Although a shortage of rural health care providers has persisted throughout our country's history, there are signs that the challenges of rural health care are worsening. Fewer than four percent of recent medical school graduates are planning to practice in rural areas and small towns, and fewer resident physicians are pursuing careers in primary care specialties. "Ensuring that rural Americans have access to medical care is one of the greatest challenges facing those who craft health policy," said Academic Medicine Editor Michael Whitcomb, M.D., whose editorial on this topic appears in the issue.
The August issue includes profiles of four successful programs that train the rural physician workforce and examples of the challenges and successes they have experienced. Two of these articles are highlighted below. Full-text versions of the articles and the August table of contents are attached to this message in PDF format.
1. "Long-Term Retention of Graduates from a Program to Increase the Supply of Rural Family Physicians" by Howard K. Rabinowitz, M.D., et al.
Researchers found that medical students who graduated from a Jefferson Medical College-sponsored physician shortage area program-which encouraged students to train for careers in rural areas-were more likely to practice long-term in a rural area than were students who did not participate in the program. This study is the first to show increased long-term retention of rural primary care physicians from a program designed to increase the rural physician supply.
2. "An Evaluation of the Rural Medical Education Program of the State University of New York Upstate Medical University" by John Smucny, M.D., et al.
Authors of this study evaluated graduates of SUNY Upstate Medical University who participated in the school's rural medical education program, which provides students with clinical experiences in rural areas. Results of the study indicate that 26 percent of former program participants went on to practice in rural areas; only seven percent of non-program participants reported practicing in a rural area.
