Rutgers Medical School announced last week it's going to fast-track the graduation of some of its medical students, and News 12 is hearing from one of them.

Exactly 192 final-year students who thought they were graduating in May will now be eligible to start their residencies in the coming weeks. Sixty-two students matched to New Jersey hospitals, including Emily Yosh.

"For those of us who are graduating who might be able to work as physicians to alleviate some of the burden on the workforce now, I think that's the right decision," says Yosh.

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The students are set to graduate this month instead. Although most residencies begin July 1, residency locations will determine whether the students can begin early.

"It seems like everybody that I've spoken with is ready to start whenever there's need for them to start," says Yosh.

 

The school's dean, Dr. Robert Johnson, says despite the early graduation, the students have completed all of their academic requirements and are ready for the next step. 

"They're prepared actually at the highest level because they're going to go right from preparation into work rather than taking the time off," says Dr. Johnson.

Dr. Johnson says by starting residency early, they will also have the chance to learn from the senior residents who will be leaving in July. But first, Dr. Johnson says the students will have a virtual graduation.

During the ceremony, the graduates will recite the Hippocratic oath, a tradition for new doctors.

"It really makes you think about what we're doing and how we're taking care of people and how that's what we're committing our lives to so that has not changed for me," says Yosh.

The Rutgers University School of Pharmacy also announced this week a quarter of its final-year pharmacy doctorate students will graduate early as well.