In May 2008, the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Office of Diversity and University of New Mexico Hospitals convened a statewide forum. The event focused on how to strengthen New Mexico’s pipeline for heath careers. Participants included students, educators and administrators from the secondary and higher education school systems, healthcare employers and practitioners, members of rural and tribal communities, and federal and state policymakers. These committed citizens made it clear that the shortage of health professionals of all types, especially in New Mexico’s rural and tribal communities is an issue of critical importance.

New Mexico First was chosen to facilitate this forum. Using their proven consensus-building process, the two-day forum asked participants to share their best ideas and practices for growing and diversifying the pool of people entering—and remaining in—health careers in New Mexico.  On day one of the forum, participants will divide into small groups to discuss the issue. On day two, they refined their ideas and finalized concrete, actionable recommendations for policymakers, educators, and private sector leaders. (from http://www.nmfirst.org/townhalls/hc_forum_overview.html)

There were 19 recommendations (Click here for Final Report) for strengthening the health careers pathways as a result of the “Looking to the Future: Preparing for the Next Generation in Health Careers forum.

An implementation team of volunteers from the different stakeholder groups was also formed as an  outcome of the two day forum. The group was chaired by Dr. Valerie  Romero-Leggott and Dr. Arthur Kaufman of the UNM HSC and met six times to find ways to address the recommendations of the full forum.

Implementation Team Meeting Summaries

Meeting 1 Summary .pdf

Meeting 2 Summary .pdf

Meeting 3 Summary .pdf

Meeting 4 Summary .pdf

Meeting 5 Summary .pdf

Meeting 6 Summary.pdf (Final Implementation Team Meeting)