HRSA News Room - National African American Youth Initiative

	U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration HRSA Press Office: (301) 443-3376 http://newsroom.hrsa.gov

Remarks to the National African American
Youth Initiative

Prepared Remarks of Elizabeth M. Duke, Ph.D.
Acting Administrator, Health Resources and Services Administration

National African American Youth Initiative
Rockville, Md.
June 28, 2001

It is a pleasure to welcome you this morning to the Health Resources and Services Administration as part of your orientation for the 9^th National African American Youth Initiative.

I commend the Auxiliary of the National Medical Association, the Howard University College of Medicine, and the Howard University Medical Alumni Association for their outstanding work helping to prepare and motivate a new generation of health professionals for the 21^st century.

Let me begin by giving you a snapshot of who we are:

HRSA’s programs reach into every corner of America, providing a solid safety net of health care services relied on by millions of our fellow citizens. President Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson are strongly committed to strengthening and extending this safety net. They have made it clear that providing more health care directly to Americans is the most important service that HHS -- and HRSA -- can provide.

HRSA-supported health centers deliver preventive and primary health care to low-income, unemployed and underserved individuals and families.

HRSA administers programs like the Ryan White CARE Act that give low-income people with HIV/AIDS the medication and care they need to get better or stay well.

We work with States to ensure that babies are born healthy and that pregnant women and children have access to health care.

We help train physicians, nurses and other health care providers and place them in communities where their services are desperately needed.

We help rural health care providers build coordinated systems of care to serve local residents better.

And we oversee the Nation’s organ transplantation system.

Our dedication to preparing a health care workforce that mirrors the diversity of the American people is why your visit with us today is so important. To put it quite simply: we need you.

We must recruit and train more minority health care providers because:

Minorities are more than 25 percent of population, but less than 10 percent of the health care workforce;

African American physicians are four to five times more likely to care for African American patients ; and

A shortage of health care providers limits access to care in minority communities and contributes to the persistent gap between the health status of whites and minorities.

This year, HRSA will invest more than $300 million in health professions training, and a significant portion of these funds is targeted for programs that directly assist minorities and disadvantaged students. Our outreach efforts are comprehensive; we’ve designed programs for:

Kids as young as middle school to expose them to health careers;

High school students to give them the academic boost needed to begin training; and

College students who are eligible for low-cost loans and scholarships.

HRSA also supports 36 Area Health Education Centers that are linked to two-thirds of the Nation’s medical schools. These centers reach out to minority students encouraging them to consider community-based primary health careers in underserved communities.

And there’s our National Health Service Corps – a cadre of 2,400 health care professionals who work in underserved areas for at least two years in exchange for scholarships or repayment of their student loans.

In addition to our many training programs, we also stimulate curricula improvements so that health education reflects the needs of vulnerable populations and provide health policymakers and planners with detailed data to make informed health workforce decisions.

For example, our data tell us that some states are now or will soon experience a shortage of nurses. This is of great concern because a nurse shortage threatens the quality of health care we all receive. The nation is growing older, and that means the demand for nursing services will surely rise. The problem is that nurses, too, are growing older and retiring, but too few newcomers are entering the profession to meet expected demand.

Training more nurses is a high priority for the Bush Administration. The president’s FY 2002 budget seeks to enhance nurses’ education and expand their numbers by adding $1.5 million for the Nursing Workforce Diversity program and $3.5 million for the Basic Nurse Education and Practice program.

As you can see, there are many HRSA supported programs designed with you in mind.

We have a record in this area that we are proud of -- because of our work many young men and women like you from all across America have realized their dreams of becoming health professionals and providing vital services to their communities.
Again, I welcome you to HRSA and urge you to consider how our many programs can help you as you plan a future in health care.