Grant helps guide medical students

By Nick Ngo

The Health Career Access Program is a program that helps guide students on the track to a career in the medical field.

HCAP started in October 2005, it’s an extension of the Transitions program. In order for someone to be in HCAP, they need to have completed the Transitions program.

According to an email sent by Kimberly Robinson, the coordinator of HCAP, “the purpose of HCAP is to increase diversity within health care by assisting low-income, minority, and non-native English speaking women to prepare for successful entry into nursing and other Portland-area healthcare careers.”

HCAP deals with case management; they help students investigate different career paths in health. Also, they help with getting referrals to academic advising, finding and applying for scholarships and tutoring from student mentors who have been in the Transitions program.

“We try to provide them with appropriate cultural tutoring,” Robinson said. Robinson meets with a student for about 30 minutes to an hour. When they meet depends on the student; it could be once a month or even once a quarter.

The program mainly tries to recruit women who are bilingual and have an interest in the medical field. What they are trying to do is increase diversity in health care. However, they will accept other students who have completed the Transitions program.

Last December, the HCAP received $100,000 grant from Meyer Memorial Trust, making it the largest amount of grant money they have ever received.

Transitions Coordinator Cynthia Dettman started working on the grant proposal grant in May 2005. They had to meet with people from Meyer Memorial Trust, then write the proposal and representatives from Meyer Memorial Trust came to the school for a site visit.

“It’s nice to have the site visit because then they actually got to meet with the students and got to know people more personally,” Dettman said.

In early December, representatives from Meyer Memorial Trust came for the site visit and interviewed some of the students. They were looking for more details about the project, to see that the grant proposal made sense.

“What they got was that; plus, a meeting with about six students who told their stories,” Dettman said. “When they heard from the students, that’s what I think really helped make a difference.”

Three weeks after the site visit, they were told that they received the grant.

The grant allows HCAP to spend the money over the course of three years: in 2005-2006 they got $21,534, $45,000 for 2006-2007 and for 2007-2008 they will get $33,466. So far, they have used the money to hire Robinson and two recruiters, Ofelia Lara and Sabina Riggi.

Also, Dettman said they would like to hire an evaluator, someone from outside the school who will make sure they are running is a good program.

Besides the Meyer Memorial Trust grant, HCAP is funded by other grants as well. HCAP has been awarded grant money by 10 other organizations. Two of them, Northwest Health Funding ($45,000) and Oregon Community Funding ($30,000), are grants awarded for three years like the Meyer Memorial Trust.

Dettman said they have full funding for the year, and enough to start next year. She says she will start re-applying for more grants.

Dettman hopes the health care employers will start to fund some of the program themselves. “We’re going to be training women to go work for those companies, so we’re hoping they help us fund the program.” They are building partnerships with Providence, Legacy and Portland Adventist, and they already had a partnership with Kaiser Permanente.

HCAP is planning a “field tip,” says Robinson, to the Oregon Health and Science University on Feb. 24 for a Health and Science Conference. The students attending the conference will be able to attend sessions on nursing, chemistry, biological science, radiology, and other health career subjects. Plus, they get to meet professionals who work in the medical field. There will also be a tour of the campus and information how to apply to the school.

For further information HCAP it could be found at www.mhcc.edu/pages/283asp.