New Mexico has 84 accredited medical residency programs; 74 of them are offered through the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
Nearly 800 of the approximately 850 resident physicians training in New Mexico are completing their residencies through UNM.
Unquestionably, UNM is the major institution training doctors in the state. And now, with patients clamoring for care amid a shortage of medical providers, the university has promised to double its medical school enrollment — expanding each class from about 100 students to 200 — over the next decade.
“We clearly have a health care provider shortage, and training doctors is one of the ways you can help address that,” said Dr. Mike Richards, executive vice president of the UNM Health Sciences Center and CEO of the UNM Health System.
Becoming a doctor requires not only medical school but also completion of a residency, known as graduate medical education, a yearslong process designed to ensure doctors get the hands-on training they need to practice independently. Graduate medical education spans three to seven years under the supervision of an attending physician, and it often involves a fellowship during which doctors specialize in certain areas of expertise.
As UNM expands its medical school, it also is working to grow its residency programs, Richards said. Since 2018, the university has expanded its residency programs by 32%, adding 19 new programs to its catalog.
Data from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education shows recent approval for UNM residency programs ranging from ophthalmology to vascular surgery to various pediatric subspecialties.
Medical residency basics
After completing four years of undergraduate education and four more years of medical school, graduates undergo what’s known as the match process. One day in the spring, tens of thousands of medical school grads across the country receive the results of their residency applications and learn where they will continue their training over the next several years.
Which doctor fills which residency spot depends on an algorithmic match process, during which soon-to-be residents and residency programs rank their top choices, and the two are matched together based on those preferences.
The match process means residents don’t have full control over where they’ll complete their graduate education, Richards said.
Many doctors form professional connections and meet mentors during their yearslong residencies, in addition to building relationships in the community that lead to friendships and family.
“What we know is that where you train has an influence over where you ultimately practice,” Richards said.
New Mexico retains about 39% of the physicians who attend medical school in the state and nearly 70% of physicians who complete both medical school and graduate medical education here — figures consistent with the nationwide median retention rate, according to 2023 data from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
However, the state retains only about 40% of the doctors who complete only their graduate medical education here — a figure about 5 percentage points below the national median.
Statewide retention efforts
Retaining doctors trained in New Mexico has also been a point of focus for the state Legislature in recent years.
Budget bills passed in both 2024 and 2025 list the percent of UNM-trained primary care residents practicing in New Mexico three years after completing their residency as one of the key “performance measures” when it comes to funding for the UNM Health Sciences Center, which in both years totaled more than $800 million.
In 2019, lawmakers created a statewide graduate medical education expansion grant program, designed to establish and expand physician residency programs with an emphasis on the primary care specialties of family medicine, pediatrics and internal medicine.
That work is still underway, with three new programs established since 2019, Tim Fowler, a spokesperson for the state Health Care Authority, wrote in an email to The New Mexican.
However, one of the three new programs — the Médicos de El Centro Family Medicine Residency Program in Española — is slated to shut its doors by the end of the year.
Two more primary care rural residency programs are due to open before July 2026, Fowler added.
Lawmakers unanimously passed House Bill 23 in 2021, which created new licensure requirements for New Mexico medical schools — currently just UNM and the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine in Las Cruces — requiring them to create new residencies “with a preference for primary care programs … in urban, frontier and rural medical facilities.”
A group of House Republicans — who have long voiced concerns about New Mexico’s shortage of doctors, particularly in rural areas — also introduced House Bill 512 during the 2025 legislative session, which would have provided $3 million for student loan repayment grants for doctors who agree to work in New Mexico for five consecutive years. The bill was never heard in a House committee.
According to the American Medical Association, most physicians graduate from medical school with $200,000 or more in student loan debt.
Residency expansions at UNM
Richards attributed the recent growth of UNM’s residency programs to two things: state support and an expanded network of care available through the UNM Health Sciences Center.
“We’re able to [grow] because we’re growing our clinical delivery system, and we’re able to do it because the state has provided us support through Medicaid to grow our residency programs,” Richards said.
Growing UNM’s “clinical delivery system” — the people and institutions that provide medical care through the university — is an essential step in accommodating not only more medical students but also more residents, Richards said.
“Health profession education doesn’t just happen in the classroom,” he said. “It happens in the lab and then the simulation space. But especially in the last two years [of medical school], it happens in the clinical environment.”
Residents work under the supervision of attending physicians. As a result, Richards said, more space and more patients bring more faculty, which also brings more residents.
The UNM Health Sciences Center has seen some significant expansions in recent months. In October, UNM Hospital officially opened its new adult critical care tower, which provides 684,000 square feet of training space with 192 beds and 18 operating rooms.
Design work is also underway for a new building to house the School of Medicine. During the upcoming legislative session, UNM plans to work with the Legislature and governor to secure an appropriation to begin building the new facility, Richards said.
If successful, the new medical school would be open to students by fall 2029.
During the push to build a new medical school, Richards said, UNM will still work to expand its residency programs, noting they can grow “a bit sooner and faster” than the school.
“We’ll continue to grow the residency spots as we grow the medical school,” he said.