OSWEGO, N.Y. — It’s no secret that it’s difficult attracting doctors to practice in rural areas. Though about 20 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural communities, less than 10 percent of physicians practice in these areas, according to a Stanford University Medicine rural health fact sheet entitled, “Healthcare Disparities & Barriers to Healthcare.” […]
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OSWEGO, N.Y. — It’s no secret that it’s difficult attracting doctors to practice in rural areas.
Though about 20 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural communities, less than 10 percent of physicians practice in these areas, according to a Stanford University Medicine rural health fact sheet entitled, “Healthcare Disparities & Barriers to Healthcare.”
One local program is seeking to address the problem through education. Oswego Health recently hosted students from Upstate Medical University in Syracuse as part of an initiative on rural medical education.
The program sought to help students gain a “better perspective” on how medical care is delivered in a rural community.
Five, second-year medical students spent five days “exploring” rural medicine in Oswego County, Oswego Health said in a June 26 news release.
“The goal of the program is, of course, to expose these medical students to rural medicine in hopes that they make it a career path,” Dr. Renato Mandanas, chief medical officer at Oswego Health, said. “We developed rotations that provide the students with insight into how rural medicine is delivered.”
The students participated in rotations over a four-day period at locations that included the Pulaski Health Center, along with several primary-care offices and “numerous” departments and services that Oswego Health offers.
During these rotations, the students noted that they learned the “importance” of good communication skills, integrating education into physician visits, and why local physicians find rural care “rewarding.”
They also discovered that providing care in rural areas has “barriers,” and that providers have to work to solve those challenges.
Obstacles that rural patients in the U.S. typically face in accessing health care include transportation difficulties, longer response times by emergency services, financial and insurance constraints, and fewer doctors and health-care facilities, according to the Stanford Medicine rural health fact sheet: http://ruralhealth.stanford.edu/health-pros/factsheets/downloads/rural_fact_sheet_5.pdf.
Student evaluations
“What I appreciated the most was being able to gain an understanding of what it is like to practice medicine in a rural community,” wrote one medical student in an evaluation of the Oswego Health/Upstate Medical program. “I am also grateful for being given the opportunity to identify first hand some of the barriers to care which healthcare providers are faced with when providing care to their patient populations.”
Another student wrote in an evaluation, “I think this program showed me that I really do want to practice in a rural community.”
Along with their rotations, the program offered social opportunities with local physicians. The students also had time to share “local history and the local lifestyle,” giving them an “understanding” of both delivering care and residing in a rural area.
“This is a comprehensive program exposing the students to all aspects of providing care in a community such as ours,” Christopher Mitchell, senior director of physician services, said in the Oswego Health release. “We think we have a lot to offer in terms of practicing medicine and lifestyle and it’s important that we highlight both.
Besides Oswego Health, other participating health-care providers included Northern Oswego County Health Services Inc. and the Rural Health Network.
Upstate Medical’s Rural Medical Education Program coordinated the program, Oswego Health said.