The University's Hershey Medical Center is getting closer to its goal of graduating 50 percent of its students into primary care.

James Herman, assistant dean for primary care, said about half of the graduates of the medical center go into family practice, internal medicine or pediatrics. It is assumed that those going into family practice fields will work in primary care, but currently not all of these students practice primary care, he added.

The medical center's goal is that by 1998 50 percent of graduates from The College of Medicine go into primary care.

David Leaman, chief in the cardiology division, said the medical center is trying to pick people interested in primary care when accepting applicants. Primary-care physicians, such as family physicians, general internists and general pediatricians, are clearly needed in addition to specialists, he said.

There are various programs at the center to recruit students into primary care, including grants and specialized programs.

" I like to think of them as push-and-pull factors," Herman said.

The push factors are incentives for students in the medical center and include scholarships, grants and the school's general atmosphere, he said. The pull factors are situations in the community that make a person want to work in primary care, Herman added.

Dwayne Platt (junior-premedicine) was motivated by the pull factors. He is from a small town that does not have specialists and has wanted to work in primary care since deciding to study medicine.

But Susan Mani (senior-premedicine) said the field of primary care does not appeal to her. Although she plans to become a surgery specialist, she still believes the movement is important.

"The number of primary-care physicians is very disproportional to the number needed," she said.

The Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Initiative grant is designated to help the medical center in its move toward primary care. Currently the grant is an 18-month planning grant of $150,000 awarded to 18 medical centers.