At least 80% of students accepted into the University of Iowa’s medical, dentistry and nursing programs would have to be residents of Iowa under a bill advancing in the Iowa House.
Those students could either be residents or would have had to attend college in Iowa before applying to those University of Iowa programs.
Aneesa Afroze with MercyOne works with the hospital’s residency program. She says that post-pandemic, the physician shortage is reaching a point of crisis, and she says the bill could help address that.
“While having a big pool of candidates is very ideal for universities, I think we should not lose focus from our state [and] the needs of our state. The physician shortage is only going to worsen and worsen in [the] next several years.”
The bill would also require the university to submit a report to lawmakers listing which states graduates moved to after schooling or residency. The report would have to include whether the student was a graduate of an Iowa institution or resident of the state beforehand or not.