Kash Vang's father needed medical attention, but he did not trust doctors. When he finally went, he received a diagnosis of gallstones and a recommendation for surgery.

"My father didn't understand the concept of surgery," said Vang, a Hmong who came with his family from Southeast Asia to the United States in 1989 and settled in Oroville.

At times, Vang recalled, the cultural gap between his father and the American-born doctor seemed insurmountable.

"The doctor became frustrated. He said, 'If you keep coming to me and won't have the surgery, there's nothing I can do for you.' He started yelling at me and my father. I was stuck in two worlds, not speaking Hmong all that well and not speaking English all that well, either."

That moment stuck in Vang's mind and helped define his career path.

"(The doctor) pushed a button and made me think I didn't like his attitude, and I wanted to make a change," Vang said.

At that very moment, Vang said, he decided to become a doctor -- better and more compassionate than the one that he and his father saw that day.

Vang is now in his first of three years in the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency's family practice residency program.

He is 26, a graduate of the University of California at Davis medical school, and is now learning family-practice medicine from licensed physicians.

Like Vang, other students in the residency program have been motivated by language barriers, racial stereotyping and other cultural issues.

The students hope that in their work as doctors they can ease frustrations like those experienced by their elders.

Revived in 1975 after a two-year hiatus, the residency program since has produced 187 doctors, and 55 of them still practice in Stanislaus County. It accepts nine new students each year, taking the best from about 200 applicants.

"We look for three things," said Dr. John Payne, program director. "Is this a person who communicates well? Have they done well enough in medical school to take advantage of the training here? And is this a person who is really interested in serving other people or are they in it for themselves?"

The chosen few work alongside local doctors and senior residents at various county health care facilities and at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto.

Juan Lopez-Solorza graduated from the program three years ago and now is on staff with the county in Modesto.

The 34-year-old physician said the program is vital because of the shortage of doctors in California. Increased workloads and control by insurance providers have made the medical profession less rewarding, both emotionally and financially.

"I have doctor friends who push their kids totally away from medicine," Lopez-Solorza said.

The lack of available health care convinced Jorge Del Valle that he needed to provide it.

Del Valle, 29, was born in Modesto at a time when his family was at work in county orchards and fields.

Before he was a month old, his mother took him to Mexico, where he lived until returning to Modesto at age 15.

"I never had health (insurance) coverage until I joined the (residency) program," Del Valle said. "It was hard to see a doctor."

It's been just as hard to become one. As a student at Beyer High School in Modesto, a counselor tried to talk him out of taking college prep courses.

"I wanted to take a chemistry class," he said. "She said, 'Forget about it. Take a PE class instead -- something easier.'"

Fortunately, his instructors at Beyer saw the potential that one counselor dismissed. They were extremely supportive, he said.

"And I was a little too persistent to let one person do that to me," Del Valle said.

He's now within six months of completing his residency and opening a practice in Modesto.

Vang, meanwhile, is just getting started in the program, but already has impressed the program director.

"He's been a very competent physician," Payne said. "He has excellent skills, people skills and medical judgment."

It took three years and lots of pain before Vang helped convince his father the gall bladder operation would help.

"He finally had the surgery," Vang said.

His father now trusts doctors.

"He does," Vang said. "And I'm one of 'em, so "

Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at 578-2383 or jjardine@modbee.com

Reprinted by permission of the Modesto Bee.