§239l Establishment

Summary

Create a U.S. Public Health Sciences Track that can award advanced degrees. The Track must focus on team-based service, public health, epidemiology, and emergency preparedness and response. It will be placed at existing, accredited health-professions programs in academic health centers in regions the Surgeon General picks after talking with the National Health Care Workforce Commission. The Track must graduate at least 150 medical students a year (10 of those get studentships at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences), 100 dental, 250 nursing, 100 public health, 100 behavioral and mental health, 100 physician assistant or nurse practitioner, and 50 pharmacy students. The Secretary will set any other graduation numbers and must take steps to enroll as many first-year students as the sites can handle and as the country needs for medical, dental, and nursing staff. The Track can be built in phases the Secretary decides. The Surgeon General must make a long-term plan for continuing health-professions training that stresses patient-centered, team-based care and care coordination, includes emergency response team experience during clinical work, and creates faculty training and curricula for noncentral care sites so training is balanced between urban, big hospitals, and other settings.