作为一个患有慢性链球菌性喉炎的人, 居住在中央谷的Vanessa Mora小时候经常需要去看医生. The problem was, all too often there wasn’t one.
在加州福勒的农村农业社区，预约可能需要数周时间. 看医生要开很长时间的车、等很长时间、付一大笔医药费，或者三者兼而有之. “有时我们会去急诊室，只是为了让别人看到我们，”她说.
Now, as a student in UC San Francisco’s 圣华金谷医学教育项目(SJV PRIME), 莫拉正在接受培训，成为新一批本土医生中的一员，为该州医疗服务最匮乏的地区之一提供医疗服务.
该项目正在招募希望回国服务于他们成长的地区的医学生，为该地区的家庭提供急需的护理.
Among the fastest growing, poorest and least healthy regions of California, 圣华金河谷的医生数量也是最少的, nurses and nurse practitioners per 100,000 people of any region in California. 另一个令人担忧的问题是:在这些已经捉襟襟肘的劳动力中，大约有30%接近退休年龄.
Addressing a critical lack of access
医疗服务提供者的短缺本身就构成了卫生保健的紧急情况. Katherine Flores, a family medicine physician in Fresno.
As a child, Flores grew up in a family of migrant workers, 住在公共住房里，随收成而旅行.
弗洛雷斯说:“当我推荐某人去看神经科医生时，可能需要几个月的时间才能预约。.
Lack of access is just the start. 语言、经济和文化障碍也限制了患者的护理质量.
当谈到她的病人的日常现实时, Flores said, some conventional medical advice simply isn’t workable.
那些住在公共农场工人住房的人如果感染了COVID-19，就不容易被隔离. 那些没有带薪休假或没有自己交通工具的人很难找到医疗服务提供者, be it for preventive or acute care.
“We don’t just need more doctors in this community. We need doctors who understand it. We need students who come from the Valley, who understand the culture of the Valley, 谁了解贫穷的挑战和社区的挑战,” Flores said.
First-hand knowledge of the community's needs
圣华金谷PRIME项目正试图做到这一点.
Started in 2011 as a collaboration among UC Merced, UC Davis, UCSF Fresno and UC San Francisco, SJV PRIME has 45 currently enrolled students. 50多名医学院毕业生已经完成了这个项目, 他们中的许多人现在在硅谷工作，成为住院医生或有正式执照的医生.
Along with having grown up in the community, many are native Spanish speakers, 这对一个以西班牙语为主要语言的社区来说是一个巨大的好处.
“来自这个社区给病人带来了很多安慰. 这有助于他们敞开心扉，讨论自己的想法，”莫拉说.
莫拉和PRIME的一位同事在山谷的一家健康诊所给病人量血压.
这也有助于莫拉能够理解他们的担忧:她自己的父亲, a welder, was often injured on the job and never saw the doctor, even when he lost part of his finger. 她的母亲忽视了牙齿问题，直到她因危及生命的全身感染而住院.
“For people in my community, 得到诊断不仅仅是关于治疗或这对他们的健康意味着什么,” Mora said. “It’s life-changing. Many are the head of their household. 他们的家庭依靠他们继续工作，努力维持收支平衡.”
PRIME培训的一部分是学习社会项目和社区组织的网络，这些项目和组织可以帮助患者获得服务并满足基本需求.
学生将了解山谷中健康的社会、环境和经济决定因素. 他们接受公共宣传方面的培训，以推动可能改善居民健康状况的改革.
他们还了解了可以帮助患者满足其基本需求的广泛的社会服务和社区组织.
A young Vanessa Mora with her mom.
Finding strength in her own story
他是墨西哥移民的四个孩子之一, 莫拉总是被教导努力工作和教育的价值. She went to UC Santa Barbara to study biology.
而她生物课上的许多同学都把目光投向了医学事业, “I felt medical school wasn’t in the cards for me. 没有导师，我认为这是不可能的，”她说.
In her senior year, she met and began dating her now-partner, Rogelio Molina, who was also an aspiring physician. 他使她相信，恐惧不是放弃梦想的理由. While she worked full-time as a medical assistant, she applied to medical school twice without success.
然后她被正规欧洲杯买球网站旧金山分校的学士学位后项目录取. It helped her improve her MCAT scores, and most importantly, 把自己表现成一个特别适合帮助她希望服务的社区的人.
“我试图让自己成为我认为理想的医学预科学生, when the reality is that wasn’t who I was,” she said.
Now she knows, especially in her community in the San Joaquin Valley, that she’s exactly the doctor her patients need.
“I have been able to find strength in my own story, 以及我把一些重要的东西带到这个领域的能力.”
