Student Debt in Professional Doctoral Health Care Disciplines

Abstract

Introduction. Higher education has been experiencing funding shortfalls in the past several years. While it is apparent that the financial burden has been impacting students in all fields in both undergraduate and graduate education, there is a potentially even greater impact to those earning professional doctoral degrees. With continuously rising costs of professional education, many concerns are arising in regard to the student debt that is being accumulated by students in these disciplines. Therefore, the objective of this research article is to examine the affordability of doctoral education in medicine, pharmacy, and physical therapy. The primary aim is to analyze the financial impact and economic burden of the degree attainment on graduates in their early careers with a secondary aim to assess the trends in historic physical therapy education costs. Methodology. This study utilized publicly available data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to identify salary trends in the professions with a cross comparison to economic frameworks defining the hardships due to loan repayment dollar amounts and structure to examine economic strain on early career providers in medicine, pharmacy, and physical therapy. To assess trends in physical therapy education, Consumer Price Index adjustments were made to professional data, outlining annual and total costs of physical therapy education. Key Findings, Discussion, and Implications. Student indebtedness and salary data suggest significant impact to all disciplines upon their entry into their given profession. However, the implications to entry-level and early career physical therapists are much more severe due to lower earning potential compared to the other disciplines. Conclusion. Students in professional doctoral health care disciplines of medicine, pharmacy, and physical therapy need to be cognizant of their borrowing patterns and institutional costs of their education to avoid possessing financial hardships upon their entry into their given field of practice. Physical therapy students, however, possess high potential for obtaining unmanageable debt due to the costs of education and earning potential early in their career.