Olubukayo Akinyemi
Santa Barbara native Olubukayo Akinyemi recently received help in her efforts to provide health care to underserved communities.
The UCSB graduate is one of 175 health professionals who were awarded the United Health Foundation Diversity In Health Care Scholarship this past December.
These awards are part of the foundation’s broader $100 million philanthropic commitment over 10 years to help address health disparities and advance health equity in communities across the country. The second round of applications for this scholarship opened on Feb. 13, and the goal is to award 475 additional scholarships.
“It was a struggle in the last year going between clinical experience and gaining hours. I haven’t been able to work as much,” Ms. Akinyemi told the News-Press. “So being granted this scholarship relieves a huge burden off me as I prepare to graduate. It allows me to focus on my clients and the care I provide for them.”
Ms. Akinyemi is a registered nurse and is using the scholarship to fund her master’s degree in science and nursing with an emphasis on psychiatric care, at the University of Austin in Texas. She graduated from UCSB with her bachelor’s degree in biopsychology.
Her master’s degree will allow her to take the national board exam for nurse practitioners.
After Ms. Akinyemi graduated from UCSB, she stayed in Santa Barbara through the summer and worked as a registered nurse.
After that, she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked in global health, and that allowed her to go to Panama and Malaysia and help patients there.
She also worked at St. Joseph Center in Los Angeles for just over three years, and that helped her to envision the next chapter in her career.
“Only 3% of nurse practitioners are people of color,” she said. “However, over 50% of people experiencing homelessness are people of color. Because of that disparity, clients aren’t often comfortable repeating trauma to their practitioners. Therefore, practitioners aren’t often getting all the information they need from clients.”
Ms. Akinyemi talked to the News-Press about why she is passionate about mental health and psychiatric care.
“Just working in L.A. as a case manager and working with social workers, I was seeing the disparity in care,” Ms. Akinyemi said. She added she was seeing things that practitioners missed.
Instead of being the middleman, Ms. Akinyemi wanted to be a practitioner.
“Growing up in Santa Barbara, I worked as a tutor in Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Valley. As a tutor, I saw a lot of students having issues at home causing them to lose focus,” Ms. Akinyemi said. “Teachers don’t have time to have intensive intervention. Because tutors are closer in age, children are telling us about issues that are affecting their ability to learn and graduate.”
Ms. Akinyemi moved to Austin about three years ago for her master’s program. She is set to graduate with her master’s in May.
“I am currently applying to residency programs in child and adolescence and the VA. My goal is to do lifespan work, but I want to continue the focus on community mental health. I feel that will be beneficial to me as I move forward.
“There isn’t a lot of support as a practitioner by yourself. I want to gain all the tools I can to provide the sufficient care that my clients deserve.”
Ms. Akinyemi has the following advice for upcoming graduates.
“Just follow your passion, I have had a different road that led me to this work. It all started during undergrad. Ask questions and reach out to those who are doing what you want to do.
“Have those experiences early so you can decide where that path will lead.”
email: kzehnder@newspress.com
