Defenition of Underserved?

[bluesTank]

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Does underserved necessarily mean underprivileged (as in poor community) or are they essentially the same thing? This is from the UTSW secondary, and it asks us to say if we are "Interested in establishing a medical practice in an underserved area, and then if we have experience to back that up."

I have been a big brother with Big Bros Big Sisters of America for a long time now, and my "Little Brother" is from a very poor community, and I am over there all the time. At the same time however, this community is in the city of College Station and I am not sure if just being in that city qualifies it as underserved.

I also participate in a program where we build and deliver bicycles to poor communities in Houston TX. Once again, not medically related...would I put these as an experiences to back this up?


Bottom line is, I think it would be great to be able to start up a practice in an underserved area, it's just I have never really had the opportunity to do anything specifically medically related in such a community.


Thanks for the advice!

 

[TheRealMD]

Does underserved necessarily mean underprivileged (as in poor community) or are they essentially the same thing? This is from the UTSW secondary, and it asks us to say if we are "Interested in establishing a medical practice in an underserved area, and then if we have experience to back that up."

I have been a big brother with Big Bros Big Sisters of America for a long time now, and my "Little Brother" is from a very poor community, and I am over there all the time. At the same time however, this community is in the city of College Station and I am not sure if just being in that city qualifies it as underserved.

I also participate in a program where we build and deliver bicycles to poor communities in Houston TX. Once again, not medically related...would I put these as an experiences to back this up?


Bottom line is, I think it would be great to be able to start up a practice in an underserved area, it's just I have never really had the opportunity to do anything specifically medically related in such a community.


Thanks for the advice!

if you haven't really had the opportunity, I don't think it's that wise of an idea to put it there. You need to directly link your experiences to medicine in some way, because it's your life we're talking about here.

 

[chickenlittle84]

I think the Big Brothers experience is legitimate, however, you should be VERY sure that you understand the realities of practicing medicine in underserved areas. It is not the same as practicing medicine in a middle class community and much of your time will go towards social work related tasks (like making sure your patients have food to eat with their medicines, making sure they have a way to get home from the doc's office, figuring out how to finance treatment for individual patients if they aren't eligible for Medicaid). Many doctors in underserved communities spend a lot of time doing social work, so you should make sure you are comfortable with that aspect. I think some doctors tend to be dispariging towards social work (and they shouldn't be, it is a really tough job...it requires a lot of skill to be able to navigate social service delivery systems), so just make sure that you feel good about and understand the social work aspects of serving as a doctor in underserved communities, as well. I think adcoms tend to be skeptical of people who say they want to serve underserved communities, so you really need to be solid if you are going to say it.