First RuralMed Scholar named

Stephanie Lee, a second-year medical student at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Joshua Wynne, vice president for Health Affairs at UND and dean of the SMHS, signed the first RuralMed Scholar contract on May 20. Lee is a native of Mercer, a community in west-central North Dakota with a population of 75 people.

“As Stephanie Lee and Dean Joshua Wynne signed the first RuralMed Scholarship contract, I was visualizing the long-term potential benefit of this new program,” said Judy DeMers, associate dean for student affairs and admissions at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. “It is simply a win-win program.”

The goal of the new RuralMed Scholarship Program at UND’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences is to recruit, educate, and retain physicians who will practice family medicine in rural North Dakota. Family medicine physicians are the most sought after specialty in rural North Dakota; eighty-one percent of North Dakota is designated by the federal government as a primary care physician shortage area.

The RuralMed Scholarship Program seeks to stimulate interest in rural practice by paying a student’s full tuition for four years of medical school—a value of approximately $100,000. In exchange for the tuition waiver, students agree to pursue a career in family medicine and to practice full time in rural North Dakota for five years after completing their residency training. For the RuralMed Program, rural North Dakota is defined as outside the metropolitan areas of Grand Forks-East Grand Forks; Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo; Bismarck-Mandan, and Minot.

“It is bound to assist countless North Dakota students in paying for medical school while removing significant barriers to choosing a primary care medical career,” said DeMers. “At the same time, our rural communities throughout the state will benefit directly with increased access to quality physician services.”

Dean Joshua Wynne hopes that Stephanie will be the first of many students who sign RuralMed agreements. “With the support of the North Dakota Legislature, we’ve reduced one barrier that has limited the number of our students who choose rural practice,” said Wynne.

“For me, the RuralMed contract will be an enormous help in alleviating the burden of student loans when I am finished with medical school,” said Lee.

Once Lee is up and running in her practice, UND’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences will also foster her professional development by providing online and other programs for continuing medical education.

“This means a great deal to me and will allow me to practice family medicine in rural North Dakota without having to worry as much about how I will pay off my loans. I have been interested in practicing family medicine for a long time, so this contract was a perfect fit for me,” said Lee.