Learning Primary Care In Rural Minnesota

U Of M Medical And Pharmacy Students Gain Firsthand Knowledge Of Primary Care In Rural Minnesota

Students hit the road on August 31 for rural community visits

DULUTH, Minn. (Aug. 28, 2006)—Fifty-six first-year students from the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth campus, are taking part in a special 20-hour course that introduces them to what it’s like to be a rural physician.  A highlight of the course takes place on Thursday, August 31, when the students load onto buses to visit hospitals, businesses and community groups in six rural communities in Northern Minnesota:  Aitkin, Cloquet, Grand Rapids, Hibbing, Moose Lake and Two Harbors.  Called “Introduction to Rural Primary Care Medicine,” the course is designed to expose new medical students to rural communities and to the leaders most knowledgeable about rural health care and community issues.   This year for the first time, 54 first-year students from the College of Pharmacy will join the medical school students for these rural community visits.

This course becomes increasingly important as studies show that shortages are projected in almost every physician specialty during the next 20 years.   According to the Minnesota Department of Health, Office of Rural Health and Primary Care, in 2005, 56 rural counties and 5 urban counties in Minnesota are partially or fully designated as Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), indicating less than one primary care physician to 3,500 people and lack of access to physician care in contiguous areas (within 30 minutes travel time).  Most of the full-county HPSAs are located in northern and western Minnesota.

“I suggested this program to reinforce in first-year medical students the positive qualities of practicing in rural Minnesota,” commented Richard Ziegler, Ph.D., Dean of the Duluth campus of the Medical School.  “Introducing them to rural community leaders is a concrete, effective way to do that.  Another objective is to foster inter-professional relationships between medical and pharmacy students who may end up working together in the same community in the years to come.”

Dean Ziegler’s comment was echoed by Stephen G. Hoag, Ph.D., Senior Associate Dean and Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Sciences.  “Especially in rural Minnesota where serious shortages in physicians and pharmacists already exist, team care and partnership approaches among doctors, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals will be critical to serving patients well.  This program nurtures those relationships.”

The College of Pharmacy, which supplies more than 90 percent of Minnesota’s pharmacists, graduates 160 Pharm.D. students every year.  One-third of those graduates are from the Duluth program.   According to the College of Pharmacy, there were 997 community pharmacies in the state which would ideally like to hire 201 full-time and 423 part-time pharmacists within the year. The estimate is based on an analysis of 2004 survey results conducted by the College Pharmacist Workforce Research Group combined with State Board of Pharmacy records.