The inaugural class at the University of Central Florida’s medical school all receive scholarships covering tuition and living expenses. I believe the Cleveland Clinic is also trying something similar.
Mortgage-sized school debt is the primary factor driving medical students to specialties. Completely subsidizing medical school is an important step in possibly diverting the tide towards primary care.
Related posts:
- Free medical school for students who choose primary care?
- Would you accept a lower salary if you could graduate from medical school debt free?
- School debt influences the career choice of medical students
- Medical students lobby Congress for lower medical school tuition
- Medical students avoiding primary care, is it more than money?
- Graduate medical school debt-free?
- My take: Night float, free medical school, triage and disease management
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 4 comments }
Maybe. But going into a specialty after not having a mortgage-sized debt might be even *more* attractive.
great point lurker, I did not think of that
It’s not just the debt. It’s also the culture of medicine that prevents students from going into primary care. Debt is only a piece of the puzzle. There is very minimal understanding within the medical community that one of the biggest disincentives to primary care is the disdain with which many primary care providers are treated by academic bigwigs, or the frequent digs at primary care (You’re too smart to be a primary care provider, you’re wasting your talents, etc.)
How exactly would this add to the primary care? Would the students sign a contract to always be a primary care physician? Sounds like a pact with the devil to me.
Comments on this entry are closed.