Rural Life & Practice Facts & Myths Rural Rotations Residency & Map
Real Stories Financial Resources (RHI Hub)Rookie Rural Doc

Rural Life & Practice in Training

Real Stories from Rural Students and Residents

Interested in rural practice? In these stories, medical students and residents share their experiences of training in rural areas. Read about their insights, passions, and the advantages or rural training.

Archive of Blog Posts

This series of blog posts from 2011-2016 were written by students as part of the RTT Technical Assistance Program, a grant-funded program from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy – hyperlinks work to the current site and the left side of the page links to a complete archive.

Click/tap here to see more rural stories

Videos

Highlights the North Colorado Family Medicine Wray Rural Training Track program where residents spend the bulk of their 2nd and 3rd years working in a critical care hospital and clinic in Wray Colorado, a town of roughly 2500 people.


Residents from the Baraboo Rural Training Track Program talk about their family medicine training in rural Wisconsin

See what other residents have to say about rural family medicine!

Adrianne Westmoreland, DO, As a PGY3
Seneca Lakes Family Medicine Residency Program, Seneca, SC

This community, this residency, and this type of medicine are exactly what I hoped for when I pursued rural family practice. The opportunity to provide care for an entire family – from the baby I delivered, to the grandmother I transitioned to hospice care – is an invaluable opportunity to make ourselves part of a greater whole.

Rachel Hartline, MD, As a PGY2
Baraboo Family Medicine Residency Program, Baraboo, WI

What I love about my rural training site is that it allows me the flexibility and connections of a well-known and respected department of family medicine as the procedural and high-risk opportunities of rural family medicine. It is truly the best of both worlds! I am so happy with my program.

Matt Kaiser, MD, As an R1
Spokane Family Medicine Residency, Colville, WA

Rural medicine really provides a practice setting that meets at the confluence of my values and interests. I would like to provide care to a population that may not have easy access to physicians.

Katrina Gardner, MD, As an R2
Spokane Family Medicine Residency, Colville, WA

It was there that I met the kind of doctors that I would like to become. They were so capable, compassionate and hardworking. I think of them every day as I continue my training as a resident. I knew I wanted to continue my rural training during residency because it is one of the few places I could get full-spectrum family medicine training that would allow me to do C-sections, gynecological procedures, colonoscopies, emergency care, intensivist medicine, etc.