KEARNEY — As the $93 million Rural Health Education Building takes shape at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, supporters are confident the facility will be ready to open in 2026.
That’s when the building will begin enrolling medical students to address rural Nebraska’s critical shortage of doctors and other health care professionals.
Opening the building on time is one thing, said Dr. Bradley Britigan. Filling it with medical students presents a challenge of its own.
As dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Britigan worries whether Nebraska can establish the “pipeline” of students needed to make the Rural Health Education Building a success and prove the strategy that’s driving it — that students who learn medicine in a rural setting are more prone to practice medicine in a rural setting.
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Speaking at the Kearney Sertoma Club meeting last week, Britigan said when the new training center is fully operational, 80 medical students will be receiving their early training in the Kearney facility.
The Rural Health Education Building will fill gradually. Britigan said 20 medical students are anticipated in 2026, another 20 students will enroll in 2027, and 20 more students will start in 2028. The 20 students who enter in 2029 will put the Rural Health Education Center at its 80-student capacity.
Recruitment of the initial 20 students will begin in about a year. Britigan said recruitment will focus on addressing a variety of needs the medical students will bring with them to Kearney.
With medical school debt in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of the students will need scholarships. They all will need places to live, something to eat and doctors in rural Nebraska who are willing to share their knowledge and time with the students as preceptors.
Physicians already are busy, so “it’s a big ask” to recruit them as preceptors, knowing students will be following them around, asking questions and expecting hands-on experience, Britigan said.
There’s not a better way that the preceptor model for students to become physicians, but the learning depends on physicians willing to stretch their time to care for patients while they give medical students a large slice of their time.
Britigan said he’s very optimistic. Initial talks with physicians at Kearney Regional Medical Center and CHI Health Good Samaritan were positive. Doctors practicing at those facilities said they’re behind the UNMC-UNK partnership building the Rural Health Education Building and want to offer their time and knowledge as preceptors.
Britigan said support of the local medical community is encouraging. Initial talks with the medical community in other Nebraska hospitals also has been positive.
Britigan said physicians in Grand Island, Hastings, North Platte and potentially Scottsbluff will be recruited as preceptors. There also may be instructional roles for physicians in hospitals including Holdrege and Gothenburg, Britigan said.
He said time is one of the largest hurdles for Nebraska’s rural health education model. That’s because so many Nebraska physicians are nearing retirement. They won’t be practicing in a few years, and that means the field of potential preceptors will shrink with each retirement.
If there’s a weak spot in Nebraska’s rural training strategy, it’s the physician shortage that’s more acute each year. Meanwhile, eight years of experience with the rural training strategy suggests Nebraska is on the right tack.
Tracking graduates of the Health Science Education Complex, which opened in 2015 at UNK, supports the belief that training in rural settings does lead more health care professionals to careers in rural Nebraska.
So far, 85% of Health Science Education Complex graduates are practicing in rural Nebraska, Britigan said.
PHOTOS: Sandhill cranes at dusk near Gibbon
Photos from the sun setting on the Platte River near Gibbon.
Thousands of Sandhill cranes flock to the Platte River on Wednesday, April 3.
Cranes at dusk
The sun sets on the Platte River on Wednesday.
Cranes at dusk
Cranes dot the horizon as the sun sets on the Platte River.
Cranes at dusk
A smattering of Sandhill cranes fly over the Platte River as the horizon shows a purple hue on Wednesday. Photo taken looking east from the Pl…
Cranes near Gibbon
A flock of Sandhill cranes take off out of a cornfield off Gibbon Road on Wednesday.
Cranes at dusk
ABOVE: A flock of Sandhill cranes take off out of a cornfield off Gibbon Road on Wednesday. RIGHT: A smattering of Sandhill cranes fly over th…
Cranes over the Platte
Cranes fly over the Platte River near Gibbon as the sun sets.
Cranes at dusk
A crowd gathers on the Plautz Crane Viewing Deck off Lowell Road near Gibbon to watch the cranes on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Visitors that ni…
Cranes over the Platte
The Platte River at dusk.
Cranes at dusk
Sandhill cranes fly over the Platte River as the horizon shows a purple hue on Wednesday, April 3.
Cranes at dusk
A flying V of Sandhill cranes soar over the Platte River on Wednesday, April 3 near Gibbon.
Cranes at dusk
Cranes fly over the Platte River at dusk on Wednesday, April 3.
Cranes at dusk
Cranes fly overhead at the Plautz Crane Viewing Deck near Gibbon on Wednesday, April 3.
Cranes near Gibbon
Sandhill cranes eat and mill about in a cornfield off Gibbon Road.
Cranes near Gibbon
A group of Sandhill cranes gather in a cornfield near Gibbon.
Cranes near Gibbon
Cranes gather in a field near Gibbon.
Sandhill cranes gather near Gibbon.