Chinese and Mexican Immigrants May Have Something In Common

Seems like Latin American Immigrants may have something in common with Chinese immigrants trying to gain entrance to a place with "better" health care options. According to a story published by BBC today, Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong are being denied entrance to the country if they are more than 28 weeks pregnant. Of course, the first thing I thought of was the parallels this story has to Latinos trying to enter the US. Given Hong Kong's thriving economy "capitalistic" economy, I can understand why many Chinese women prefer their children to reap these benefits. It would appear that the Hong Kong health care system is superior to that of the Chinese system if over 12,000 mainland Chinese arrived to give birth. Be it protecting the Hong Kong resources or discriminatory in nature, Hong Kong officials enacted this policy to limit the number of Chinese births in Hong Kong. What is fascinating about this article to me is that Mexicans are not the only ones looked down on upon this world for trying to give their children better opportunities in another country. I only wish I could let so many immigrants know that the care in the US is just as corrupt and full of inequities as it is in México.

Putting the "Emerging" Back into Global Health

Over the past few days, I have been toiling with with exactly what to write my class paper on. I have thrown the usuals into the basket of ideas residing in my head...alternative methods to birth control in the world, implications of genetic research, sex-trafficking in Latin America...and came up with a troubling thought...are my ideas really emerging?

We come to this MPH program as novices, students with wide eyes and empty places in our hearts ready to be filled with solutions to the injustices of the world. And with being so new, comes the fact that every idea, every injustice, every inequity, as news-breaking as it may seem to me, is often times "played-out" and overwritten to the veterans of the public health world. Knowing this, how does a MPH student really know what issues are novel and original in this sea of seemingly new information that arrives as frequently as crashing waves? I believe through patience and understanding professors can lead and encourage us to explore other public health trends rather than the traditional problems that seem attractive and up-to-date to the neophyte.

What is a public health student to do? While I understand it may be fulfilling and satiating to probe issues of injustice and exploitation in the world, I'm realizing the job of a PM565 student is to investigate new progressions in public health. What these progressions are, I hope to learn in this class.

Use of Health Care Among Undocumented Latino Immigrants

As I mentioned during our introductions, I started this public health program looking for a fresh perspective. During my third year of medical school, I was introduced to a world that I had been waiting my whole life to be a part of...Medicine. The life of a student physician. It was exciting to work in partnership with my patients, residents, physicians, and professors because it afforded me the opportunity to flex all of the life skills and clinical knowledge in a job I loved. Because I trained at the buzzling Inland Empire County institutions, Riverside and San Bernadino, the majority of the patient population was indigent and uneducated. I thrived in this atmosphere because this is exactly the population I had been wanting to work in. I thought everyone that worked there felt that way. Yet, I was mistaken. I began to hear degrading comments from my superiors, as well as fellow medical students, about the vast numbers of Spanish-speaking patients we were treating on a daily basis. At first, I tried to not let these remarks hurt me. I identified with the poor Latino population of these areas because I too, am Mexican American, and grew up in similar circumstances. Slowly, however, the remarks of many of my colleagues began to chip away at my enthusiasm and my self-esteem. I would hear that "undocumented immigrants are a drain to hard-working tax-payer money," and that "these people never take care of themselves." I knew, deep inside, that this was not the case, and it was easy for many ignorant, over-worked healthcare providers to make such blanket statements because the simply did not know the facts.

I decided to become a physician because I want to alleviate the need for culturally competent, Latino doctors within California. On July 4, 2001, 50% of all births in California are Latino. Yet, the number of health care providers that are equipped with the knowledge to adequately care for this population is shamefully low. I often wonder how physicians can compassionately deliver care to Latinos when many feel these very patients are abusing our health system. Thus, this disparity is what keeps me going during late call nights and as I sit for board exams. Now, trying to educate my fellow health care professionals about the realities of Latino immigration trends in the US is a personal goal of mine. I enrolled in the MPH program to equip myself with the proper, evidenced-based research and know-how to breakdown the stereotypes that exist in hospitals and clinics in this state. This class is affording me with the opportunities to do this.

I chose this article, "The Use of Health Care Among Undocumented Latino Immigrants," in order to share knowledge to our future generation of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc. At first, I was apprehensive to present it, because I remember the humiliating experiences of trying to defend my people without the knowledge to adequately do so. However, I have come to the realization that knowledge is power, and I take solace in that. Thankfully, there is a plethora of research that disproves many scornful, ignorant attitudes of the contributions of undocumented immigrants and their place in this country.

The purpose of this article and my oral presentation is NOT to argue the immigration issue, but to present the realities of the local globalization occurring right here in America. The Latino community, documented or not, is rapidly growing and as health care providers, we need to develop infrastructure to properly care for this population. I look forward to Thursday, and I hope to see you there!

Emerging Trends in Global Health

Why not? I remember when I was trying to decide whether I should change my MPH tract from Health Education/Promotion to Global Health Leadership at USC. I consulted with professors, friends, my fiance, etc! I can't believe I gave it sooo much thought, since now, a whole 6 months later, it's such a no brainer! Given my interest in traveling and creating health programs based on international models, Global Health Leadership fits me like a glove! I have already learned so much about managing, collaborating, and the current state of health in our world, and I feel very confident in my abilities to contribute to public health!

This class sounds very exciting, and I'm very happy to have a professor who is so interested in the professional and academic development of his students. I mean, I already received an email from Dr. Shahi asking me why I haven't logged in to Blackboard yet! That's great! I am so thankful to have a professor who is genuinely interested and who takes the time to monitor the progress of his pupils. It means a lot!

Cheers! To a great semester!