Rural and Underserved Medical Opportunities
Greetings dear ladies and gentlemen!
Thank you very much for staying committed with us on this journey to improve and involve more people in underserved, rural and urban healthcare communities. Upon many requests on social media, today, I would like to make a post on rural and underserved opportunities for medical students, residents, and even physicians to be involved in.
Practicing or being involved in rural or underserved communities is rewarding, yet sometimes challenging for people who have never been exposed to these settings. You see, in rural practice, you might be drinking your morning coffee with the husband of your scrub nurse or jogging in the morning with the AVM patient who you recently operated on. These moments of bonding between patients and physicians are unforgettable and last for a lifetime, in comparison to regular urban settings, where you operate/treat and perhaps never see or know the patient you transformed life upside down for the better! Of course, for some medical professionals privacy is a big concern and it might be too much to handle sometimes, but there are things to do to keep your privacy intact. Things like hiking, fishing, and outdoor activities will level up your mind in rural settings.
Too many times I hear that residents/doctors don't want to practice in those areas due to lifestyle and nothing outside of medicine to do there, but what I found out shocked me, in rural practice, besides of great outdoors your cost of living is less, so if you are resident - your dollar definitely stretches further, besides, there are some government initiatives for loan forgiveness. And what could be better to have a lifestyle that is healthy, family-oriented, and rewarding for all the work that you do in the community?
On the opposite side of all positive things, you must be a quick thinker with a positive attitude on outcomes, because as a general surgeon, for example, you might be facing to do craniotomies or you might be asked to nail a tibia or resect BPH. And things like that you have never done before, what to do? Well, there are seasoned rural surgeons who can advise you on your every step. There is also a big initiative in rural areas for telemedicine, where you can operate LIVE with the help of specialists guiding your every step through the TV screen - Thank God for the technology!
These are all positive and negative sides for you to decide, and as I promised earlier in this blog post, below you can find some resources, which can help you to get a step closer to discovering rural and underserved opportunities:
WV Family Medicine
UW Family/IM Rural Track
UWisconsin OBGYN
UNM Pediatrics
MSU Psychiatry
To summarize this post, it’s very important to experience the rural track before you commit, as it doesn’t fit to everyone, and everyone is not you. So good luck in your rural journey and Scientissimum is here to help as always!
If you found what you were looking for, please don't forget to mention where you found the information, as it helps us involve more medical professionals to rural and underserved medicine worldwide!
Do you know more places with rural/underserved tracks.