Medical Schools With Rural Medicine Programs

[Trail Boss]

I just got finished with the whole application process, ugh. I finally have settled on UW (seattle) but I did a lot of home work on rural programs, thought I would share some of my impressions for anyone who is interested in this stuff.

Jefferson: Physician Shortage Area Program (PSAP). I met good people here who are super into rural medicine, but this program is more about recruitment than education. They do have some stuff third year it sounded like.

Michigan State: Awesome folks here aswell. You spend yrs 3/4 (i think yr 4) in Marquette, apparently a rural town upstate. Sounded like you get lots of one on one time with doc's in this program. MSU osteopathic is also ranked very high in rural med, but I don't know anything about that side.

Nebraska: Didn't get an interview here, but I have a rural oriented friend who got in, said they have some good programs.

OHSU: OHSU is a confusing place, the school tends to let in mostly older students who are naturally attracted to fam med/rural med. Unfortunatly the school is slowly being cut of from state funding, so they seem gung ho about buidling trams and buying MRI machines to pay for their own future rather than on the peoples health--so they also let in lots of OO$ students. Having said that, there are several really really wonderful people there who are building a "Rural Scholars Program" to train and recruit physicians to serve rural Oregon. There is also some discussion to open satelite campuses like the UW has in the rest of the northwest in eastern OR. Despite OHSU's other problems (at least what I think are problems--they are still ranked VERY high and climbing) the rural medicine programs are going to be getting alot better soon, plus they already have some great programs through their AHEC office that put people into rural Oregon communities for large parts of third year.

University of Washington: If you can think of it, they got it. Seemed like a younger crowd that OHSU plus a large number of their students are from rural communities being that they are the only medical school serving WA, ID, WY, MT and Alaska. R/UOP program puts students in rural community 4-6 weeks summer after MSI, and you can spend six months in a rural community somewhere in the region third year. They have tons of programs that I don't want to describe, pretty much everything that anyone else has plus lots more. UW looks impossible to get into OOS, and it is unless you are into rural/international med. Don't try to BS them with some story line about why you want in, but for the very few of us who have a real rural background and a passion to return to a rural community to practice family med, you've got a real at UW.

Rural med is hot right now, most people don't know that so I don't imgaine many people will read this who aren't serious. So good luck to those of you who like me have a passion for the small town life, and an interest in medicine.

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[sophiejane]

I'm from an osteopathic school, which have borne the brunt of serving the underserved and rural communities in many states (though certainly not all of them, LA for example) for over 100 years.

It's interesting that you say rural medicine is "hot" right now and only list allopathic schools (except MSU-COM), when osteopaths have been apparently "hot" without knowing it since the late 1890s! If you are really interested in rural medicine, you shouldn't sell yourself short by only looking at allopathic programs. There are some excellent osteopathic rural track programs with a long history of producing fantastic rural physicians.

I think that rural medicine programs that require a lot of time in rural areas are short-changing their students a bit. My school's rural track program puts us in a rural area for a longitudinal experience that starts in first year and ends in 4th with a subintership in primary care. But we don't do all our rotations there--just 8 weeks of family medicine and about 2 weeks/year in 1st and 2nd year, then the 4 week subI and 4 weeks of geriatrics in 4th year. I think this is a nice balance because we can still do IM and other rotations at big city hospitals where, honestly, you see a lot more pathology, trauma, etc.

I'm planning to do an unopposed FM residency in an urban area for this very reason.

I think rural physicians should be able to do it all, and I think you can't get the experience of running enough codes, delivering enough babies, and doing enough procedures to be competent if you do your training in a small town.

PS: Not just those from small towns are passionate about rural medicine--some of us were raised in larger cities but have found our calling in rural medicine. If we only allowed those from small towns into these programs, they wouldn't fill.

 

[OrnotMajestic]

My school (East Tennessee State) has a highly ranked rural program. About 25% of the class is part of the rural training tract. This involves projects/research/preceptorships in a rural city the first two years, then some extra primary care in rural towns for 3rd and 4th. Apparently it's very good, ranked 7th in the nation.

 

[Trail Boss]

I'm from an osteopathic school, which have borne the brunt of serving the underserved and rural communities in many states (though certainly not all of them, LA for example) for over 100 years.

It's interesting that you say rural medicine is "hot" right now and only list allopathic schools (except MSU-COM), when osteopaths have been apparently "hot" without knowing it since the late 1890s! If you are really interested in rural medicine, you shouldn't sell yourself short by only looking at allopathic programs. There are some excellent osteopathic rural track programs with a long history of producing fantastic rural physicians.

I think that rural medicine programs that require a lot of time in rural areas are short-changing their students a bit. My school's rural track program puts us in a rural area for a longitudinal experience that starts in first year and ends in 4th with a subintership in primary care. But we don't do all our rotations there--just 8 weeks of family medicine and about 2 weeks/year in 1st and 2nd year, then the 4 week subI and 4 weeks of geriatrics in 4th year. I think this is a nice balance because we can still do IM and other rotations at big city hospitals where, honestly, you see a lot more pathology, trauma, etc.

I'm planning to do an unopposed FM residency in an urban area for this very reason.

I think rural physicians should be able to do it all, and I think you can't get the experience of running enough codes, delivering enough babies, and doing enough procedures to be competent if you do your training in a small town.

PS: Not just those from small towns are passionate about rural medicine--some of us were raised in larger cities but have found our calling in rural medicine. If we only allowed those from small towns into these programs, they wouldn't fill.

I was not trying to offend you or anyone else. I just thought I would take the opportunity to try and share my own experience applying and what I found out doing so. I know that DO schools produce a lot of rural physicians, and have some excellent programs for doing so. I just don't happen to know much about them. Hopefully those who are interested will find all of our comments helpful.

 

[sophiejane]

I was not trying to offend you or anyone else. I just thought I would take the opportunity to try and share my own experience applying and what I found out doing so. I know that DO schools produce a lot of rural physicians, and have some excellent programs for doing so. I just don't happen to know much about them. Hopefully those who are interested will find all of our comments helpful.

No offense taken whatsoever--didn't mean to sound as such.

The more people post their different experiences, the more we all learn about this emerging field.

I think it's great that there is more interest in rural medicine in academic circles. It says that maybe the powers that be are sitting up and taking notice of the serious gaps in our healthcare system. And the fact that more students are interested in rural medicine is really encouraging.

Best of luck to you in your application process.

 

[shemozart]

I didn't go there, but the University of Minnesota-Duluth is the only two-year accredited medical school in the US. You do your first two years in Duluth, and the second two years with the Minneapolis campus students (you "join" the Univ of Minn class). They have a highly popular track that lets you spend 9 months (or more?) in a rural town in the state of Minnesota with a preceptor. I wish I would have known I was eligible to apply to this med school at the time, but I didn't (you have to be from certain counties in northern Minnesota or Wisconsin to apply - I grew up in one and was annoyed that I didn't even know about the program!).

I went to the University of Wisconsin and participated in a 6 month rural track program that spanned 2 months of third year (my "primary care" rotation), and 4 months of fourth year (which included 1 month of rural surgery). I loved the rotation and thought it was great (town of 4000 with an independent hospital and clinic run by FP and general surgeons) - FANTASTIC learning experience. However, without a foundation from my time spent at an academic teaching institution, I don't think it would have been as good - you have to have some amount of teaching by specialists and experts in conjunction with primary care physicians.

Good luck with an interest in rural medicine - please come back to what draws you to the field when others try to sway you from it!!! I think a lot of people enter med school with thoughts of becoming a rural FP, and get sucked into the "big city uber-specialist" mode of thinking. PLEASE keep the enthusiasm you have now!! I doubted myself so many times (and even now I think of "maybe I would really like critical care? maybe I would really like cardiology?") - but I know realistically I would be much happier in my small town being an old-fashioned FP - just two more years of residency! Good luck!

 

[shemozart]

I know people who did the Michigan State program up in Marquette and loved it (third year of med school up there) - I was so sad when I interviewed for the residency up there that I didn't like it more - a gorgeous area with a NEED for physicians.

The good news is that most state schools have rural programs - all you need is a taste of rural medicine - most people know if they like it or not from that taste. From there, tons of electives and programs are available nation-wide to provide opportunities in the summer or as third and fourth year electives (I spent 6 weeks after the first year of med school in a small town in northern WI living with a rural FP and his family and got paid by the Academy of Family Physicians for it!! TOTALLY awesome)......

 

[Miler407]

Shemozart said:
I wish I would have known I was eligible to apply to this med school at the time, but I didn't (you have to be from certain counties in northern Minnesota or Wisconsin to apply - I grew up in one and was annoyed that I didn't even know about the program!).

Just to clarify, you can actually be from any county in MN, but you have to address your desire to live and practice rurally and/or with American Indians. I am from a southern, but rural county and was recently accepted. As far as acceptance from Wisconsin, that may be northern counties only as I know the school selects students mainly from MN or heavily rural or American Indian focused students from out of a neighboring state, ie WI, ND, SD, IA, and only rarely from any other state.

Anyway, I am really looking forward to starting and have thought strongly about participating in the rural physician program (RPAP) which covers most of third year's rotations. However I am a little concerned at how it will affect chances at other specialities if I decide primary care is not for me since I wouldn't be in Minneapolis getting to know PD's and other attendings during my third year while living in a rural community.

Shemozart, is this something to be concerned with? Did you feel that you would have been limited after your experience at UW had you decided to not enter primary care?

Thank you for any insight!

 

[NDMD]

The University of North Dakota was ranked 3rd, behind the University of Washington and the Univeristy of New Mexico, for rural medicine by US News and World Report.

http://www.med.und.nodak.edu/depts/fammed/Rome/index.htm

http://www.med.und.nodak.edu/

http://www.und.edu/news/NEW_SCRIPTS/newsrelease.jsp?id=1564

 

[shantster]

I went to the University of Wisconsin and participated in a 6 month rural track program that spanned 2 months of third year (my "primary care" rotation), and 4 months of fourth year (which included 1 month of rural surgery). I loved the rotation and thought it was great (town of 4000 with an independent hospital and clinic run by FP and general surgeons) - FANTASTIC learning experience. However, without a foundation from my time spent at an academic teaching institution, I don't think it would have been as good - you have to have some amount of teaching by specialists and experts in conjunction with primary care physicians.

I believe that Wisconsin also has a rural rotation as a required part of the clinical years. They should have something on their website about it.

 

[MossPoh]

I've noticed a lot of schools starting to get into the rural thing which I think is good. I'm a florida resident and aside from the two DO school, FSU seems to be really interested in creating rural type docs. This fixation of living in certain areas is really hard for me to understand.lol I am really interested in rural medicine but at the same time I don't want to block myself off from other stuff. Any of you know whether specialities other than primary care are doable. Like if I wanted general surgery, anesthesiology, radiology or any of that kind of stuff...Obviously it depends on HOW rural but I doubt I'll be aiming for something like neurosurgery or cosmetic type plastics stuff. I've got a long road ahead but I am just trying to get as much info as possible to make my decisions!

 

[shemozart]

Shemozart, is this something to be concerned with? Did you feel that you would have been limited after your experience at UW had you decided to not enter primary care?

Thank you for any insight!

Hi Miler, you know, that's a very good question. With the way it was structured at UW, my rural experience was 6 months long and contained my required third year "primary care rotation" and 4 months of my fourth year. They structured it so my primary care rotation was my last third year rotation and then the first four months of my fourth year was the rest of the rural track. It actually was pretty slick with timing. I do know that one med student signed up for the rotation and opted out midway through third year (so before it ever began) because she changed her mind to peds and wanted to do sub-i's, etc. The rural track people were very understanding about that. My guess is that the RPAP program in MN and other rural programs get that question alot (about feeling limited to primary care) and have stats and students you can talk to about that, and maybe some kind of opt out before it begins if you decide you want to be a neurosurgeon or something. I can't remember - I think RPAP is 9 months long? I used to know at one time! That's a huge chunk of your third year (and fourth!). But a huge number of students do it, and I don't know if all go into primary care.

So I guess I didn't even answer your question! I knew I wanted to do g surg, IM, FP, or OB during third year (yeah, big spread). But FP was the leader the entire time....if I would have realistically wanted to do IM at a competitive residency or OB or g surg I would have opted out and not done the rural track. I personally only did it because I was sure I wanted to do primary care. But one of the guys in the rural track at UW my year went into it knowing he wanted to do g surg, and he found time to do a sub-i and everything. Ironically, he ended up loving FP d/t the rural rotation exposure and ultimately that's what he changed to and matched in!

Sorry this was so long and rambling...I'm on OB and these days are getting to me! Please let me know if I can be more clear or specific....I wish i knew more about RPAP - I know I've worked with multiple physicians who went through the program and LOVED it. But they were all FPs!

P.S. I grew up in Douglas County, which is the northwestern most county in WI (bordering Duluth and Lake Superior) - I think there are 3-6 counties in WI in which residency allows you to apply to UM-Duluth's med school, and that's one. Or at least it used to at one time! Times are a-changing.... it sounds like an awesome place to go to school - have fun there! What a unique opportunity!