For immediate release: October 11, 2007
Contact: Anne McMillin, APR, Public Relations Specialist
Office 775-682-9254
Mobile 702-292-4247
amcmillin@medicine.nevada.edu
School of Medicine's rural recruitment fair targets healthcare professionals, students to address shortages in rural Nevada
Fair set for October 17 at Reno's Peppermill
RENO, Nev.—Healthcare professionals and students interested in learning more about opportunities in rural healthcare should plan on attending the University of Nevada School of Medicine’s “Rural Nevada Opportunities” Health Workforce Recruitment Fair on Wednesday, October 17 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Peppermill Casino in Reno.
Healthcare professional students and resident physicians may be particularly interested to learn more about the student loan forgiveness programs associated with career opportunities in Nevada’s rural settings.
Statistics show that rural America, and Nevada in particular, is facing a looming crisis when it comes to the availability of and access to medical professionals at all levels as the baby boomer generation ages and retirees settle here.
“The number of family doctors must grow by 39-percent over the next 20 years in America to keep up with the nation’s needs. Nevada’s shortage is even more severe than that,” states John Packham, Ph.D., program coordinator for the school's Center for Education and Health Services Outreach, citing figures from the Associated Press and MSNBC. “The Nevada physician workforce needs to double in the next 10 years to keep up with demand.”
Sponsored by the school’s Office of Rural Health, the fair will feature healthcare administrators from across the state who will be available to answer questions on what it’s like to work and live in rural Nevada, discuss compensation and benefits packages and answer a variety of other questions for health professional students considering establishing careers in Nevada. The recruitment fair is open to all healthcare professionals, students and resident physicians.
As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been a leader in healthcare, medical education and research in Nevada since 1969. The School of Medicine includes 16 clinical departments including family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and five nationally recognized departments in basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. The more than 185 doctors of University Health System, the school’s clinical practice, offer care in more than 40 medical specialties and subspecialties with eight physician offices in the Reno/Sparks area and seven in Las Vegas. The school is committed to a best practices approach to medicine and is committed to exceptional healthcare for Nevada now and in the future. For more information visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.