By Dianne Anderson

When Dr. Candice Taylor Lucas is not waxing poetic on the harder sides of being a Black female doctor standing tall in stilettos, she is taking whatever steps needed to heal others so they too may not stumble or fall.

Just getting through the hospital doors, for Black doctors or patients, is an arduous, often painful, journey.

It’s not unusual for her to reflect on Toni Morrison’s timeless insight, that, “The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.”

She finds that Morrison captures the essence of what it feels like to be a hardworking physician, a scholar, striving to promote the health and well-being of the community, all while navigating bias, pressed to prove self-worth.

“It steals time and focus. Racism also delays opportunities for progress and directly impacts patient care and health outcomes, with a disproportionate impact on Black communities,” Dr. Lucas, MD, MPH, FAAP and Health Sciences, Associate Clinical Professor at UC Irvine School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics.

For all its challenges, she deflects the systemic microaggressions, comments and stressors, drawing strength from the community she serves.

“Caring for clinically for patients and communities who fill me with joy, and teaching and mentoring trainees who are inspirational — it enables me to deal with encounters of racism and sexism,” said Dr. Lucas, who is also Co-Director, Program in Medical Education, Leadership Education to Advance Diversity – African, Black and Caribbean (PRIME LEAD-ABC).

As a Black female physician and pediatrician, she appreciates that special connection with her Black and “minoritized” patients and families. Supporting young Black girls and their aspirations toward working in STEM fields is inspiring, despite the constrictions.

“I feel that I am able to, in some ways, demonstrate that you too can achieve becoming a doctor and you belong in the field of medicine and in this place of academic medicine as well,” she said.

She remembers early on in her tenure, one of her favorite moments as an attending physician with UCI Health was when she walked into a clinic room to see a young girl coming in for a regular well-care checkup.

Both of them were wearing their hairstyle natural. When she opened the door, the girl had a huge smile.

“Any fear that she may have had about visiting me, as her new doctor, faded in that moment. That connection was priceless. It helped support her trust of me and it also helped my sense of belonging as a doctor at UCI as well,” she said.

If Lucas could go back and advise her younger self on getting through the race maze, it would be pragmatic, to know that the journey would be challenging, but it could save a life.

“Stand in your excellence, learn from both your successes and mistakes, prioritize time for yourself and your family, and continue to hold fast to your faith,” she said.

Today, she gives similar advice to her mentees about getting around the system that is stacked against them. At the same time, she recognizes without the phenomenal support from family, friends, colleagues and mentors, she wouldn’t be where she is today. Seeing her mentors persevere in the face of diverse barriers has been empowering.

She is extremely proud of their PRIME LEAD-ABC medical student scholars in the UCI School of Medicine. They are trailblazers as medical students and future physician-leaders with boundless intelligence, work ethic, and diverse talents.

“I am truly grateful for all they are doing to confront Anti-Blackness and promote health equity – through academic excellence, community engagement, service, research, and advocacy – they’re also working hard as medical students. They are exceptional,” she said.

Vera Scott, in her field of nursing, also sees unequal health care is also playing out in her field of nursing. Black nurses are few and far between compared to when she started decades ago as a registered nurse.

She is concerned about the need for more Black medical professionals to impact community health, and at the same time, there seems to be a lack of interest for high school students. In her day, people dreamed of being doctors and nurses.

Scott said that the continued dwindling representation of Black nurses will hurt the community in multiple ways. For starters, having more Black health professionals opens the door to better communication.

“When you have somebody who looks like you in the profession, they’re more likely to take time with you and you can open up and share. In the health profession now, because everything is so fast-paced, people are not listening to people,” said Scott, a business owner in holistic health, and member of the  member of the Health Equity for African Americans League (HEAAL) Collective.

She referenced the California Board of Registered Nursing 2020 Survey of Registered Nurses, which shows that Black nurses under 35 years old are at 3.2%. She said many nurses backed off the profession during COVID-19, and many retired.

If Black students haven’t been exposed to the sciences, it’s harder to get into a nursing school, not counting a typical one year wait list to get in, but nurses could fair better going for their LVN and then BSN.

She said one solution to drawing more Black nurses and medical professionals into the field is reaching out with career days that start as young as grade school to cultivate their curiosity while they are still imagining their futures.

A few years ago, she retired from a large hospice provider, at a time when the Black community took the hardest hit from COVID, dying three times more than whites.

Having served as a nurse throughout the spectrum of life, she feels that with Black doctors and nurses not as available as they should be, then Black patients must learn to advocate for themselves and guard their health.

A lot of it starts with the food supply.

“We’ve got all the bells and whistles in the health system, but we’re still dying. It starts with the food. Food sends you to the doctor, and the doctor sends you to Big Pharma and then to the hospital. It’s all economics,” she said.

But people must also learn to tell their doctor they want to try a dietician or nutritionist before swallowing all the prescriptions, which might not be the best approach.

“You can’t expect a doctor to save you, that’s not what they’re trying to do. They can’t. You have to be the healthiest version of yourself,” she said.

To learn more about LEAD ABC, see
https://medschool.uci.edu/education/medical-education/mission-based-programs/prime-lead-abc