Tom Morris – HRSA’s Associate Administrator for Rural Health Policy – has a stump speech about rural healthcare vs. urban healthcare entitled; “Rural is NOT Mini Urban.”
To underline his point, he puts a picture on the screen of a huge tractor next to a lawn mower. Guess which one is intended for use in rural areas?
By the same token, emergency medicine is different in rural communities. A hospital in Idaho has recognized that difference in creating a rural emergency medicine program.
St. Luke’s Hospital and the University of Washington created the program after the university decided its students should be exposed more to rural medicine. The students are overseen by emergency physicians and the students are able to help out in the ER during busy times.
Read more about this unique program.
Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium 