by Christopher Sanchez
Daily Lobo
UNM's School of Medicine is requesting about $1.5 million from the state Legislature for a program aimed at recruiting students outside city limits.
The combined bachelor of arts and medical degree program was designed to guide 25 rural New Mexico high school students through their undergraduate studies and through medical school. The program was funded by the state Legislature last year, and the program will have its first enrollment in the fall.
Every year the School of Medicine enrolls 75 new students, but the program will add 25 slots.
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It is good to have a program set up specifically for rural areas, because rural areas are more likely to be medically underserved, said Paul Roth, vice president of the Health Sciences Center.
"Most parts of rural New Mexico are places where family would have to drive some distance to get into a hospital or see a doctor or specialist in particular," he said.
In New Mexico, 40 percent of practicing physicians are UNM graduates, but the numbers are not enough, Roth said. He said in order to get more UNM graduates to practice in New Mexico, the school must enroll more residents in rural areas where health care is underserved.
"We know students will gravitate back to where they have roots in, either them or their spouse's roots," he said. "It's a natural understanding. That's where their family and friends are."
Roth said the medical school has an obligation to enroll New Mexico residents. "When the school was first created, it was with the idea that we would provide the opportunity for New Mexicans to obtain a medical education and at same time address the concern of medically underserved areas within the state," Roth said.
The program will begin next year, and the funding will provide scholarships and advisement to the 25 incoming freshmen enrolled in the program.
"What we want them to do is not worry about getting a job to pay for tuition," he said. "We want them to worry about doing well in studies."
The money will also pay for more faculty, he said.
Roth said it is vital the Legislature approves to fund the program for another year or the program could end.
"We obviously have an obligation for those we admitted, so we would have to meet our obligation for students already admitted," he said. "If we don't get additional funding from the state, then we would not be able to do the program."
UNM's School of Medicine will continue to request recurring funding for the program for the next eight years, Roth said.
There are about 33 other medical schools around the county who have a combined degree program, Roth said. He said learning from other schools' mistakes will help the program at UNM succeed.
"We added things more appropriately to address the needs of New Mexico and the specific needs in our communities," he said, adding it took two years of preparation of the program. "We will learn from actual experience and always keep in mind to get more doctors for medically underserved areas."
