Tuesday, July 5, 2022

New UC Davis program seeks to identify aspiring doctors at rural-ish community colleges

This is from the UC Davis School of Medicine's press release earlier this week, "UC Davis creates new pathway to medical school that starts in community college."  

UC Davis has received a $1.8 million grant to create a robust pre-med pathway for rural college students. It’s the university’s latest initiative to boost the number of primary care physicians in underserved parts of Northern California.

The new pathway, known as Avenue M (the M is for Medicine) will identify community college students interested in studying health sciences. Staff will provide academic support, ensure students’ seamless transfer to any of three participating four-year colleges, then steer them toward the UC Davis School of Medicine.

Avenue M is the newest pathway developed by UC Davis in response to the shortage of primary care physicians in rural, medically underserved areas of California, most of which are challenged by health disparities.

“The new Avenue M program is critical for students who have the aptitude and desire to enter the medical fields yet may not have believed attainment was within their reach,” said UC Davis Provost Mary S. Croughan. “Like its predecessors Avenue E and Avenue B, which focus on engineering and biological science respectively, Avenue M will help us better fulfill our commitment to serve students from all backgrounds as well as our region as a whole.”

I must say "Avenue M" is an odd name for a program aimed to attract rural students because rural areas and small towns tend not to feature avenues.  

Another program that looks to rural areas to identify human capital (young folks) that might be trained (in particular as lawyers) to return to serve rural areas is here. That is the Rural Law Opportunities Program associated with the University of Nebraska College of Law, University of Nebraska Kearney, Chadron State University and Wayne State University.  Director Anthony Schutz of the University of Nebraska College of Law wrote this update about that program a few months ago.  

Nebraska also has a Rural Health Opportunities Program

Hannah Haksgaard has written the definitive work paralleling recruitment of physicians and recruitment of lawyers to rural places.  

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