Global pandemic means early graduation for Massachusetts med students

The impact of COVID-19 has had impacts across all areas of society, including education. Doctors are needed now more than ever, which is why four Massachusetts medical schools have decided to let their fourth-year students graduate early.

When are med students graduating?

On March 25, Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services, Marylou Sudders, had a conversation with the deans of the medical schools at Boston University, Harvard University, Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts, Worcester. She urged the schools to move up their graduation dates, which would allow 700 fourth-year med students to enter the workforce as licensed professionals. The students, who would normally graduate in mid-May and begin an internship in mid-June, will instead graduate in mid-April and be available to work in area hospitals against COVID-19.

Boston University School of Medicine has moved their graduation date from May 17 to April 17, and is allowing students to choose whether to apply for a Massachusetts license or move to the location of their residencies. Tufts School of Medicine is also moving their graduation to April, Peter Bates, dean ad interim, said, “This important step allows our students to begin putting their medical degrees to use and ease the stress on the health care system.” Harvard Medical School is giving students the option to graduate early, but not making it mandatory in consideration to how early graduation will affect students’ health insurance, visas, and student loan deferral status. School officials hope to provide more answers to these topics before mid-April.

Perhaps most incredibly, UMass Worcester Medical School held their graduation on March 31 via Zoom and Facebook Live, giving the 135 new graduates 90-day licenses to practice medicine before the start of their residencies in July. “The decision weighs on me very heavily,” UMass Medical School Chancellor Dr. Michael Collins said. “I realize I could be placing our new graduates in danger. That said, what I have told them is they are the most accomplished medical students that exist anywhere in the world. There may be states that have equally as good medical students, but nobody has better medical students than ours. They are well prepared.”

The medical landscape under COVID-19

These early graduations are a timely decision: There are over 9,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts and over 150 deaths from the disease. In addition, Gov. Charlie Baker instituted a stay-at-home advisory from March 24 to May 4 to combat the spread. States like California, New Jersey and particularly New York are experiencing more cases than anywhere else in the US, and the numbers don’t yet show any signs of slowing or decreasing.

Although many students plan to practice in Massachusetts, some are choosing to help elsewhere. Of the BU Medical graduating class, for example, 55 students plan to do their residency in Massachusetts, while 30 will do it in California and 21 in New York. The hope is that these new doctors, and the new doctors from the other three schools with early graduations, can start working right away and give some relief to overwhelmed hospitals. These graduating classes are walking into a unique and unprecedented medical landscape, as Dr. Karen Antman, the dean of the BU Medical and provost of the medical campus, acknowledged in her a letter to fourth-year students on March 26.

“Your class is clearly graduating at one of the most medically challenging times of the last century and will shortly be an important part of our country’s response to the COVID-19 challenge,” Antman wrote. “We are proud of the physicians that you will soon be, and for the role that you will play in the care of your patients.”

We at AllWays Health Partners also wish all new graduates the best of luck, and thank them for their service during this uncertain time.