UNMC History: Rallying to aid refugee physicians

In early 1975, in response to the plight of Vietnamese refugees, 19 Nebraska communities recruited and sponsored a total of 30 refugee physicians and their families, bringing them to Nebraska to practice family medicine in the various sponsoring communities across the state.

Participating communities included Ashland, Albion, Beatrice, Bridgeport, Cedar Rapids, Clay Center, Humboldt, Imperial, Loup City, Mullen, Norfolk, Shelton, Sutherland and Wauneta.

The Nebraska Legislature appropriated $50,000 as seed money to help provide a cultural orientation and English-language program for the physicians and their families, as well as providing continuing medical education. Regularly scheduled continuing education programs at UNMC were all that was required for updating the physicians’ qualifications to prepare to pass the medical examinations required by the state of Nebraska in order to practice medicine.

In June 1975, three UNMC faculty members interviewed each refugee physician to determine their ability to understand and comprehend the English language, as well as to review their credentials, past experience and knowledge of medicine. The medical faculty asked each physician a number of questions, both written and oral, and determined that English was a most significant problem. It would be very difficult to determine whether their English language ability was in fact an impediment to providing correct medical responses or if there were significant deficiencies in their medical training.

The physicians and a number of their family members took a diagnostic English language test. Based on these tests, the physicians and their families were grouped into a number of subgroups — in terms of their ability to speak, write and comprehend English — for a formal eight-week program in English language cultural orientation.

An advisory committee comprised of representatives of each of the basic science and clinical science departments in the College of Medicine was formed and became a curriculum committee for the educational program for the refugee physicians. Medical instruction for the participating physicians began in July 1975 and concluded in April 1976.

The medical education program for these refugee physicians was designed to meet both their perceived and actual educational needs. Specific objectives for the program were to assist the sponsoring communities by helping the physicians prepare to pass their state medical exams, and to familiarize the doctors with quality American medical practice and problems associated with practicing medicine in Nebraska.