Since the creation of University of Wisconsin Native American Center for Health Professions, there has been a 250 percent increase in Native student applicants to UW’s medical school.
Created in 2012, Native American Center for Health Professions was designed to improve the health and wellness of Native people, Melissa Metoxen, community and academic support coordinator at the Native American Center for Health Professions, said.
The number of Native student applicants was significantly low for the UW medical school about three to four years ago, Metoxen said. The center noticed the small number of Native applicants and wanted to do something to change the trend.
The center works to increase the recruitment and retention of Native students into health profession programs and provides support for current students, Metoxen said.
And so far, it’s working.
“We had a meeting back in October when the director and Dean of Admissions Office got the numbers for the past six or seven years of the Native applicants, and he told us the number of Native applicants had increased by 250 percent since NACHP’s inception,” Metoxen said.
Currently, there are 13 Native students in the various programs of the medical school, Metoxen said.
Christine Athmann, assistant director of NACHP said though 13 may seem like a small number, it’s important to remember that there aren’t many Native students in most medical schools.
At the unviersity in total, only 65 Native students are enrolled as undergraduates and 35 in graduate programs, according to the 2014 UW Data Digest. Undergraduate enrollment has decreased by 100 students since 2005, according to the report.
Very few Native students apply to medical school annually, so it’s hard to have a larger number of native students in a class every year, Athmann said. The same happens when UW tries to hire more Native faculty, she said. There frequently aren’t that many Native applicants or open positions available.
The reason the Native American Center for Health Professions exists is to improve the health of the Native community, Athmann said.
The more Native doctors and health professionals there are in the community, the more the community will be able to connect with their health care providers, she said.
To help mentor students and ensure they are comfortable within the medical school, UW School of Medicine has several doctors who provide mentorship, as well as several off-campus Wisconsin doctors who can also provide mentorship to Native students, Athmann said.
The more Native health professionals UW has means more opportunities Native students have to receive mentorship and support, Metoxen said.
“We may have not a ton of doctors here on campus, but we definitely have access to doctors to set up mentorship … We do our best to create a community for our students here,” Athmann said.
