Purpose: The Rural Medical Scholars Program (RMSP) was created to increase production of rural family physicians in Alabama. Literature review reveals reasons medical students choose careers in family medicine, and these reasons can be categorized into domains that medical schools can address through admission, curriculum, and structural…

Context: Surveys indicate 50% to 80% of cancer patients would choose to die at home if possible, although far fewer actually do. In Nova Scotia (NS), cancer deaths occurring out-of-hospital increased from 19.8% in 1992 to 30.2% in 1997. The impact of rural residency on this trend has not been studied. Purpose: To determine the association between…

Background: Studies have described the aggregate results of federal funding for health professions education at the national level, but analysis of the long-term impact of institutional participation in these programs has been limited. Purpose: To describe and assess federally supported curricular innovations at East Tennessee State University…

A rural southwestern New York hospital that instituted a rural residency track (RTT) in concert with a physician-centered strategy increased its admissions, physicians, employment, and profits. Developing an RTT requires dedicated CEO leadership, a strong on-site chief of service, family physicians who perform cesarean sections, and midlevel…

Purpose: Identify census-derived characteristics of residency graduates' high school communities that predict practice in rural, medically underserved, and high minority-population settings. Methods: Cohort study of 214 graduates of the University of California, San Francisco-Fresno Family Practice Residency Program (UCSF-Fresno) from its…

Criteria were developed for evaluating rural Utah communities as potential sites for rural family practice residencies. Criteria were concerned with community facilities, physicians, numbers of patients, and physician and hospital commitment to teaching residents. Two of the 10 communities evaluated were found to be potentially capable of…

A study of 1,792 rural hospitals with fewer than 200 beds found an increase of 100-200 admissions per resident--more for smaller hospitals and fewer for larger hospitals. Because increased admissions improve the financial health and continued operation of rural hospitals, this study confirms the importance of education-based strategies in ensuring…

A rural track residency is a collaborative educational entity. Crafting such a residency program involves creating a nurturing relationship between academic, corporate, and community cultures that balances values and risks and focuses on mutual benefits of collaboration. Steps in the process, obstacles encountered, and solutions are described.…

Rural community-based graduate medical education programs in family practice generate highly trained physicians who typically settle and practice in rural communities. In response to federal funding cutbacks and revised accreditation requirements that threatened its program, the Colville, Washington, Mount Carmel Hospital agreed to fully fund its…

A survey of 58 medical residents participating in a 1-2 month rural elective and 51 matched nonparticipants found that participants' interest in rural practice increased significantly after the elective. Respondents suggested means to increase rural career choice, barriers to rural practice, and ways of increasing the rural elective's influence on…

Rural training tracks (RTT) encourage family medicine residents to enter into rural practice. Studies reveal that 76 percent of RTT graduates are practicing in rural America and that graduates feel prepared for rural practice. However, RTTs produced only 107 graduates during 1989-99. Without significant investment, this model can not supply enough…

A partnership for medical student education and community health improvement between the Medical College of Wisconsin and a rural Wisconsin area illustrates four stages of partnership development and advantages over traditional student placement. Two elements key to such partnerships are long-term commitment and the ability and willingness of…

To produce more rural physicians, the College of Family Physicians of Canada recommends providing earlier and more extensive rural medicine experience for all undergraduate medical students, developing rural postgraduate training programs, providing third-year optional special and advanced rural family-medicine skills training, and making advanced…

A survey of 53 obstetrical and rural fellowship programs found that graduates of rural health fellowships were more likely to locate in rural areas. Almost all graduates from obstetrical and rural health programs attained general hospital privileges in family practice and low-risk obstetrics, and a significant number attained privileges in…

Two views within the federal government regarding funding medical education--"just send money" and "prudent purchaser"--and their implications for rural America are discussed in the context of budget shifts toward pediatric training and National Institute of Health programs, different agency mandates, the high cost of health care and medical…