Grant helps expand rural medicine program

The first of three students participating in a new rural medicine program will arrive this month at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston.

The hospital is working with the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine's track program in rural medicine to boost interest in the medical specialty.

Students in their third or fourth year of medical school will spend six months with family practice physicians as part of the program, said Earl Sisk, vice president of medical services. "Students will have a good idea if they are interested in rural medicine. Or they may just want to see what it's all about and decide if they want it."

Rural areas find it difficult to attract and keep physicians, Sisk said.

"We can't compete with big cities," he said. "But we have sick people who need medial attention."

The rural track program began in 1995 to identify students who have an interest in rural medicine. It looks for future physicians who are thinking beyond research or the amenities an urban practice can provide.

"The objective is for these students to look at rural areas because their heart is really in medicine," Sisk said.

A grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health will help expand the program offering in Sikeston. The university also is developing rural teaching sites in Monett, Aurora, Neosho, Mount Vernon and Joplin, Mo. Funding from the $995,000 grant also funds Area Health Education Centers sites throughout Missouri.

While the students are in the area, they will have access to the college library for research and study through the AHEC in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Since they are not yet medical school residents, the students will observe and learn, and will participate as much as the supervising physicians will allow them. Then they will return to Columbia to finish their degree.

"It gives students good exposure to what it's like to practice rural medicine," Sisk said. "We hope they will come back to the area and practice."

Dr. Cully Bryant, who has been with the Sikeston hospital for the past seven years, will be director of the new program. Bryant is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia Medical School. Local doctors will be appointed as preceptors, and will be granted associate professor status.

Sisk says he is excited about the future of the expanded program.

"It's going to have a fantastic outcome, no doubt about it," he said.