UNM’s School of Medicine Rural Medicine Program and Primary Care Curriculum are some of the strongest in the United States, according to the upcoming issue of U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools for 2018.”
The Rural Medicine Program stands at third place and the Primary Care Curriculum is at number 18. The magazine also ranks the College of Nursing Midwifery Program at seventh nationwide.
For Executive Vice Dean of the UNM School of Medicine Martha Cole McGrew, this news was not much of a surprise.
The UNM School of Medicine was created to provide New Mexico with doctors, and those values are still upheld today, McGrew said. With a medical student curriculum, including work with doctors throughout rural areas of the state and often with an emphasis on underserved communities, roughly 50 percent of this year’s graduating class of UNM medical students chose residencies in primary care.
Last year, UNM’s Primary Care Curriculum was ranked 45th, but McGrew said that was more of a “one-year thing.”
There has been a greater emphasis on the office of community faculty, while state funding has helped students specialize and the alumni office has assisted students in training, she said. This curriculum gives students the opportunity to work with underserved communities with primary care doctors at clinics like One Hope Clinic, she said.
Martin Jurado, an incoming medical student at the UNM School of Medicine, is also a research technician within Project ECHO, a UNM program that supports primary care team members practicing in rural and underserved areas both statewide and nationwide.
“The Primary Care Curriculum and Rural Medicine Program follow a problem-based learning method that incorporates small group learning and early clinical exposure,” Jurado said. “Also, the UNM Rural and Urban Underserved Program was designed specifically for medical students that are interested in serving underserved population groups in New Mexico. I am sure that these teaching styles and programs are contributors to the high rankings UNM has achieved.”
Jurado said 32 out of 33 counties in New Mexico are considered medically underserved, and 12 of those 33 counties are considered rural. Thus, the University developed these programs, allowing students to experience diverse patients and healthcare challenges firsthand.
Fabiha Sabin, a senior medical lab science major, said she sees these programs as excellent opportunities for real world experiences, and she hopes to apply to UNM’s Primary Care Program herself.
Sabin said U.S. News & World Report’s rankings recognize UNM’s “special flavor” at a national level.
“I’m excited to hear that UNM ranks so high...It would help students to think more about applying,” she said, especially if they are from New Mexico.
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Being a part of the UNM School of Medicine helps New Mexico residents feel connected to their communities and return to their hometowns to pursue careers, Sabin said.
With the strong support of UNM School of Medicine Dean Paul Roth and others, the program has flourished, McGrew said.
The doctors who teach and work at the medical center do not do it for money, but rather because they care, she said. Thus, students see role models that “walk the walk.”
McGrew feels the program can improve by continuing to find ways to honor our rural and community instructors as well as providing more opportunities for students to work in rural, underserved communities.
These rankings increase the value and attraction of UNM, Jurado said.
This can draw more students, while federal funding for research is more likely to be set aside for these programs, creating primary providers who can improve healthcare across the state and nation, he said.
For McGrew, the higher UNM is ranked, the more attention is drawn to its programs. Students recognize that one of the School of Medicine’s primary goals is to create medical professionals for our state and ensure the goal is being met.
“If they want to make a difference in the world and they want to be a doctor, then the University of New Mexico School of Medicine is the place to come,” she said.
Elizabeth Sanchez is a reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Beth_A_Sanchez.
