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Chapter 24 Engaging Student Health Organizations in Reducing Health Disparities in Underserved Communities through Volunteerism: Developing a Student Health Corps Vickie M. Mays Lichin Ly Erica Allen Sophia Young The 2000 U.S. Census indicates that underrepresented minorities (URMs) (African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans/Alaskan Indians) and Asian/ Pacific Islanders account for nearly a third of the U.S. population, with the projection that these racial/ethnic populations will constitute the majority in the United States by 2050. Despite improvement in overall life expectancy in the United States, racial/ethnic minorities have not shown the same progress and continue to have poorer health outcomes from preventive and treatable conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, infant mortality, and asthma compared with whites.– As the U.S. population grows more racially and ethnically diverse, so grows the need to address health disparities that account for poorer health outcomes and premature deaths and disease among racial/ethnic minorities.– Furthermore, the current U.S. health care workforce lacks the growing diversity of the overall population: URMs continue to be underrepresented in the health profession fields of medicine (6%), nursing (6.7%), dentistry (7%), and pharmacy (12%). This lack of diversity is important, because research indicates that underrepresented minorities are more likely to practice and provide culturally competent care in underserved, racial/ethnic minority communities.– Some studies also show that minorities tend to seek care from physicians who share their ethnicity and that these patients rate satisfaction, quality of overall Vickie M. Mays, PhD, MSPH, is a professor in the Department of Psychology and in the Department of Health Services at UCLA and is the director of the UCLA Center on Research, Education, Training and Strategic Communication on Minority Health Disparities (MHD). Lichin Ly, MPH, works at the UCLA Center for Research, Education, Training and Strategic Communication on Minority Health Disparities. Erica Allen, MD, MPH, is employed by the Mid-Atlantic Kaiser Permanente Medical Group. Sophia Young, MPH, is affiliated with the Yale University School of Public Health. Engaging Student Health Organizations through Volunteerism 243 care, and health outcomes more highly than do those receiving care from physicians of other ethnicities.– As the population of racial/ethnic minority groups increases, so too does the need for health care providers who speak the languages of the group served, whose ethnicities match the preferences of the group being served, and who are willing to practice in underserved communities. One population that can contribute to increasing a diverse health care workforce is racial/ethnic minority undergraduate students majoring in health. When these students engage in communitybased health activities in multicultural or poor urban settings, they have been found to rate these experiences positively and to be more inclined to develop their clinical practices with these underserved populations.– Despite these findings, little research has explored ways to leverage the volunteer efforts of undergraduate college students as a strategy to eliminate health disparities, while also increasing the likelihood that these students will pursue clinical practice and/or research in underserved racial/ethnic minority communities ., In recent years there has been a movement, especially in public universities , to engage undergraduate students in service learning and volunteer efforts within communities.– In the area of reducing health disparities, one underutilized source of volunteers undergraduate volunteer-run student health organizations that conduct health outreach, education, and preventive health screenings in underserved communities. Although not a substitute for affordable comprehensive health care, health fairs can play a beneficial role in providing preventative services to medically underserved populations who face an array of financial, linguistic , and cultural barriers to receiving such services.– The goal of this study was to examine preventive health-screening activities conducted by volunteer undergraduate students in health organizations and determine the type and extent of their outreach health services to underserved racial/ ethnic communities. We also assessed the training of these volunteers in order to examine the adequacy of the services provided and determine if there are ways to improve their volunteer efforts toward reducing health disparities in racial/ethnic minority and underserved communities. Methods Undergraduate volunteer student health organizations at a major public land grant university in Southern California involved in conducting health outreach in racial/ ethnic minority communities were identified and their officers asked to participate in a needs assessment about the work of their organizations. Thirteen of the groups were volunteer health groups targeting specific underserved racial/ethnic minorities ; the remaining group (a chapter of SHOUT [Student Health OUTreach]) enrolled underserved families and children in...

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