Reducing medical student debt: 12 practical tips for innovative service commitment awards

Michelle Schmude,Roxanne Seymore,Suzanne Mcnamara

doi:10.15694/mep.2019.000167.1

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. At Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (GCSOM), we are developing strategies to reduce the rising debt of our medical students. During a collaborative and iterative process that involved a surprisingly wide group of stakeholders, we developed an innovative service commitment award for medical students: the Abigail Geisinger Scholars Program. Beginning with the spring 2019, GCSOM selected 10 current students for the program, and an additional 10 medical students from the class of 2023 will receive the award beginning in fall 2019. With 20 students enrolled in the Abigail Geisinger Scholars Program, student debt for these students will be decreased by approximately $3.9 million. The potential of this program to significantly reduce medical student debt while repopulating the physician shortage in the primary service areas of Geisinger is tremendous. As the loan debt of medical students continues to rise, medical schools around the country should strategically think about innovative ways to reduce this burden while remaining true to the mission of their institution.

Highlights

The road to medical school, residency, and practice as a physician is a long and arduous one, but increasing numbers of college graduates are applying to medical school (Association of American Medical Colleges, 2018)
These 32,194 medical school graduates are on their way to becoming practicing physicians, many are faced with an overwhelming amount of medical school debt
How much can we expect medical students to borrow before the cost of medical school deters qualified candidates from taking care of the aging population of the United States? This question must be addressed as we face a looming physician shortage and rising debt of medical school graduates

Summary

Introduction

The road to medical school, residency, and practice as a physician is a long and arduous one, but increasing numbers of college graduates are applying to medical school (Association of American Medical Colleges, 2018). Adding urgency to our attempts to mitigate the adverse effects of medical school debt, we are acutely aware that more than 23% of our medical students are the first in their families to attend university and must borrow to finance their educations (Scheinman, 2019) To address these needs, we have developed a service commitment award known as the Abigail Geisinger Scholars Program. After we gathered and evaluated the information received from our students and the college community, the Abigail Geisinger Scholars Committee made final recommendations to the Geisinger Executive Leadership Team and the Geisinger Board of Directors, and the Board approved implementation beginning in the spring 2019 semester At this stage, the committee developed a detailed time line with established deliverables such a presentation regarding the program and the loan agreement. We will review potential areas for further research and advance our continuous quality improvement

Conclusion

Findings

Notes On Contributors