Treating Rural America: The new country doctors
The second installment of STAT's rural health series explores why rural residency programs are so effective at training rural doctors and the barriers that prevent rural medical education from growing.
Family medicine physician Olusunmisola Oyesiku always thought she would practice in a big city, but after going through her family residency program at the University of Alabama in Selma, she ended up falling in love with rural medicine.
The Selma program is one of a small, but growing, number of residencies in the country that places residents entirely in rural medical settings. Doctors are trained to treat all sorts of patients — whether they’re at the clinic, the hospital or a nursing home — and respond to the unique needs of rural patients. Like Oyesiku, many graduates end up staying in the South.
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