BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — Local hospitals have expressed concerns about staff shortages. Now, a Texas A&M Medical Program is training future medical professionals to enter the workforce with adequate training.
The MD plus program is a five-year dual program opportunity for students to discover their niche, all while earning their medical degree.
This program allows students to take a unique route to their careers.
”Whether that’s from leadership from a financial standpoint to actually advocacy with regards to public health more, particularly especially these days actually being able to communicate more directly with other individuals of the public,” said Robert Carpenter, Director of MD Plus Program for Texas A&M College of Medicine.
Medical students can also earn a master's degree in business administration, public health, or technology journalism just to name a few.
”With public health, I study health promotion and community health sciences and so I'm really passionate about education and teaching the public how to live healthy lives,” said Sunitha Konatham, a first-year medical student with a master's of public health.
With those skills learned, she partnered with Unbound College Station to educate the community on prevention and awareness of human trafficking.
“It was an incredible experience to be able to go out into the community and recognize I myself can’t end human trafficking, but partnering with people in my community we can do what we can together to bring it to an end,” said Konatham.
Other students are inspired by personal experiences to help their community in a unique way.
”Growing up in a third world country and coming to America, I always wanted to sort of have a business idea of medicine so that I could be a good patient advocate for all the patients that I meet and to also practice medicine in underserved Texas communities,” said Taimur Hasson, a medical student studying to receive a master of business administration.
These skills set students apart in the workforce and empower them to think outside the box to solve health care's greatest issues.
“By pursuing these different lines of additional training we actually set our students apart by showing their leadership skills by really helping them to in the end hone their skills within that niche,” shared Carpenter.
According to the College of Medicine, 100 percent of students were accepted to their first residency choice after graduation.
These medical students are in enhancing their careers with hands-on training to become future leaders in health care.
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