Native Student Wants to Give Back to His Tribe
By Doug Nadvornick
Fourth-year doctor of pharmacy student Kevin Walker knows what he wants to do after he graduates in May, 2012.
The Yakama tribal member says he's "looking at a career in the Indian Health Services with the Yakama Tribe. I'd really like to give back in any way I can."
Walker grew up on the Satus, a portion of the Yakama Indian Reservation near Toppenish. His father worked as an emergency medical technician. Walker says when he was young he liked to look through his father's physiology and anatomy books.
Throughout high school and his undergraduate years at WSU, he says he thought about pursuing a health care career. Initially, he focused on research, then after spending a few years in the lab setting, he decided he'd rather work with patients. He found his calling in pharmacy after he served as an intern at the Indian Health Services clinic in Toppenish.
Now Walker is finishing up his fourth-year clinical rotations with an eye on graduation. Starting this summer, he was chosen to serve as the WSU/Providence Visiting Nurse Association Geriatric Resident. After his one-year residency, he's open to working someplace new.
"I feel that getting experience in other areas and different communities can help me bring back the expertise to the Yakima Valley and to the Yakama Tribe," said Walker. "Later on in my career, I'd like to go back to my roots and re-establish some of the relationships I had in the past and, hopefully, improve our health care."
A real need for Native health care workers
Walker says, other than his father, he didn't have many role models in the health sciences when he was growing up. Nor did many of his peers join him in his chosen career.
"I don't know of many (Native American) students I went to school with in the lower Valley that went into health care or even a postsecondary degree of any sort," he said.
That lack of people in the health care pipeline won't help fill the demand for providers on his reservation, he says.
"I think that skilled nursing, physicians and primary care providers are definitely needed," said Walker. "You need a reinvigoration of youth and hopefully that can stimulate the health care community to move forward and become even more progressive than it is now. The health care they're providing now is fantastic, but a lot of these elder physicians will retire sometime soon and it would be great to get some students in there and really looking at pharmacy and nursing and any medical career."
Walker is one of several Native students studying health sciences on Spokane's Riverpoint Campus. He credits Robbie Paul, the director for Native American Recruitment and Retention at the College of Nursing, with creating a supportive atmosphere for him and his peers.
"It's not a 'you-against-the-world' type of setting. You're not all alone," he said. "There are a lot of people who understand your cultural background, your study habits, your lifestyle, that can really relate and can help you in that process."
Walker became a tutor at the Native American Student Center on the WSU Pullman campus. He's also been a counselor with the university's summer Na-ha-shnee Native Science Institute and is scheduled to do that again this summer.
As he prepares to head out into the world as a pharmacist, Walker says he looks forward to becoming a mentor.
"I have plenty of role models that I look to and draw from," he said. "Maybe down the line I could have students underneath me and precept them, give them opportunities to further their education. That would be wonderful."
By Doug Nadvornick
Fourth-year doctor of pharmacy student Kevin Walker knows what he wants to do after he graduates in May, 2012.
The Yakama tribal member says he's "looking at a career in the Indian Health Services with the Yakama Tribe. I'd really like to give back in any way I can."
Walker grew up on the Satus, a portion of the Yakama Indian Reservation near Toppenish. His father worked as an emergency medical technician. Walker says when he was young he liked to look through his father's physiology and anatomy books.
Throughout high school and his undergraduate years at WSU, he says he thought about pursuing a health care career. Initially, he focused on research, then after spending a few years in the lab setting, he decided he'd rather work with patients. He found his calling in pharmacy after he served as an intern at the Indian Health Services clinic in Toppenish.
Now Walker is finishing up his fourth-year clinical rotations with an eye on graduation. Starting this summer, he was chosen to serve as the WSU/Providence Visiting Nurse Association Geriatric Resident. After his one-year residency, he's open to working someplace new.
"I feel that getting experience in other areas and different communities can help me bring back the expertise to the Yakima Valley and to the Yakama Tribe," said Walker. "Later on in my career, I'd like to go back to my roots and re-establish some of the relationships I had in the past and, hopefully, improve our health care."
A real need for Native health care workers
Walker says, other than his father, he didn't have many role models in the health sciences when he was growing up. Nor did many of his peers join him in his chosen career.
"I don't know of many (Native American) students I went to school with in the lower Valley that went into health care or even a postsecondary degree of any sort," he said.
That lack of people in the health care pipeline won't help fill the demand for providers on his reservation, he says.
"I think that skilled nursing, physicians and primary care providers are definitely needed," said Walker. "You need a reinvigoration of youth and hopefully that can stimulate the health care community to move forward and become even more progressive than it is now. The health care they're providing now is fantastic, but a lot of these elder physicians will retire sometime soon and it would be great to get some students in there and really looking at pharmacy and nursing and any medical career."
Walker is one of several Native students studying health sciences on Spokane's Riverpoint Campus. He credits Robbie Paul, the director for Native American Recruitment and Retention at the College of Nursing, with creating a supportive atmosphere for him and his peers.
"It's not a 'you-against-the-world' type of setting. You're not all alone," he said. "There are a lot of people who understand your cultural background, your study habits, your lifestyle, that can really relate and can help you in that process."
Walker became a tutor at the Native American Student Center on the WSU Pullman campus. He's also been a counselor with the university's summer Na-ha-shnee Native Science Institute and is scheduled to do that again this summer.
As he prepares to head out into the world as a pharmacist, Walker says he looks forward to becoming a mentor.
"I have plenty of role models that I look to and draw from," he said. "Maybe down the line I could have students underneath me and precept them, give them opportunities to further their education. That would be wonderful."