Event for Future Doctors Has an American Indian Be

[Okwes]

Event for Future Doctors Has an American Indian Beat By Jana
Hollingsworth, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.
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<http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/686638/event_for_future_doctors_has\
_an_american_indian_beat/index.html?source=r_health> Oct. 8--Katie
Cannon's small American Indian community in northern Minnesota is
hurting for medical care. The Naytahwaush, Minn., native and first-year
student at the University of Minnesota Medical School-Duluth, hopes to
return home after graduation to practice family medicine and reach out
to the younger population, which she says is neglected. "Going back
there would be really significant for myself and the whole community,"
the 28-year-old single mother said. Cannon was one of 56 first-year UMD
medical students to receive a white coat Saturday, a ritual established
in 1993 at Columbia University in New York City. The white coats and a
recited oath are meant to ingrain in them the importance of the caring
nature and sensitivity integral to being a doctor. This year, nine
American Indian students were chosen out of 1,300 applicants for the
school, where the mission is to educate students who will practice
family medicine and other primary care in rural Minnesota and American
Indian communities. The number is the highest in the school's history.
Dr. Joy Dorscher is director of the school's Center of American Indian
and Minority Health, an office that recruits students and provides a
community for them during their time as medical students. Dorscher
said the need for doctors in rural Minnesota is great, but she is
pleased with the number of students committed to serving in those areas.
"The vast majority of students, when finished, complete the mission of
the school," she said. The center works hard to recruit American Indian
students and is the No. 2 school in the nation for its American Indian
enrollment, Dorscher said. She said only 120 American Indian students
graduate from 125 medical schools annually. The center now has a
ceremonial drum and used it for the first time Saturday during the White
Coat Ceremony. Dorscher believes UMD is the only medical school that has
one. "The drum helps us understand that many of these students come from
different backgrounds," she said. First-year student Chuck Branch, a
San Francisco native and member of the Cherokee Nation, drummed and sang
American Indian songs during Saturday's ceremony. The drum helps bring
students together and preserve American Indian culture, he said, and is
an example of what helps balance the spiritual side of American Indian
health with Western medicine. "It's a way to bring that aspect into
health and healing, which is not often understood," he said. Branch,
36, was honored to drum at the ceremony. "I was approached by doctors
who said they've been to many of these events, but this is the one
they'll never forget," he said. Branch hopes to serve rural communities
to give them a voice. "People lobbying for health care come from large
cities, and they tend to have different problems and their own agendas
than rural areas," he said, "and most native communities are rural ...
they're very isolated." Cannon hopes that by returning to her hometown
she can provide the information and care so desperately needed in these
communities. "When I was a teenager there wasn't much," she said. "There
aren't many native doctors, and not many people who have gone on at all,
let alone become a doctor." Because residents in her small town know who
she is, she hopes they will feel comfortable enough to come to her with
anything and establishing a closeness only found in a small community,
she said.