Rural Physicians

Rural Physicians

I grew up in a small rural community fortunate enough to have not one, but often three or four doctors. Of course, that was quite a while back and today’s rural communities are lucky to have even one doctor close by. Because of this great need for primary care physicians in rural communities, rural medical education programs have popped up around the country. Their goal is to recruit students with rural backgrounds, as they can more easily relate to a rural community. These students also take supplemental curriculum, focusing on issues more pertinent to rural physicians. Sadly, most newly graduated doctors will not even consider rural areas because the economy tends to be less than affluent, creating a vicious circle; because in order to improve the local economy a community needs adequate medical services. The “cradle to the grave” care that often makes up a rural medical practice consists of long hours, hard work, and less monetary rewards, but Mae West could have been speaking of rural medicine when she made the statement, “I never said it would be easy, I only said that it would be worth it.”
 
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