Native America Calling: Fixing the shortage of medical professionals

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Wednesday, October 18, 2023

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Fixing the shortage of medical professionals

The current shortage of medical professionals is a public health crisis. And the most-often cited estimates on into the future predict it will only get worse.

That’s a particular problem for Native Americans, a group with higher instances of dangerous physical and mental health conditions, many of which could be addressed with better access to health care.

Several Native physicians and public health advocates are looking at ways to both recruit more medical professionals and train them on culturally-grounded methods to help improve Native patient outcomes and head off an even worse problem in the future.

Guests on Native America Calling

Dr. Mary Owen (Tlingit), director of the Center of American Indian and Minority Health and associate dean of Native American Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School

Olivia Sloan (Navajo and Tohono O’Odham), Native American nurse liaison and senior research nurse for Christus St. Vincent Medical Center

Dr. Donald Warne (Lakota), co-director for the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health

Dr. John Gonzalez (member of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation), professor of psychology and co-director of Indigenous Students in Psychology Training (InPsyT) at Bemidji State University