The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) said it is now seeing the positive effects of a $7.6 million federal grant for healthcare students to work in underserved communities in rural Mississippi.
The school’s Department of Family Medicine Clerkship Director Sheree Melton revealed that rural hospitals have begun contracting student grant recipients to work for them after graduation.
“They’ve agreed to come back there and practice for a certain number of years once they’ve finished their residency training,” Melton explained. “They already have a job before they graduate from medical school.”
One student who signed a contract to practice medicine in Winston County, Weston Eldridge, stressed that children in rural areas just need to feel that they are loved and taken care of.
“We did wellness exams at this elementary school – a lot of bellyaches and earaches. Sometimes it was just little children who needed to be loved on. I had such a great day,” Eldridge said.
The $7.6M Grant
In July 2020, the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded the UMMC School of Medicine an annual $1.9 million budget for the 4-year IMPACT program.
The university also received a $5 million supplemental budget at the end of the first year which will be used to fund more medical students to get clinical training in rural medical facilities.
Of all the colleges in the US, the HRSA chose UMMC because of its location. More than half of Mississippi residents live in rural areas.
“This is an opportunity to make a huge difference,” UMMC Vice Dean for Medical Education Loretta Jackson-Williams said. “It can have a lasting impact on health care in this state. It allows us to do the work we’ve been talking about a long time.”