Steven T. DeKosky Chosen as New Dean Improving Rural Stroke Care Eyes on the Prize Better Understanding Heart Disease Researchers Find Bacteria Mutation Battling a Killer Parasite Lifelong Learning in the Digital Age Why All Cells Matter Making the Translation from Bench to Bedside Breakthrough Post-Vasectomy Test Developed Helping Future Doctors Believe in Themselves
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Helping Future Doctors Believe in Themselves Physician shortages in our urban centers and rural outposts are now accepted realities of American healthcare. Our country has a historic opportunity to end these critical gaps in patient care if we help the young men and women in those underserved communities realize their potential through programs such as the UVA Summer Medical and Dental Education Program (UVA SMDEP).
For nearly all of them, being a doctor is not on their radar screen. Many have no role models, no mentors and no family members who have become doctors. I have seen too many students who couldn’t envision becoming a physician. Too many say they cannot do it or they know they will fail. We try and show them that they can, that we believe in them and that they can succeed with hard work. When you read the e-mails and letters from our students, you see over and over that they have found someone who believes in them and has given them hope. More than 450 students that have participated in our program have gone on to receive their medical degrees, and some return every summer to inspire the next class to follow in their footsteps. When we first started the Medical Academic Advancement Program (MAAP), which evolved into UVA SMDEP, we had 10 students. As we have grown to as many as 175 students in a class while watching other similar programs close due to funding cuts, UVA and its leaders in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have shown an unwavering commitment to these students. But it is not enough to offer stipends to these students; they need someone to look them in the eye and tell them, “Yes, you can make it from the wilderness to the M.D. promised land.” Increasingly, our former students are returning to their home communities after they become physicians, dentists and biomedical professionals because they want to make a difference where they grew up and to show the next generation that they can do great things. We can ensure this country has enough physicians in the places they are desperately needed by reaching out to underrepresented groups and helping them realize their full potential. Moses K. A. Woode, Ph.D., DIC, FAIC, is Associate Dean for Student Academic Support and Strategic Programs and Professor of Medical Education. He has led MAAP/UVA SMDEP for the past 21 years.
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Over 24 years, we have brought more than 2,500 underrepresented minorities and disadvantaged non-minorities from across the country – everywhere from the coal fields of Appalachia to the inner cities to Native American reservations – to the University of Virginia to give them hope.