In a special meeting Wednesday afternoon Tantramar council approved spending $5200 a year for the next four years on a scholarship aimed at future doctors and nurse practitioners, with the understanding that those who benefit from the scholarship will in turn commit to practicing in Tantramar.
According to Tantramar Community and Corporate Services director Kieran Miller, the scholarship was started by Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton who is contributing $2500 per year.
The scholarship is administered through the New Brunswick Medical Education Foundation, which hosts dozens of similar scholarships, all with “return to service” conditions that require scholarship recipients to practice for a period of time in specific jurisdictions.
Miller told council Wednesday that for every year of scholarship funding students receive, they will be asked to commit to a year of local practice.
She credits Mitton with planting the seed for the project, and creating the scholarship in the first place. She says the Tantramar contribution will grow the scholarship amount, making it more attrative to potential candidates. “Medical school tuition is very expensive,” says Miller, “so if you can offer a higher scholarship, it’s more incentive to apply.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, councillor Allison Butcher called the project “fabulous” and asked how the scholarship would be promoted. Miller said the New Brunswick Medical Education Foundation has a promotion campaign, and the municipality would also share information on its platforms.
“We have the benefit of it being a well established scholarship already, through the foundation,” said Miller.
The money for this year’s scholarship will come out of a health care recruitment budget line which sets aside $15,000 to help lure doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals to Tantramar. The budget has also been used for staff attendance at a family medicine job fair, and to host some family medicine residents, including a couple in the fall and a couple a few weeks ago. The town has also used the money to produce print brochure.
