Abstract
Introduction
To address a medically underserved rural population in Kansas, the University of Kansas School of Medicine (KU-SOM) established a four-year branch campus in Salina, to train students in a rural community where they are more likely to stay and practice.
Methods
Students enrolled in the Salina campus receive basic science lectures from the main campus in Kansas City via live, interactive television. All labs, small group sessions, and clinical training are taught in Salina by a small on-site faculty, supplemented by local physicians.
Results
In August 2011, KU-SOM-Salina accepted eight first-year medical students. Local classes have excellent student satisfaction ratings. Currently, all students are successful academically and continue to express a desire to practice medicine in rural Kansas.
Conclusions
Initial results indicate that medical schools can be successfully sited in smaller rural communities in the US when working in conjunction with a larger urban campus and using novel curriculum delivery systems. Evidence also suggests that training medical students in rural areas will result in graduating physicians who will be fully assimilated into rural communities and thus be more likely to stay and practice where they trained.
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Cathcart-Rake, W., Robinson, M., Owings, S. et al. The Birth of a Rural Medical School— The University of Kansas School of Medicine-Salina Experience. Med.Sci.Educ. 22, 250–258 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03341793
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03341793