UNMC partners with UNK in effort to educate more rural physicians

Jeff Hill, M.D., UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen and Peggy Abels at a Tuesday news conference to announce the new KHOP program that is aimed at bringing more physicians to rural Nebraska.

In an effort to meet the demand for family physicians in rural Nebraska, UNMC and the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) have established the Kearney Health Opportunities Program (KHOP).

Workforce projections indicate a critical shortage of physicians in rural Nebraska in the next five to 10 years.

How KHOP works Five students a year will be accepted into the program starting with the 2010-2011 class this fall. Applications are being accepted now. For the 2011-2012 class the deadline to apply is Dec. 1. The students will be accepted into KHOP in their senior year of high school. After completing their undergraduate studies at UNK, students are automatically accepted into medical school at UNMC, provided they maintain an acceptable grade point average. The students will receive a tuition waiver for their time at UNK but will have to pay tuition and compete for scholarships when they get to UNMC. Acceptance into the program is based on academic standing, ACT scores, community involvement and a desire to return to rural Nebraska.

“The goal of the KHOP program is to address this need by providing rural Nebraska students the opportunity to pursue a career in medicine, and then hopefully they will want to go back and practice in a rural community,” said Harold M. Maurer, M.D., UNMC chancellor.

The KHOP program targets high school seniors interested in family medicine. It is modeled after the Rural Health Opportunities Program (RHOP), which UNMC started in 1990 to encourage rural residents to pursue careers in health care and practice in small communities throughout Nebraska.

“More than 60 percent of RHOP graduates go on to practice in rural communities,” said Jeff Hill, M.D., associate dean for admissions and students in the College of Medicine. “We’re confident that the KHOP program will continue this tradition.”

Currently, 563 students are enrolled or have graduated from the RHOP program. Once accepted into RHOP, students obtain early admission into one of nine health professions at UNMC upon completion of their studies at Chadron State College or Wayne State College.

Contact Peggy Abels, director of health science programs at UNK, at 308-865-8260 or abelsp@unk.edu for more information about KHOP.