The Semillas de Salud Program

“Recruiting Today for the Health Professionals of Tomorrow”

Semillas de Salud is a program that supports kids with an interest in health careers.

We collaborate statewide with organizations and youth initiatives to offer support and mentoring to youth with the desire to enter the field of healthcare. Semillas de Salud offers different levels of engagement with youth from womb to health professional, with the following highlights:

  • - Alignment with a statewide pipeline system to create a seamless support system for youth interested in health careers;
  • - Support and mentoring program;
  • - Clinical shadowships, preceptorships and residencies offered through ECFH
  • and associate organizations;
  • - Telehealth resources available to touch youth in rural, satellite locations, where townships are too spread out to establish courses or clubs;
  • - Creates an exceptional community health clinical experience to encourage youth to stay and serve the communities they grew up in, and minimizes retention problems of out-of-state providers not wishing to stay.

 

Semillas de Salud - Modus operendum

 

Beginning with Teaching Topics at annual exams and patient visits, Semillas de Salud will offer collaboration with state health professional websites, and interact with youth by building health awareness clubs in local communities, offering presentations and hands-on health activities, with booths and presentations at job and health fairs, as well as with educational materials about health careers. As students get older shadowships and mentoring are offered, as well as making them aware of what is available, sharing health care field facts, and the pros and cons of health careers. Undergraduate, pre-health professional students, and health professional students and residents are offered on-going mentorship, as well as the opportunity for an exceptional clinical experience during rotations and shadowships in rural health clinics in Northern New Mexico.

 

A unique attribute of the program is that students receive mentoring from the student level above them, and give mentoring to the student level below them, creating a strong mentoring workforce and a mentoring coalition for students who have become HP’s to match the upcoming demand for mentoring youth into the health profession.