About 63 percent of students graduating from the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans will remain in the state to complete their medical training, a 3-percent increase from last year, according to Steve Nelson, dean of the School of Medicine at LSUHSC-New Orleans.
Nelson said it’s important for Health Sciences Center schools to motivate students to stay in Louisiana after they graduate because most of the physicians in the area were trained at an LSUHSC school.
Nelson said 45 percent of students from LSUHSC-Shreveport will also stay in Louisiana for their residency programs.
About 20 percent of the students from Tulane University School of Medicine will stay in state for residencies, which Nelson said is because the school tends to attract students from across the country.
“We really supply the work force for the state,” he said. “You have to have a first-class facility and cutting-edge teaching. Otherwise they’re not going to stay, regardless of their passion for Louisiana.”
Nelson said 60 percent of those staying in the state will go into primary care. Other competitive residency programs include orthopedics, dermatology, radiology and surgery.
“What happens after those four years in medical school is really the most important time in your education,” he said. “You assume more responsibility and you learn so much.”
He said Louisiana’s physician workforce is one of the oldest in the country, which means many will be retiring in the coming years.
“If our students don’t stay here, we won’t have the workforce in place to keep it going,” he said. “We really need to keep them here.”
Nelson said the number of students staying in the state decreased significantly after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but the promise of a new University Medical Center to replace LSU’s Charity Hospital in the years ahead has caused the numbers to increase.
He said he believes the upward trend will continue unless LSUHSC gets hit with an unexpected budget cut.
“You hear about budget cuts; that’s a concern for everybody,” Nelson said. “Hopefully the funding to higher education will soon be restored and the numbers will be even higher.”
 
—-
Contact Rachel Warren at [email protected].