The Legislature hereby finds and declares, as follows: (

a) There is an inadequate supply of physicians, family nurse practitioners, and physician assistants who provide primary care to individuals and families in low-income urban and rural areas of California. (

b) Current training for health professionals, which occurs almost exclusively in clinics and hospitals, rarely provides students with opportunities to provide community-based medical care to families in low-income neighborhoods. As a result, relatively few health professionals choose to practice in low-income neighborhoods after completion of their training. (

c) Most medical graduates are unprepared to deal with the complex interwoven social, cultural, economic, environmental, and educational aspects of disease prevention and health promotion. As a result, health professionals frequently have limited impact on the prevention or treatment of entrenched community health problems, including teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and domestic violence. (

d) Community-based education for health professionals has proven successful in other states, including Washington and Kentucky, in doing all of the following:

(1) Increasing the number of primary care health professionals practicing in low-income areas.

(2) Promoting the use of multi-disciplinary teams composed of health and human services professionals to jointly address community health problems. (

e) It is in the state’s best interest that California medical schools be encouraged to develop coursework and practice for community-based education as a part of professional training for physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. It is further in the state’s best interest that community-based education programs be evaluated to determine their effects on increasing the number of health care professionals practicing in low-income, medically underserved communities.