Med students hope to ease Florida’s doctor shortage (Courtesy of CBS 12) — Given COVID-19 combined with all of the new residents moving to Florida, the need for frontline healthcare workers has never been greater.
Florida is expected to be short close to 18,000 doctors by the year 2035.
But help may be on the way.
Kyle Williams, 27, who grew up in Fort Pierce, high-fived some of his friends and fellow students after he learned that he will do his residency in dermatology at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.
“Super excited. It’s everything you’ve worked for kind of culminating in one moment,” Williams said.
Williams is one 64 FAU med students who are learning at this ceremony Friday where they will do their residency.
He says there’s a good chance he’ll eventually stay in Florida and practice medicine in the Sunshine State permanently.
“I have a lot of family members that are physicians. My mom’s a dentist. Just seeing the satisfaction they got from their work taking care of people is something that I wanted for my life as well,” he said.
Experts say South Florida already has a physician shortage and it’s expected to grow even worse.
Florida’s population is growing and nearly 260,000 people moved to Florida in 2021.
“With everybody seemingly moving to South Florida and Florida as a whole, one of the areas that we’re lagging behind is in health care. This is a dire situation where we need more physicians,” said Dr. Julie Pilitsis, Dean of the FAU College of Medicine.
This is called Match Day, and these FAU students who will become doctors in a few short weeks, are learning where they will do their residency in various specialties such as internal medicine, surgery and emergency medicine.
Sonya Chistov, 27, from Hollywood also opened her envelope to find out where she’ll do her residency in psychiatry–at the University of Maryland.
“This is sort of the pinnacle of everything you’re trying to achieve by the end of medical school so I’m very excited,” Chistov said.
Chistov—the 2022 FAU medical school class president—realizes how urgently Florida needs more doctors, due to the state’s soaring population and the number of aging physicians who are nearing retirement.
“I would love to come back. I have plenty of family in Florida so that would be something of interest to me after residency,” she explained.
The FAU med students will officially become doctors when they graduate in late April.
About 30% of them will be staying in Florida to do their residency and the hope is they’ll stick around and start their practices here, to ease the doctor shortage.
Photo courtesy of Mikael Kristenson