Press Release: Students Campaign to Register Every Medical Student in the Country to Vote

Originally posted 6/28/2016

​​Contact: Aaron Shapiro
Cell: 240-485-8300
Email: aaron_shapiro@brown.edu
Website: www.citizenphysicians.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/citizenphysicians

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Students Campaign to Register Every Medical Student in the Country to Vote

Providence, RI (6/27/16) – Citizen Physicians, a non-partisan organization dedicated to training future healthcare providers in effective civic engagement, has launched the National Medical Student Voter Registration Campaign (NMSVRC), an initiative to get every medical student in the country registered to vote in time for the November 8th election.

Aaron Shapiro, Executive Director and Founder of Citizen Physicians, said, “We’re working to become the ‘Rock the Vote’ of the healthcare community and get a voter registration initiative in every medical school across the country. We already have students from thirty medical schools signed up and more students are joining us every week.”

Medical students participating in the campaign commit to hosting a voter registration and information table during the first few weeks of the coming academic year, specifically targeting incoming first year students. Shapiro, a medical student at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, continued, “Our goal is to send a strong message to medical professionals -- starting on day one of medical school orientation -- that doctors, just like every other American citizen, have a civic responsibility to vote. Politicians make critical decisions that dramatically affect our patients and how we practice medicine. It’s our responsibility to be informed citizens when we step into that ballot box.”

Andreas Mitchell, founding President of the Citizen Physicians chapter at Harvard added: “Our patients' health, as well as our own, is affected by policy decisions that are happening before our eyes. As the second Citizen Physicians chapter, we look forward to helping grow the movement to engage medical professionals in their communities.” Kaylie Miller, co-president of Citizen Physicians’ newest chapter at University of Maryland, Baltimore said that despite the rigor of medical school, she and her classmates were enthusiastic about “engaging in the political process that will affect our future patients.”

Medical students who organize a voter registration and information table at their school receive a Citizen Physicians lapel pin for their white coat to signify their appreciation for the responsibility physicians have to be informed voters and civically engaged. Students can sign up to participate at www.citizenphysicians.org/nmsvrc.html

About Citizen Physicians 
Citizen Physicians is a start-up organization with a non-partisan, non-issue-based mission to train future healthcare providers in effective civic engagement.  Our goal is that every graduating healthcare practitioner feels competent in their ability to access governmental systems both as individual citizens and as healthcare providers who care for diverse patient populations. We currently have four chapters of Citizen Physicians: Alpert Medical School of Brown University (founding chapter), Harvard Medical School, Pritzker School of Medicine at University of Chicago, and University of Maryland in Baltimore. 


Medical schools currently participating in the National Medical Student Voter Registration Campaign include:

Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Baylor College of Medicine
Case Western Reserve School of Medicine
Central Michigan University College of Medicine
Creighton University School of Medicine
Drexel University College of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Howard University School of Medicine
Keck School of Medicine
Loma Linda University School of Medicine
Loyola Stritch School of Medicine
Mercer University School of Medicine
New York Medical College
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago
Rush Medical College
Stony Brook University School of Medicine
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
University of Arizona College of Medicine
University of California Irvine School of Medicine
University of California Riverside School of Medicine
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Maryland, Baltimore
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Medical School
University of Mississippi School of Medicine
University of Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine
Western Michigan University Homer Stryker School of Medicine
Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine