Those Interested in Becoming a Rural Doc
I would like you to consider joining the Rural Medical Educators Group. It
costs nothing and can bring you some useful material as you develop your
interest in rural practice. You might also want to develop a rural group of your
own. If you are interested in rural practice and you understand how much you will need colleagues and replacements, you will see that it is in your best interest to establish efforts in this area for as long as you have rural interest before, during, and after training. Ideally you will be training colleagues and replacements from your rural site - having your cake and eating it too! See Rural Student Interest Groups
RME is a group of rural physicians, faculty, students, and residents interested in graduating more and better rural physicians. We teach, help develop rural programs, do research on workforce and practice issues, and advise each other. The group assists students and residents in need of information or advice. The group works to remove obstacles to rural practice and influence medical education at all levels. See Rural Medical Educators Your best bet is a local faculty or a nearby rural practitioner who has an interest in rural medical education. Contact Dr. Robert Bowman for one near you. rcbowman@atsu.edu Dr. Bowman has the database of hundreds of members interested in rural medical education. He and others in the group have advised thousands, at no cost.
We are a virtual group with members across the nation. We have an annual meeting in May that is held just before the annual meeting of the National Rural Health Association. I would certainly encourage you to join this association and be an active member, but you can certainly participate in our email list serve and discussions and advice whether you belong or not.
Some of our best questions and discussions are initiated by students and residents. Rural health operates differently and so does rural medical education. Learning is transferred personally rather than through paper. New RME programs develop not in isolated ivory towers but out in the field in rural practices.
I had the opportunity to develop a fellowship program for rural faculty. We trained several fellows over the 3 year period and influenced many others, but 2 fellows stand out in my mind. These are not the fellows that won national awards or became chairs of rural health, they are the ones that did not finish the training because they discovered that they really wanted to be rural physicians active in practice. Most fellowship programs would consider this a failure, yet we consider this a success, because this is our most important outcome: physicians with a strong desire to serve rural communities. If you share the same ideas and plans, then we are there to serve and support.
Here are some Comments and Questions:
Students Appreciate Honest Answers
Student Dreams and Rural Practice
Why There Are Few Young Adults in Rural America
Robert C. Bowman, M.D, past Co-Chairman
Rural Medical Educators Group of the National Rural Health Association
Email: rcbowman@atsu.edu
http://www.basichealthaccess.org
http://www.ruralmedicaleducation.org
