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This Week in Primary Care
[Lack of] Diversity in the Primary Care Workforce
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The PC4AA Report on Primary Care Access in New Bedford, MA estimated a need for 13-17 additional primary care clinicians to care for the city as it is today. The report also highlighted what languages clinicians speak, and how many clinicians are people of color, compared to the city’s residents.
This attention to language and background is important. Studies show that when clinicians and patients speak the same language, the care is more effective, less prone to medical errors, and more satisfying for patients. And a growing body of evidence suggests that for people of color, seeing a doctor with a similar racial/ethnic background may be similarly helpful. Yet the physician workforce in the United States does not reflect the diversity of the population it serves. For example, only 5.7% of U.S. physicians identify as Black, compared with 14.4% of U.S. residents. How come?
This week, PC4AA’s Eve Shapiro digs into the interpersonal and structural racism that constrains who becomes a primary care doctor. She interviews two Black primary care doctors, Dr. Ronald Wyatt and Dr. Pamela Reed, about their experiences growing up, training, practicing medicine, and leading institutions.
If we are serious about achieving Primary Care for All Americans, we must address the structural barriers that obstruct, undermine, and too often mistreat people from diverse backgrounds who choose to pursue careers in medicine. In PC4AA, local workgroup members are speaking at schools to pique students’ interest; creating programs to help people apply for nursing and medical school; and launching scholarships for school. State workgroups are starting to interface with medical schools to increase primary-care training slots, bolster tuition support, and open primary-care residencies. Let’s learn from each other at PC4AA’s first national convening on May 20th. We need to open the way, with gratitude, for young people to become the clinicians Americans need.
Next week, join us for a special *Thursday* Teach-In/Learn-In with Dr. Kevin Grumbach: A Common Fund for the Common Good: Universal, Unified Financing of Primary Care for All.
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