Molokaʻi native Misty Kahale completed her first year of medical school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Friday. By the time she graduates, she expects to have $300,000 in student debt.With final exams behind her and a mountain of tuition bills ahead, she plans to apply for a breakthrough new Hawaiʻi grant program that would cover the rest of her medical school expenses — a prospect that she said would instantly diffuse her financial stress.There’s a catch: Grant awardees must pledge to work full time in rural Hawaiʻi for five years after graduation, a bid to entice healthcare workers to root themselves in areas where physicians, nurses and other professionals are in short supply.
Encouraging doctors to take up practice in remote areas is challenging. But state leaders are pushing the effort forward, setting aside $28 million in federal funds for an ambitious medical school tuition payment program.Attending medical school will be free starting in September for awardees of the Hawaiʻi Outreach for Medical Education in Rural Under-resourced Neighborhoods (HOME RUN) workforce pipeline program.The perk, funded by a chunk of a $188.9 million federal grant meant to revolutionize rural healthcare in Hawaiʻi, is available to students pursuing any career in healthcare or health information technology. It will cover tuition and fees for healthcare training at a university of the student’s choice.By stepping up financial aid for medical training, the program could make a sizable dent in Hawaiʻi’s rural workforce problem, said Dr. Kelley Withy, a physician at the University of Hawaiʻi’s John A. Burns School of Medicine who leads an ongoing study of the state’s medical workforce shortage.But she noted that a five-year future commitment to live and work in a rural area can be “a lot for twentysomethings” to make. The project defines rural Hawaiʻi as any of the neighbor islands and Waiʻanae, Wahiawā, Waimānalo, Hauʻula, Lāʻie, Kahuku, Haleʻiwa and Waialua on Oʻahu.For Kahale, the requirement is really no concession. The 27-year-old aspires to become a family medicine doctor on Molokaʻi, where the supply of doctors needs to grow 83% to meet patient demand, according to Withy’s research.
