Healthcare policymakers are acutely aware of that need. These pay for students' education in exchange for a commitment to work in an underserved locale after they've completed their schooling. The repayment obligation usually is a year of service for every year of funding. Students also can choose one of the myriad state-run programs, like the one that helped place Keith Boles near his family. Recent research suggests that students generally are more satisfied with state than with federal programs.
Opportunities also exist for doctors and nurses interested in serving in uniform.
After 15 years in the Navy, including almost a decade flying fighter jets off aircraft carriers, George Cowan revived a long-deferred dream of going to medical school. I decided I'd like to keep using my brain and my hands. He was accepted by the Department of Defense's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., taking a 55 percent pay cut and giving up the rank of lieutenant commander to become an ensign. Cowan gets an officer's salary, a housing allowance, and free tuition. In exchange, the military expects him to complete his residency at U.S. military hospitals and then work as a Navy doc for seven years anywhere in the world the service sends him.