Arizona has excellent medical schools, both public and private

Hear the words of Doug Ducey, who speaks not only of a state but of a universal challenge: “Arizona has excellent medical schools, both public and private, and it is critical that we create an environment that keeps medical students in Arizona to practice medicine once they complete medical school and their residency programs.” In these words there is both praise and warning. He honors the strength of medical schools, the forges where healers are shaped, yet he also warns that education without retention is like filling a vessel with water that leaks from the bottom. The land may nurture talent, but if that talent departs, the people remain unhealed.

The origin of this truth lies in the struggles of many regions that labor under the weight of doctor shortages. A state, a nation, or even a village may raise up students in the art of healing, yet see them carried away by promises of wealth, opportunity, or comfort elsewhere. Thus the investment of the community becomes the gain of another land. Ducey’s words call for more than schools; they call for a sustaining environment—one where graduates choose to stay, to serve, to plant their skills where they were first nurtured.

The ancients knew this dilemma. In Greece, cities trained their warriors not only in arms but in loyalty, for without loyalty, the strongest soldier would fight for another master. In the same way, physicians must not only be trained in medicine, but also bound to their communities through opportunity, respect, and support. Otherwise, the healer, like the soldier, drifts away, and the homeland is left vulnerable. Ducey’s call is thus the modern echo of an ancient principle: education must be wedded to belonging.

Consider the story of rural America in the twentieth century. Many towns saw their brightest sons and daughters depart for the cities, where opportunities were richer. Doctors trained in small communities often never returned, leaving behind a void. Yet programs that tied scholarships to years of local service, or hospitals that created welcoming opportunities, found success in retaining their healers. In these stories, we see the wisdom of Ducey’s words: that retention is as vital as education. A doctor absent is as powerless as a doctor never trained.

The meaning of his words is clear: a school is not enough; a system must be built. For what good is an excellent medical program if its graduates vanish, leaving the sick without care? The true measure of a medical school is not only the skill of its students, but the healing they bring to the very communities that nurtured them. To build a pipeline of talent without also building a home for it is to squander both effort and hope.

The lesson for us, then, is twofold. First, invest not only in education but in the soil where its fruits will grow. Create jobs, opportunities, and communities that welcome the healer and honor their work. Second, as individuals, remember the responsibility of gratitude: to give back to the place that raised you, to offer your talents where they are most needed, not merely where the rewards are greatest. For the truest service is not in chasing gold, but in healing the hands that once fed and taught you.

Practical action follows: leaders must craft incentives for graduates to stay—loan forgiveness, fair pay, modern facilities, and supportive communities. Citizens must support these efforts, recognizing that the doctor in their town is not merely a professional, but a lifeline. And students, when given the gift of education, must look inward and ask: “Where is my service most needed? How may I repay the land that made me?”

Thus Ducey’s words endure as more than a policy statement; they are a principle for all generations. A community that trains its healers but loses them has wasted its sacrifice. But a community that nurtures and retains them creates a cycle of healing that sustains itself for ages. Let us, then, build not only schools, but homes for healers—places where knowledge remains, where care abides, and where the art of medicine becomes the inheritance of all.