The political and educational support in Salina is conducive to the pragmatic training requirements of family practice residents who desire a rural practice. The Salina community offers a broad patient case mix necessary to train competent, confident, and caring family physicians who will work on the front lines of the health care system. At the same time, the diffusion of superbly trained specialists into Salina and the rapid adaptation of new medical technology has allowed scientific excellence to flourish. Upon entering the program, each resident is assigned a panel of patients for whom they provide on-going comprehensive care during their entire three years of residency. If a resident's own patient requires hospitalization, the resident admits the patient and cares for them during hospitalization.
Faculty supervise all patient care.
Each four weeks the resident is assigned to a block rotation in the major disciplines of specialized care including family medicine, internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics, orthopedics, gynecology, psychiatry, and emergency medicine. The resident works directly with this assigned physician in both the office and in the hospital. Didactic instruction includes daily Noon Conferences which cover a broad range of medical, behavioral science and practice management topics. Evening seminars on special topics are also utilized. Local physicians and visiting professors from regional medical schools provide didactic instruction.