Growing number of municipalities use scholarships to land new doctors
Number of medical school scholarships from cities and towns has tripled since 2023
A growing number of municipalities in New Brunswick are offering scholarships to medical school students who want to practise in the province after graduation.
These "return-to-service" scholarships are offered through a non-profit group called the New Brunswick Medical Education Foundation.
Alyssa Long, the executive director, says the scholarships were launched in 2010 to meet the province's growing need for doctors, especially as those in practice now get get older.
"The need is critical now," she said. "And we all see and recognize that the average doctor in New Brunswick is over 49 years old, which means over the next 10 to 15 years we are going to see a mass exodus from the labour market."
The scholarships come with agreements that, on becoming doctors, recipients return to New Brunswick — in some cases, in specific cities or towns — to practise for at least one year.
Over the years, 10 municipalities have offered scholarships, all offering $5,000 to $10,000 a year to a medical student.
So far this year, Saint John, Fredericton, Quispamsis and Oromocto councils have all committed they're offering the scholarships.
Thousands of New Brunswickers do not have family doctors.
Coun. Greg Norton, who pushed the scholarship proposal through Saint John council, says the goal is to make the city more competitive in getting and retaining doctors.
According to Long, municipalities through the foundation, awarded $20,000 in scholarships to students in 2023. In 2025 so far, that number has more than tripled, to $77, 000, from both newly and previously committed municipalities.
"There are hundreds of vacancies across the province right now in both family medicine and specialties, and our goal is to leverage the pipeline of talent that we have as future doctors and use that to fill those gaps," Long said.
There are currently 120 family medicine vacancies in the province, according to the Health Department.
Incentive that highlights disparities
Medical training in New Brunswick is offered through Halifax-based Dalhousie University and Quebec-based Université de Sherbrooke.
Benjamin Peterson and Katie Gowlett are both Saint John-based Dalhousie medical students and part of the school's medical student society. They are also scholarship recipients committed to practising medicine in the province.
Gowlett said the scholarships highlight the need for more doctors but also the financial needs of medical students.
Tuition for the Dalhousie program is about $23,000 per year. According to an 2023-2024 operating budget plan for the university, this makes Dalhousie the fifth most expensive medical program in the country, out of 13 major universities.
"In addition, you would have coverage for books and student fees as needed every year over the span of four years," Gowlett said.
"Following that, of course, we don't just eat and breathe tuition money every year. You have to live outside of that. … It's very challenging."
And provincial and federal student loans, Gowlett and Peterson said, often don't cover it all, along with living costs, which puts immense pressure on students who are otherwise unable to work while going to school.
Gowlett said that an additional $5,000 to $10,000 can decrease a student's reliance on private bank loans with high interest rates.
Few residency opportunities
Peterson applied for the scholarship to "affirm" his commitment to the province but he is also undecided on what he wants to specialize in.
His peers are enthusiastic about trying to help New Brunswick conquer its doctor shortage, Peterson said, but medical students have hurdles in the province.
According to the Health Department, current in-province residency opportunities include family medicine, internal medicine, integrated family and emergency medicine and psychiatry in Moncton — a handful out of 37 possible specialities.
Medical school graduates who want to pursue residencies in other specialties, such as anesthesia, obstetrics, may need to look elsewhere.
"Those are not training programs that are based in New Brunswick and where the demand exists," Peterson said.
"There comes that time where a graduating student may be very passionate about practising anesthesia in the community that they grew up in, but they are, by nature of the beast, required to move away for that training."
Peterson said this could result in a "return to service" that can only be satisfied in many years time — describing it as a bind for students eager to return to New Brunswick. Some would be more likely to settle where they train.
Gowlett said that the province could do more to fill residency gaps for students who want to serve New Brunswickers.
"We have strong ties to this area and to be in a position where you may need to abandon those ties to go pursue the education that's required to meet the needs in New Brunswick is quite a challenging predicament to be in."
Still, both are grateful for the program.
"When a community in this province decides to support a medical learner in such a direct way, it says a lot about the role our future careers play in the health of these communities that many of us grew up in," Peterson said.
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