I would encourage you to stay in your private practice and bring teaching
to you. Particularly rewarding is long term 4 to 9 month preceptorships
where you really get a chance to influence students. If you don't have
these in your state, get them. Another option for some near residency
programs is becoming a rural site for residents. We need more good
docs who want to teach and can teach from the rich base of ambulatory
and community experiences in rural practice. When I left my practice, I
lost my teaching base as well.
If you leave your practice you will lose the bond you have with patients
and community that currently defines who you are. I can assure you that
your will have a year or so of depression or at least increased stress
until you rediscover yourself. If you want a good research study, survey
docs who have left rural practice for academic life (over 800 subjects in
2500 faculty according to my survey).
Finally, if the economy goes bad, if primary care workforce projections
worsen, and if medical education funding gets worse, we may be asking
you for employment and/or teaching positions.