The representation of Hispanics in the health professions

Hispanics are the country's second largest and fastest growing minority group. This investigation was conducted to review the preprofessional educational experience of Hispanics as well as their representation in the nation's schools of health professions. Findings revealed that Hispanics are the most undereducated major segment of the US population. The majority of all young Hispanics (60% to 75%) do not attend college at all and of those who do attend, less than 10% graduate. Deliberate policy decisions and a concerted national effort to recruit and train minority students in the health professions has resulted in a significant increase in the number of minority health professionals practicing in our country. However, available data clearly point to an underrepresentation of Hispanics in most of the health professions.