Poll of the week: NW Ark. "satellite" medical school
Do we need a second medical school in Arkansas? Many will correct me by saying that the UAMS proposal is merely a "satellite" campus in Fayetteville and not a second medical school, but the only difference is that the current proposal would only allow third and fourth year medical students to study at the new campus. In the era of term limits, institutional memory is limited, so increasing the appropriation to include funding to the school for first and second year students may not seem like such a big jump to a future Legislature.
I'm a firm believer that we need more highly qualified doctors in the state in order to reach our goal of increasing the quality of health care -- especially in rural Arkansas. The question then turns on whether we can educate those additional future physicians at the school we already have. Earlier this year, the Legislature appropriated $1.9 million of the state's budget surplus for the project. Now we're told that the project will cost between $5 million and $8 million annually. Some legislators think that this is something we can't afford, and even if we could, we should spend the money on professional schools Arkansas doesn't currently have, such as a school of dentistry or veterinary medicine. What do you think?
I'm a firm believer that we need more highly qualified doctors in the state in order to reach our goal of increasing the quality of health care -- especially in rural Arkansas. The question then turns on whether we can educate those additional future physicians at the school we already have. Earlier this year, the Legislature appropriated $1.9 million of the state's budget surplus for the project. Now we're told that the project will cost between $5 million and $8 million annually. Some legislators think that this is something we can't afford, and even if we could, we should spend the money on professional schools Arkansas doesn't currently have, such as a school of dentistry or veterinary medicine. What do you think?
Previous polls:
Poll No. 10: Taxes
Poll No. 9: Digital billboards in Arkansas
Poll No. 8: Partisan primaries
Poll No. 7: Notification of MRSA infections
Poll No. 6: "No match" letters
Poll No. 5: Novelty lighters
Poll No. 4: 2007 Razorbacks
Poll No. 3: Governor Beebe's job performance
Poll No. 2: The severance tax
Poll No. 1: Flavored cigarettes
posted by Steve Harrelson @ 12/18/2007 07:29:00 AM | Permalink |
2 Comments:
You know Steve,if it were politically possible, I'd support a complete reorganization of our higher education system. We have UofA, UALR, ASU, UCA, Tech, West Ark, Montecello, UAPB, SAU...all trying to be a flagship school. Look at Iowa, they have University of Iowa (great law school, world renowned writing program, excellent med school). They have Iowa State, great ag school, world renowned vet school. We on the other hand have a whole bunch of "okay" schools. If we were to capitalize on the economies of scale, we too could have excellent programs in our state.
I would support a satellite medical school (UAMS)in NW AR if it also included Health Sciences. There are only two schools in AR that offer a Masters in Dietetics, which includes an internship to be a RD. My daughter moved to Fayetteville after getting her BS in Dietetics at Conway and at this time can only take "elective courses" at Fayetteville toward her masters that will hopefully transfer. She will have to go to OK for her internship unless she moves back to central AR. She stresses a great need for dietitions in that area, especially for the VA.
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