Careers in Medicine
“There
could not be a more exciting time to go into
medicine,” declares Everett
Rhoades, Kiowa, MD.
I can’t think of any branch of medicine that isn't in
the midst of some dynamic and exciting change. And these
marvelous advances are going to continue for the next
generations or so.
“I don’t know many professions that offer such potential
for an individual to do almost anything he or she wants to
do. There are opportunities to teach, to directly take care
of sick folks, to do research, to be involved in policy,
and to be an administrator. The opportunities are greater
than they’ve ever been.
“I personally don’t know anyone in healthcare who is
unemployed, except by choice. Whatever the world is going
to be in 20 or 50 years, one can’t go wrong going into some
field of healthcare.”
Why
are American Indian and Native Alaskan physicians
needed?
“Everything
else being equal, the average Indian patient is better
served by an Indian healer,” asserts Rhoades. Dr.
Erik Brodt’s encounter
with a Chippewa elder beautifully illustrates the
reasons this is true. Dr. Joy Dorscher asserts,
“Physicians who understand the concerns and customs of a
community are best able to address the health
disparities that exist in the health of American Indian
people.”
Not surprisingly, when minority patients have the
opportunity to select a healthcare professional, they are
likely to choose a health professional of their own racial
and ethnic background. They are also more likely to be
satisfied with the care that this professional provides. In
addition, minority physicians are more likely to treat
minority and indigent patients and to practice in
underserved communities.
Although Native physicians provide culturally sensitive,
high-quality care to Native people, Rhoades argues that
Indian graduates should be free to choose where they want
to work, “Indian physicians have a rich heritage that is
needed not only by Indian people but by the population at
large. In the Indian perspective, people are brothers and
sisters to each other and to all living things, including
plants and animals. There is a mystical perspective, which
I regard as just as real as anything non-mystical. There is
an intense religiosity that pervades daily Indian lives,
even though it isn’t what it was a generation or two ago.
“Increasing the proportion of Indian people in the healing
arts is a way of preserving the heritage that the rest of
the country needs," Rhoades continues. "It would enrich the
whole field of medicine. Indian people with all that is
embodied in them bring to the table a perspective that the
rest of the country needs desperately.”
More
American Indian and Alaskan Native Physicians are Needed
In 1971 when
Dr. Rhoades and his colleagues established the
Association of American Indian
Physicians, there were
only 14 American Indian physicians. Today there are many
more American Indian and Alaskan Native physicians. But
more are still needed.
UPDATE
See the Associated Press article “Native-American doctors blend modern care,
medicine men,” by Felicia
Fonseca and Heather Clark (4/22/10).
This
article was originally published in the Winter 2006 issue
of
Winds of Change. (The cover
artist, Roxanne Chinook, is a tribal member of the
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation
in Oregon. "My art emulates a personal and cultural
experience, from the spirit of the trickster to healing
from the traumas of my past." For more conformation,
contact American Indian Art from the Pacific
Northwest.