In all of our programs, we stress service to our patients and focus our efforts upon rural health care delivery and policy. The Department has been recognized consistently for its success in attracting medical students to the specialty of Family Medicine and is among the nation s leaders in producing family physicians. The Department has four community based, medical school administered residency training programs in Carbondale, Decatur, Quincy and Springfield and a predoctoral training program located at the medical school campus in Springfield. In addition, the Department, through its research development unit and administrative core structure, provides support to each program and its faculty. Location Map .
Students spend four weeks with a community preceptor in communities throughout Illinois.
The first three days and final one or two days of the five-week clerkship are spent in Springfield in order to prepare the students for their experience and to assess their competency at the end of the clerkship. The program emphasizes preparation for community practice, surgical assistance and ambulatory health care. In addition to the Family Practice Center s designation as a Rural Health Clinic, Carbondale has two satellite Rural Health Clinics in Sesser and West Frankfort, Illinois. In addition to medical students and residents, the program serves as a primary training site for the University s Physician Assistant Training Program. The Decatur Program, established in 1978, is a 15 resident unopposed program affiliated with Decatur Memorial Hospital which has a total of 350 beds.