University of Nebraska Medical Center medical students will
host National Primary Care Day Thursday, Oct. 2, from 10 a.m. to
3 p.m. The purpose of the fourth annual event is to educate
first- and second-year UNMC medical students on the fields of
primary care and encourage students to choose primary care as a
practice.
Primary care includes family medicine, pediatrics,
obstetrics/gynecology and internal medicine. The primary care
physician, commonly called a generalist or family doctor, sees
adults and children with a broad range of health problems.
Primary care also includes the management of acute and chronic
illnesses, prevention, counseling and referrals to specialists.
Primary care physicians are in high demand in Nebraska,
especially in many rural areas where there is a shortage of
physicians. U.S. health experts agree that primary care
physicians should make up the majority of physicians. In the past
25 years, the nation’s total supply of primary care physicians
decreased to about 30 percent of the workforce, according to the
Association of American Medical Colleges.
Organizers of National Primary Care Day at UNMC are
second-year medical students, Kristin Warner of Papillion, and
Cori Kolder of Columbus.
National Primary Care Day activities planned at UNMC for
Thursday, Oct. 2:
• 10 – 10:50 a.m. — Keynote speaker Dan Dietrich,
M.D., family physician, will talk about care of Omaha’s
underserved (those with financial, transportation or language
barriers that limit their accessibility to health care services)
• 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. — a panel of faculty will
talk about why they chose primary care and the challenges of
primary care
• 12:15 – 12:30 p.m. — Presentation on the new
UNMC student-run health center in South Omaha
• 12:30 – 4 p.m. — Students will get hands-on
training in basic laboratory medical tests
"UNMC is training Nebraskans to fill the need for primary
care physicians in rural areas," said Kolder. "As
medical students, we are trying to get first- and second-year
students to think about primary care as a medical career by
making students aware of the value of primary care physicians and
by providing information about the range of career opportunities
available to them." The number of students choosing primary
care now is increasing due to the efforts of medical
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schools across the U.S. UNMC has been involved for decades in
trying to increase the number of students choosing primary care.
In March, 63 percent of UNMC senior medical students entered
primary care residencies, according to Harold M. Maurer, M.D.,
dean of the UNMC College of Medicine. In 1994, it was 44 percent.
UNMC’s goal is to have more than half of its graduating
medical students choose primary care fields.
UNMC currently is ranked 25th out of 125 medical schools in
the nation in the number of medical residents choosing primary
care as their field of medicine, according to Robert Bowman,
M.D., UNMC family medicine department. More than 70 percent of
family physicians practicing in Nebraska graduated from UNMC.
UNMC curriculum and clinical experiences are designed to
increase interest in primary care and in rural health careers.
Every year, 220 UNMC medical students are required to work with
physicians for three weeks in rural Nebraska as part of their
educational requirements.
The student rotations are part of the UNMC Rural Health
Education Network (RHEN), an innovative program developed to help
address the shortage of health professionals in rural Nebraska.
UNMC continues to work with state agencies and communities across
Nebraska to reduce the shortages of physicians and health
professionals in Nebraska.
Primary Care Day is sponsored by the American Medical Student
Association, as well as other national medical associations.
UNMC is the only public academic health science center in the
state. Through its commitment to research, education and patient
care, UNMC has established itself as one of the country’s leading
centers for cancer research and treatment and solid organ
transplantation. Nearly $25 million in research grants and
contracts are awarded to UNMC scientists annually. In addition,
UNMC’s educational programs are responsible for training more
health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other
institution.
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