All of us in medicine realize that there is a healthcare crisis, as there are large numbers of Californians who are uninsured. These people do not receive adequate preventive care and, when they are sick, they use the emergency rooms for treatment. This clogs our emergency rooms with medical conditions that could be handled by office-based physicians. At present, our governor and the Legislature, together with the California Medical Association, are working hard to tackle the problem of the uninsured so that they can receive medical care in a timely fashion. We hope they are successful.

However, there is another crisis developing at the same time. There is a growing shortage of healthcare providers, including physicians, nurses, technicians and other paramedical personal. Worse, these crises seem to intersect. California statistics show that the majority of the uninsured belong to minority communities. If we are to provide culturally competent care to these newly insured Californians, we need to actively recruit medical personnel from these communities.

Yet many young minority men and women avoid the medical sciences when making career choices, perhaps because they feel intimidated by the associated complexities. One suggestion at a recent meeting of the Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations was to get physicians involved in mentoring programs. Many of us have medical students who come to our offices when they are deciding which branch of medicine they would like to practice. Some of us teach at the local medical schools as well. However, we seem to miss reaching a larger, broader group of potential medical workers.

We can capture a bigger pool of healthcare personnel by starting mentoring programs earlier--either in high school or junior high school. Exposing children to medicine at an early age can remove the fear and mystery of the medical sciences from these young minds as well as provoke interest. As you look back, you may find that you were probably influenced to enter this esteemed profession after watching and following someone whom you looked up to either in your family, school or community.

Physicians could mentor young students and have them shadow us in our offices. Jeff Oxendine, MD, from UC Berkeley has some experience with such a program. He has been trying to recruit various medical societies to partner with him to expand the program. I hope that all the Southern California groups will consider starting mentoring programs in our local schools. This will help attract many more young people into the medical profession and prevent the manpower crisis in the healthcare field.