In response to the country’s increased need for medical professionals, Nazareth College in Rochester, New York will offer a new pre-dental, pre-veterinary, pre-medical certificate program for post-baccalaureate candidates. The program is designed for possible students who maintained superb undergrad academic record while earning their baccalaureate degree, yet still don’t have the necessary science credits to apply for dental, veterinary, or medical school.

“It is important for Nazareth to offer this program because we recognize that life’s professional journey may require an individual to pursue a clinical career that they may have thought was unavailable to them,” said Brian Witz, Nazareth’s program director.

Although Nazareth recommends students participate in the summer program, students may also participate in the fall if need be. In order to qualify, a student has to have earned an undergraduate degree, regardless of major, from an accredited institution with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.4 or higher. Once accepted, students may take courses in microbiology, anatomy, physiology, genetics, biology, biochemistry, chemistry, physics, and more.

It’s fortunate that such a program has been designed at this critical time. Americans not only want more medical professionals–as evidenced by the successes of the Affordable Care Act and recent surveys finding that 99.7% of Americans consider their smiles to be an important social asset–they need them.

A shortage of primary-care physicians that developed once the need for HMO gatekeepers disappeared has only worsened. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the United States will be close to 63,000 doctors short of its need in 2015. If the trend persists, then by 2025 that terrifying number might have more than doubled.

Banner Health’s chief executive officer Peter Fine dismisses the notion of a looming drought of physicians, saying that it’s already arrived. “It is playing out everywhere, whether it is a rural or an urban marketplace,” says Fine. “We have not produced enough physicians to serve the population we have in this country. This is only going to get worse.”
Programs like the one Nazareth is currently offering should hopefully help supply meet demand before the country’s healthcare system hits a disastrous point.