Belmont opens Tennessee’s first medical school in 50 years

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tennessee has not seen a new medical college in 50 years. But, that changed this week when Belmont University opened the Thomas F. Frist Junior College of Medicine . Its doors open at a time when the country is facing a severe doctor shortage.

“We are honored to be trusted with helping shape this medical school,” said Dr. Anderson Spickard.

Dr. Spickard also has the honor to be the Dean of Belmont University’s first medical school. He takes the helm at a challenging time for medicine. According to the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, emerging from the pandemic, more than half of primary care doctors admitted to burnout.

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“We all know somebody who has lost a little bit of their ‘Why’. And so our goal is that our students will be well prepared and completely enchanted with what they are doing,” said Dr. Spickard.

That burnout is contributing to an alarming doctor shortage. By 2036, government data projects a shortage of 68,020 primary care doctors in the U.S. with rural areas hit hardest. But in those challenges, Belmont sees opportunity.

“We think our students can shape medicine through transformative, whole-person care. So that we don’t see the healthcare system as something just to tolerate; but, actually, it’s something to analyze and improve and to be in our verbiage – agents of hope within.”

The new medical school, which welcomes 50 students in its first year and can expand to 100, and is equipped with large lecture halls, as well as smaller, more intimate spaces called community learning studios to collaborate. But, Spickard said, students are not confined to the school walls; they will also complete service learning projects, sending them out to connect with everyday Nashvillians.

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“A medical school within a university right in the middle of neighborhoods, we’re thinking very much about our neighborhoods.”

Tennessee hasn’t seen a new school training medical doctors since Eastern Tennessee State University opened the Quillen College of Medicine in 1974.

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