Health professionals education represents one of the South's major successes….. despite increases in the overall supply ….. serious problems of distribution of professionals to geographic, subspecialty, and public service areas of need continue, except for those situations in which carefully coordinated strategies have been directed to specific problems Southern Regional Education Board 1983
When loan forgiveness programs have been instituted without any other strategies, the results have been dismal. But when they have been combined with other efforts, such as careful selection of candidates who are motivated to work in the areas of need, specially designed teaching experiences, and counseling and placement services, they have been quite successful. Southern Regional Education Board 1983
Books such as Bruce and Norton’s Improving Rural Health, Arkansas Approach, chapters, bibliographies, collections of models, major journal articles, and Congressional Hearings and reports have outlined successful methods that continue to be ignored.
The problem has been the lack of coordination so that the individual steps become a process focused on preparing physicians specifically for the challenges of practicing in underserved areas. The next step involves adapting these models and approaches to a variety of locations. The various efforts need to be combined and coordinated. This takes a special faculty member that is willing to work in a different way. This in itself is a challenge, as evidenced by the difficulties met by Florida State in their LCME accreditation delays.