While leaders cannot predict the future, an unrestricted gift can ensure NMF is able to advance its mission no matter the challenges or opportunities that arise in the future. When you choose to make a gift without restrictions, you are extending your power of foresight into the future to prepare NMF to do the complex work of building an excellent health care workforce and transforming lives.  

Unrestricted funding is a “double gift” because it entrusts the NMF Board of Directors to put your generosity to the best use now and in the future. Your unrestricted gift can impact the future of health care in innumerable ways— ensuring NMF can provide what aspiring and current practitioners of health care need most. In this way, you empower the brightest minds to serve the communities facing the greatest health challenges and to care for future generations of your family. 

With eight decades of experience fostering excellence in medicine, National Medical Fellowships (NMF) scholarship programs empower brilliant students to become leaders in health care and deliver high-quality, lifesaving care to the communities who face the greatest health challenges. Financial literacy programs ensure NMF scholars and alumni can stay the course and remain in medicine. 

Grounded in the best practices of health workforce development to address the growing shortage of physicians, NMF scholarships enable access to education and reduce financial barriers, allowing students to focus on their studies, clinical training, and educational enrichment opportunities. Far too often, the high cost of medical school can be a barrier for many students.  

NMF scholarships reduce scholars’ short- and long-term financial burdens. In addition to the dollars awarded, NMF provides scholars with access to a comprehensive array of high-quality education and training opportunities, engagement with a robust network of NMF alumni healers, and leadership tools. NMF’s wraparound supports ensure scholars not only persist but thrive in medical school and successfully transition to their residencies and careers as health care leaders.

To build a future workforce of excellent health care leaders, providing financial support in medical school is important, but it is not enough. National Medical Fellowships (NMF) not only provides access to medical school education through its scholarships, but it also offers education programs to ensure that scholars have the academic and professional knowledge to thrive and go on to deliver excellent health care for all. 
 
Comprehensive education is required to integrate substantial knowledge of—and appreciation for—the social mission of providing high quality health care to all. NMF programs are designed to emphasize the importance of cultural competence, critical thinking, service orientation, quantitative reasoning, teamwork, and written communication. This set of critical skills and knowledge is what scholars need to address the myriad health challenges that exist in our society.  
 
To provide wraparound support, NMF seeks to bridge the curriculum, community-based practice, research, and emotional support gaps that scholars encounter during their medical school education. These programs are effective interventions to deliver knowledge, strengthened self-efficacy, advocacy and research experience, and leadership and collaboration skills. 

Health workforce development is essential to ensuring high quality care for the communities facing the greatest health challenges. Research has found that a critical aspect of preparing and retaining talented, highly qualified health care professionals is providing comprehensive professional development and social capital supports that foster persistence and thriving, academically, professionally, socially, and economically. 

National Medical Fellowships (NMF) supports health care leaders with evidence-based professional and leadership development initiatives designed to enhance access to important medical and health industry knowledge, strengthen leadership capacities, build important mentoring and social connections in the field, and create a vibrant community of health sector professionals. This suite has been designed to bolster retention in medical education and health care careers, facilitate the successful transition to areas of practice, and set its participants on a strong path to leadership. 

Gaining a deeper understanding about who enters the health care workforce, how they are trained, and how they practice undergird the National Medical Fellowships (NMF) 2024-2028 strategic plan. Research designed to explore these questions, improve NMF’s practice of health workforce development, and identify and fill knowledge gaps is key to driving innovation in the field. Accompanying advocacy will leverage this research to shape policy supporting medical student and physician retention and success. 

MF’s programs center on developing a health care workforce representative of a wide array of lived experiences, excellently prepared, and focused on delivering care that benefits everyone, especially those in communities with the greatest health challenges. Research and thought leadership are needed to understand what scholars and alumni need, what interventions best foster persistence in studying and practicing health care, and improve NMF programming to help address a growing national and global shortage of physicians.