Humans of UNAC/UHCP: Alicia Munoz, PharmD
Both of my parents were born in Mexico. When they came here to the United States, my mom was pregnant with me. They came here for a better life and that's exactly what they accomplished for their lives and the lives of their children. There are five of us. My parents worked hard; they sent us to private schools. They made sure my siblings and I got a great education and reinforced the importance of getting a college education and not just stopping at high school.
“Both of my parents were born in Mexico. When they came here to the United States, my mom was pregnant with me. They came here for a better life and that’s exactly what they accomplished for their lives and the lives of their children. There are five of us. My parents worked hard; they sent us to private schools. They made sure my siblings and I got a great education and reinforced the importance of getting a college education and not just stopping at high school.
“Because there were five of us, I did work through high school. I wanted to help out and save for college. Their strong work ethic influenced me. My sister is also a pharmacist. She was a year behind me in school, but we helped each other study and compared notes.
“Family and culture were important, too. We went every year to visit my grandparents in Mexico and see where and how they lived on their ranch.
“At home, we spoke Spanish. When I started school in kindergarten, I had to learn English pretty quickly. In my elementary school years, I kind of wanted to assimilate to the American culture as much as possible.
“As I grew older and entered junior high school, we kept visiting Mexico more often. I started to appreciate our culture and the richness of it all.
“Today that Spanish we spoke and the culture we appreciated both help me here at Panorama City providing patient care. It is really important to have that ability to communicate with Spanish-speaking patients.
“At Kaiser, I have qualified bilingual status (QBS). I am QBS second level: It was a tough test in terms of all the medical terminology. I have the ability to provide services in Spanish in various healthcare settings, which has helped me be a better pharmacist. I am not only helping English-speaking patients but Spanish-speaking patients too. I am helping them understand their treatment, and what their doctor has told them. Sometimes I reiterate the whole treatment plan because they didn’t fully understand the doctor, or if once patients learn that I speak Spanish, they will be more open to speaking more about their symptoms, conditions, medications, or any questions that they may have.
“I’ve learned over the years that being a good advocate for patients comes down to listening and being a resource—particularly during COVID. I know many communities suffered. Diabetes is prevalent in the Mexican community, so there were a lot of patients who were hit hard. One friend’s entire family caught COVID. My friend and her mom passed, and that was at the beginning of COVID and that was pretty tough. I was scared for my own family. It made it real. I just wanted to make sure all other patients, including my family, kept relatively healthy and kept up with their medications. If they have diabetes, that’s something that they have to be careful with and make sure they keep that in control, along with following guidelines and mask mandates.
“Family is so important in my life: We come from a very large family. My mom was the second of 16 children; my dad is the youngest of five. So, I have a lot of cousins. We like to hang out together. We have dinner. We’re at a lot of softball games: My daughter plays. My godson plays baseball. My husband is an assistant coach.
“We also try to travel as much as possible to Mexico. My daughter loves her grandfather’s ranch and going to see her great-grandmother.
“The union has also been very important. In such a big corporation that we work for, it helps that our contracts make sure that we do have a good healthy work-life balance and that we get compensated the way we deserve. We were so glad that we were able to stand up for our rights, and advocate for our patients and families.”
—Alicia Munoz, PharmD, Kaiser Permanente Panorama City