Reap What You Sow: Which Rural Surgery Training Programs Currently Exist and Do Medical Students Know of Their Existence?

BACKGROUND: There exists an acute need to recruit and train general surgeons for rural communities. To assist medical students interested in rural surgery, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) website lists general surgery residencies, which are tailored to train the rural surgeon by providing exposure to endoscopy, gynecology, urology, orthopedics, and otolaryngology. Another available reference is the American Medical Association Fellowship and Residency Electronic Database (FREIDA). FREIDA allows programs to indicate availability of a rural training scheme. This is an effort to identify programs which demonstrate a commitment to training rural surgeons and evaluate accessibility of this information to medical students.

METHODS: Each ACGME general surgery residency program in the United States and Canada received an electronic survey. They were queried on commitment to training rural surgeons and their ability to provide 3 to 12 months of subspecialty training.

RESULTS: Of the 261 programs surveyed, 52 (19.9%) responses were obtained; 11 had established rural tracks and 15 were willing to customize a program. We identified 14 additional rural training programs not identified by either the ACS website or FREIDA. In total, 44 programs identified by ACS, FREIDA, and our survey indicate they can accommodate the rural surgical resident.

CONCLUSIONS: For a medical student interested in rural surgery, several obstacles must be overcome to find the appropriate residency program. A complete and updated list of established tracks or customizable training schemes does not exist. Review of the ACS website and FREIDA online in addition to our survey has identified 44 of 261 (16.9%) ACGME accredited programs either with an existing rural surgical track or willing to customize their program accommodate a resident. To facilitate the recruitment of medical students into rural surgery, we support the maintenance of a complete and routinely updated list that identifies available training programs.