East SBV Times

That’s a big accomplishment in its own right, but this year’s graduating class did it while also contending with a global pandemic. They saw first-hand how patients from underserved communities were much more likely to get sick and die from COVID-19 than other patients. And they experienced the long hours and personal sacrifices made by health professionals on the front lines.

There were silver linings, too: Telemedicine took root, an innovation that is helping ease the physician shortage by making it easier for anyone, anywhere, to meet with doctors and specialists. And the nation began a long overdue public reckoning about its glaring health disparities.

The growing discourse about health equity has had a profound impact on their medical school experience.

“I’m blessed to have gone through medical school at such a critical time in history,” says UC San Diego medical student Edgar J. Vega, who will be awarded degrees in both medicine and health leadership later this spring. “People started to pay attention to what health inequity really means. A lot of my colleagues now understand why health equity is such a central part of our work."

Vega is not alone in his sentiment. At every one of UC’s six medical schools, those graduating are committed to bringing health care where it’s needed most, serving populations that have long been marginalized, and recognizing the importance of listening to patients, understanding the realities of their lives, and treating the whole person.

And that’s California’s good fortune: Roughly three-quarters of UC medical students are likely stay and practice medicine in the state.

The next big step on their journey: Match Day, March 17. That’s the joyful and anxious day when graduating medical students all over the country discover where they will serve their residencies, a period of hands-on training in their medical specialty that can last from three to seven years.

Original source can be found here.