Tran Jacqueline H, Wong Michelle, Wright Erin Kahunawaika'ala, Fa'avae Joe, Cheri Ashley, Wat Eric, Camacho Keith L, Foo Mary Anne
Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA).
University of Hawai`i- Manoa.
Calif J Health Promot. 2010;8:23-38.
The Pacific Islander (PI) community suffers disproportionately from illnesses and diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer. While there are tremendous health needs within the PI community, there are few health care providers from the community that exist to help address these particular needs. Many efforts have focused on health care workforce diversity to reduce and eliminate health disparities, but few have examined the issues faced in the health care work force pipeline. Understanding educational attainment among PI young adults is pivotal in speaking to a diverse health care workforce where health disparities among Pacific Islanders (PIs) may be addressed. This paper provides an in-depth, qualitative assessment of the various environmental, structural, socio-economic, and social challenges that prevent PIs from attaining higher education; it also discusses the various needs of PI young adults as they relate to psychosocial support, retention and recruitment, and health career knowledge and access. This paper represents a local, Southern California, assessment of PI young adults regarding educational access barriers. We examine how these barriers impact efforts to address health disparities and look at opportunities for health and health-related professionals to reduce and care for the high burden of illnesses and diseases in PI communities.
太平洋岛民（PI）群体在疾病方面承受着不成比例的负担，包括糖尿病、心脏病和癌症。虽然PI群体有巨大的医疗需求，但社区中能够帮助满足这些特殊需求的医疗服务提供者却很少。许多努力都集中在医疗劳动力的多样性上，以减少和消除健康差距，但很少有人研究医疗劳动力培养过程中面临的问题。了解PI青年的教育程度对于建立一支多元化的医疗劳动力队伍至关重要，因为这样才能解决太平洋岛民（PIs）之间的健康差距问题。本文对阻碍PI群体接受高等教育的各种环境、结构、社会经济和社会挑战进行了深入的定性评估；还讨论了PI青年在心理社会支持、留用和招聘以及健康职业知识与获取方面的各种需求。本文是对南加州当地PI青年教育机会障碍的评估。我们研究了这些障碍如何影响解决健康差距的努力，并探讨了健康及与健康相关专业人员减少和护理PI社区高疾病负担的机会。
