefore,
1. Urges health professional educational institutions to use the recommendations of these public reports as a basis for targeted actions in recruiting, training, and retaining Hispanics to be leaders in their fields. Urges those institutions to recruit Hispanics as students and faculty and to develop curricula that address Hispanic health issues;
2. Urges health professionals to work with the media to provide accurate quantitative information and greater emphasis on the issues of underrepresented populations as noted in the IOM and Pew reports and on the consequences of not having such diverse populations represented in the health professions work force; and
3. Encourages decision makers at the national, state, and local levels to ensure adequate representation of Hispanic populations in the supply of health professionals.

References


  1. Council on Graduate Medical Education. Improving Access to Health Care Through Physician Workforce Reform: Directions for the 21st Century. 3rd report. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration; October 1992.

  2. Council on Graduate Medical Education. Recommendations to Improve Access to Health Care Through Physician Workforce Reform. 4th report to Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration; January 1994.

  3. Institute of Medicine. Balancing the Scales of Opportunity: Ensuring Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Health Professions. Lewin ME, Rice B, eds. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 1994.

  4. US Dept of Health and Human Services. TODOS Report: One Voice, One Vision-Recommendations to the Surgeon General to Improve Hispanic/Latino Health. Washington, DC: Office of the Surgeon General; 1993.

  5. Institute of Medicine. The Nation's Physician Workforce. Lohr KN, Vanselow NA, Detmer DE, eds. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1996.

  6. Pew Health Professions Commission. Critical Challenges: Revitalizing the Health Professions for the Twenty-first Century. 3rd report. San Francisco, CA: UCSF Center for the Health Professions; 1995.

  7. Leary WE. With doctor surplus, US is urged to cut residency training. New York Times. January 24, 1996.

  8. Smith T. Ethnic Images. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research Center; 1990.

  9. Tarlov AR. Estimating physician workforce requirements: the devil is in the assumptions. JAMA. 1995:274:1558-1560.

  10. APHA resolution No. 8408: Underrepresentation of Hispanics in US Schools of Public Health. APHA Public Policy Statements, 1948 to Present, Cumulative. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association; current volume.

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