Medical school, another university and a rural hospital in unique partnership to train rural docs

A new program in rural Kentucky aims to get more physicians practicing in rural areas and improve rural residents' access to health care.

The Rural Physician Leadership Program is the result of a partnership between the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Morehead State University and St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead (MapQuest image). UK and the RPLP work together to identify and recruit students interested in rural medicine. "We approach potential students when they're in college, sometimes even in high school," Dr. Anthony Weaver, assistant dean for RPLP, told The Morehead News.

Students accepted in the program spend their first two years of college at UK taking basic science courses. They also are part of groups in which rural and community medicine is discussed. In their third year, they go to Morehead to work with physicians in clinics, nursing homes and hospitals, mainly St. Claire. In the fourth year they are exposed to specialties such as internal medicine, neurology and gynecology. Students also have rotations in family medicine.

The program also has a business component, teaching students how to pinpoint and work with community organizations. "There is no other program quite like this one, where the collaboration between a medical school, a teaching hospital and a regional university has been so carefully planned as to create opportunities to improve patient care in rural areas," Weaver told the News. (Read more)