Nebraska program to offer full scholarships to get high-school seniors to study to be rural doctors

A new program from the University of Nebraska at Kearney will award a full-tuition scholarship to five high school seniors who commit to practicing medicine in the rural parts of the state. Participants who complete the pre-medicine requirements at UNK will be admitted to the university's Medical Center College of Medicine, Sara Giboney of the Kearney Hub reports.

"Two campuses today have come together in an effort to educate more physicians for service in rural Nebraska." UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen said at a news conference. "The Kearney Health Opportunities Program is based on the Rural Health Opportunities Program, which was started in 1990 to encourage rural residents to pursue careers in health care and practice in small communities throughout Nebraska," Giboney reports.

Jeff Hill, associate dean of admissions at the College of Medicine, told Giboney the immediate start date for the program was important because a competent and comprehensive primary care physician takes on average 11 years for training, and a third of rural physicians in the state are older than age 55. (Read more)