STUDENT SUPPORT

Taking Care of Health Care

Health care is much on the minds of Americans today, as costs continue to escalate and an estimated 47 million Americans are left without basic health insurance coverage, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

But even those with good health coverage are not immune from the threat to quality health care posed by a growing, even acute problem nationwide: the shortage of physicians and nurses needed to care for an aging population.

The Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME), a national advisory body that makes policy recommendations regarding the size of the physician workforce, predicts that if current trends continue, demand for physicians will significantly outweigh supply by 2020. It recommends that medical schools expand the number of graduates by 3,000 per year by 2015.

In nursing, the shortage is reaching crisis proportions. Demand for nurses is expected to exceed supply by more than a million by 2020, and the implications for patient care and patient safety are troubling.

These are problems faced by communities throughout the U.S., made even more daunting in a state like Vermont, with its small population base and remote, difficult-to-serve rural areas.

But thanks to the Freeman Foundation of New York, New York, and Stowe, Vermont, significant efforts are in place at the University of Vermont to counter these trends and ensure that Vermonters will have access to the numbers of doctors and nurses needed to deliver quality health care today and into the future.

The Freeman Medical Scholars Program has been in existence since 2000, with the goal of providing incentives for medical students to stay in Vermont and for physicians being recruited to practice in Vermont, especially in rural and underserved regions.

Since inception, 400 UVM medical students who make a commitment to return to Vermont to practice have become Freeman Medical Scholars, receiving generous scholarship support. Most are still in training at the College of Medicine or in postgraduate residency training programs, and others have already become practicing physicians in Vermont or are serving Vermonters in practices in adjacent states.

In addition, the Freeman Educational Loan Repayment Program recruits physicians to practice in Vermont and helps to retain them in the state. As every medical student knows, the educational debt burden at the end of medical school can be a heavy load. The Freeman Educational Loan Repayment Program offers physicians, including those just completing residency training, much-needed assistance in repaying a portion of their medical school loans in return for a commitment to practice in Vermont. Seventy-one physicians have been recruited to Vermont since the program began.

In all, 134 physicians are practicing in Vermont today, in each of its fourteen counties, who likely would not have been there without the assistance of the Freeman Medical Scholarships and Freeman Educational Loan Repayment Program.

The Freemans also established a Freeman Nurse Scholars Program that has had a similar positive impact in the nursing profession. Since 2001 when the program began, 280 Vermont nursing students from UVM and the Vermont State Colleges have received Freeman merit-based scholarships, and 180 Nurse Scholars have graduated and are employed as nurses in Vermont.

All in all, including its support for the University's Asian Studies Program, the Freeman Foundation has been the largest single donor to The Campaign for the University of Vermont, with gifts totaling nearly $24.5 million.

"Although the Freeman programs are still relatively young, they have had a remarkable impact on health care in Vermont," said Dr. Mildred A. Reardon MD,67, director of the Freeman Medical Scholars Program. "Already, nearly 1 in 10 of Vermont's physicians have been recruited to and retained in Vermont because they received a Freeman Scholarship, Freeman Educational Loan Repayment award to reduce their educational debt, or both. The Freeman family should be very proud that their support has placed physicians and nurses in communities where historically it has been difficult to get care, and where the need is only growing as the population ages."