Better Medical 

 Care For Rural 



Loans fo pre-medical farm 

 youfh and new hospitals 

 for country areas should 

 spell improved health for 

 Illinois farm families. 



THE joint student loan fund com- 

 mittee of the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association and the Illinois Med- 

 ical Society will meet June 19 to 

 review applications for loans to 

 pre-medical students. 



The lAA and the Illinois Medical So- 

 ciety have set up a student loan fund for 

 pre-medical students who promise to 

 practice in an Illinois community of 5000 

 or less for five years following their in- 

 ternship. 



Four candidates for the loans are to 

 be selected. To be eligible an applicant 

 must have completed his college pre- 

 medical work with good grades, and must 

 have the endorsement of his county Farm 



Well have to grow our own .. 



Bureau and local medical society. 



Applicants from 20 counties where the 

 need for country doctors is greatest will 

 be given preference. The counties are: 

 Calhoun, Johnson, Pulaski, Jasper, Schuyl- 

 er, Fayette, Scott, Washington, Bond, 

 Cumberland, Jo Daviess, Clark, Clay, Ed- 

 wards, Hancock, Brown, Hardin, Effing- 

 ham, Jersey, and Pope. 



The fund will advance $1,000 annually 

 over a period of five years to the students 

 chosen by the committee. Young men 

 •interested in the fund should contact their 

 county Farm Bureau and get their appli- 

 cations in to I. E. Parett, Secretary of 

 General Services, Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation, 43 East Ohio Street, Chicago 

 11, Illinois, by June 16. 



The student loan fund is the result of 

 a question farmers have asked themselves 

 for at least a quarter of a century: 

 "Where will we find another doctor?" 

 The answer they have decided is: "We 

 will have to grow them ourselves." 



"There is no way any governmental 

 agency can furnish rural areas with doc- 

 tors farmers want," Dr. Harlan English, 

 chairman of the Illinois State Medical 

 Society's rural medical service committee, 

 said recently. "So farmers must grow 

 their own. The same is true of nurses. 

 If farm families want nurses in their 

 areas, it will have to be their own daugh- 

 ters who take up nursing." 



Dr. English pointed out that city-bred 

 doctors and nurses just won't go to rural 

 areas. Rural doctors and nurses must, 

 therefore, come from the country. 



Secretary Parett said there is an excel- 

 lent future for doctors in rural areas. 

 During the depression many doctors de- 

 serted the rural areas for the cities. Few 

 returned. Now the field is wide open. 

 Farmers have the ability to pay in all 

 sections of the state. A doctor establish- 

 ing a practice in the country would be 

 making a good move from a humanitarian 

 viewf)oint and a good move from a busi- 

 ness standpoint, Parett explained. 



The future also looks bright for the 

 establishment of hospitals in country 

 towns. Twenty-five will be finished in 

 southern Illinois within the next five 

 years, under the Federal Hospital Survey 

 and Construction Act. Three million dol- 

 lars has been appropriated by the federal 

 government for the construction of hos- 

 pitals in rural centers. The money is to 

 be matched by the local and state govern- 

 ments 2 to 1. 



Parett pointed out that these hospitals 

 will be complete about the time the pres- 

 ent applicants for the funds finish their 

 education. 



A number of applications coming in 

 indicate that some are confused about the 

 provisions of the loan fund, Parett said. 

 He advised all applicants to get prelim- 

 inary information from their county 

 Farm Bureaus and local medical societies. 



Parett said some of the applications 

 emphasized the great need for vocational 

 guidance in our high schools. He said 

 too many students don't know until too 

 late what sort of a career they plan to 

 follow. 



14 



L A. A. RECORD 



