Empowering Latinx physicians, medical professionals and medical students through education, advocacy & health policy to support their efforts to eliminate health disparity, promote and optimize health and the quality of life for Latinx in California.
Thanks to a Kaiser Permanente Community Health Grant, awarded to MiMentor in collaboration with Latino Physicians of California, a workshop to bring physician mentors up to speed with the data about the growing and changing populations in California, national data on physician shortages, myths about health outcomes for our communities of color and the current AMCAS data on matriculation of students of color.
The workshop was held last weekend at AltaMed Health Services Administrative offices in the City of Commerce and food provided by AltaMed, lead to its founder and CEO Castulo de la Rocha. When he found out about this unique mentor workshop focused on increasing students Under Represented in Medicine (UIM) he was the first to sign up. There was tremendous interest in the workshop by Kaiser Permanente physicians and Community physicians from Ventura to San Diego.
In all we had 55 Physician attendees and almost half of those attending felt they were ready to start mentoring UIM students currently applying to medical school. The health professionals felt prepared to take the first steps in mentorship because of lectures provided by Dr. David Hayes Bautista, director of the Center for Latino Health and Culture at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Dr. Efrain Talamantes, Associate director for the Center for Reducing Health Disparities and Associate director for the Internal Medicine Residency at the UC Davis School of Medicine and Dr. Margarita Loeza Chief Medical Information Officer at the Venice Family Clinic and a member of the Admission Committee at the UCLA School of Medicine. These three dynamic speakers enlightened the group and introduced concepts and case scenarios to help mentors mentor and sometimes advise students of color.
The participants left with a full understanding of what it will takes for admission into medical school including a timeline, explanation of the new MCAT, interview styles , secondaries and professionalism it takes to successfully complete the expensive journey of applying to medical school in today’s digital age.
This workshop is part of the Mi Mentor Medical School Ready (MSR) which is for UIM Students applying to medical school. The program runs from October to September each year and takes the student through each step of applying to medical school and assigning them a mentor. MiMentor recruits mentors all year and it is during MSR that mentors get a longer opportunity to form a lasting relationship with a future health care leader. Please go to www.mimentor.org and join our community. Most popular is the free app that you can download to follow daily events and postings by students across the nation. We will hold another Mentor Advisor Workshop September 22nd at the KP Bakersfield Stockdale MOB from 9am- 12pm please sign up online. Below are most of the Kaiser Permanente Partners committed to a diverse workforce.
Thank you immensely to the Kaiser Permanente Partners and to AltaMed and Castulo De La Rocha for making this endeavor not only possible, but successful!
