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Key Issue for Rural Preceptorships - Helping students understand why physicians complain: See Physicians and Satisfaction - Why Do Physicians Complain and How Might This Impact Students
Pipeline Issues: Current Status of Rural Programs and Future Initiatives
Rural faculty are those that spend time working with students or residents to help them become better rural doctors. They can be located in rural practices, in rural training locations, or in academic centers. Their work is primarily teaching, but it can include program development and research. They often direct programs, act as advisors, and influence departments, associations, and government in their efforts to graduate more rural physicians. Of some 2500 clinical faculty in family medicine in 1995, 800 had been rural physicians prior to their academic position.
The skills of former rural physicians are much in demand as they often have experience in procedures, practice management, and leadership that are valuable to rural training programs. Some states actually track rural physicians and if it looks like they are planning to leave rural practice, they encourage them to pursue academic positions. Very few rural faculty have the privilege of working more than half their time on rural medical education. Most are attempting their rural work only 5 or 10% of the time. Clinical duties often crowd out rural administrative work.
Long term rural faculty such as Rabinowitz and Verby have directed programs for 20 years and have made a significant difference in the lives of the people of their states. With only 1% of the graduating medical students of the state in his program, Rabinowitz' program has graduated 21% of the rural family physicians in Pennsylvania. With the impact of each rural physician being $380,000 and 17 jobs for the community each year, a program with little or no funding has done much for the state.
Building Rural Medical Education Capacity - adapted from AFMO Research document
Back to Main Site of World of Rural Medical Education
