Their RHPP experiences will help them make decisions about where they want to practice in the future. An advisory committee of rural physician faculty and UA College of Medicine faculty select the students. Preference is given to students who have lived in a rural community or who have been accepted into the Arizona Medical Student Loan Program, a program in which medical school loans are forgiven for periods of post-graduate service in underserved areas of Arizona. Students are matched with rural physician preceptors based on medical specialty interest and community preference. Physician specialties include family practice, pediatrics, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and surgery.
Students work with their preceptors over the course of their three years of medical training.
RHPP provides intensive training experiences in nearly 30 rural communities throughout Arizona. Twenty-eight rural communities currently are participating, and additional sites will be selected throughout the state. Each student spends four to six weeks residing and working in the rural community, beginning in the summer between the first and second years of medical school. The student returns in the third year, either as part of one of the required clinical courses or as an elective course, and again in the fourth year as an elective course. By returning to the same communities over the course of their education, the students learn to appreciate the area's culture and community character and they begin to experience the lifestyle of those who live in rural areas.