From the Dean: On the road…again
As much as I enjoyed the quiet beauty of a North Dakota winter during my travels to Fargo, Bismarck, and Minot earlier this year, I was awestruck by the vibrant beauty of our state in the summer.
Last week, I took a road trip to hold conversations with some of our North Dakota legislators, alumni, clinical faculty, and community and healthcare leaders in Rugby, Velva, Minot, Bismarck, and Jamestown.
Let me tell you – across our state folks are so excited about what we’re up to here at North Dakota’s school of medicine and health sciences.
Not only are stakeholders excited about our many existing programs, but they wanted very much to discuss our vision to recruit and retain more North Dakota students for health professions, grow our class sizes, and expand our physical space.
We’re pursuing each of these opportunities and more to deliver on our promise of increasing access to high quality healthcare through workforce development and partnerships with healthcare delivery partners.
To help further address this provider deficit, we’re also exploring the feasibility of a new program for our medical curriculum that would generate more primary care providers – family medicine in particular – sooner.
During my tenure as dean at the University of South Carolina, I brought to our team the idea of an accelerated M.D. primary care. I’d like to build something similar for North Dakota: a Primary Care Accelerated Track (PCAT).
Such a program would begin with a Family Medicine focus and would offer students with an interest in practicing family medicine in a rural area the chance to complete medical school in three years and enter a family medicine residency in the state. The trade-off for these students would be tuition and fee coverage and a commitment that they stay in-state for rural primary care practice for five years.
There was great energy and enthusiasm for this program across the many conversations held last week with comments like “sounds like a great approach,” “glad you’re pursuing this,” and “can’t wait to see this program take hold.”
More on all of this soon.
Then, last week, Dr. Ken Ruit, senior associate dean for academic affairs accompanied me to Sioux Falls, S.D., to visit with our colleagues at the University of South Dakota’s Sanford School of Medicine. Because both Dakotas face similar issues in the provision of healthcare to rural and underserved areas, we’re hoping we can find more and better ways to collaborate in the future.
I’m making these trips and meeting with our supporters – from legislators and healthcare providers to alumni and donors – in great part because our purpose is to serve all of North Dakota and provide a benefit to its people.
We’re exploring new and innovative ways to do this every day.
Finally, next week is Homecoming Week at UND!
Steve and I just cannot wait to see so many of you at our several Homecoming events, including our Milestone Alumni Banquet!
Speaking of alumni, big congratulations to Drs. John Gray and Karen Schmidt-Gray, who are being honored for “Distinguished Achievement & Leadership” by the UND Alumni Association & Foundation (AAF), and Dr. Michael Greenwood, an alum of ours receiving a “Young Alumni Award” from the Foundation.
I’m looking forward to visiting with these exceptional alumni, and our many graduates returning to town next week.
Marjorie R. Jenkins, M.D., MEdHP, FACP
Vice President for Health Affairs, UND
Dean, School of Medicine & Health Sciences
