Rural Practice

[ragoldop]

Dear Rural Docs,

I'm a pre-med in my junior year at UC Berkeley and am doing a report to my medical field study class on Rural Medicine. I'm greatly interested in rural medicine, especially mountain rural, and I would like to know the details about life as a rural doctor AFTER medical school. Please look through the following questions; an answer to even one question would help me tremendously.

Is rural medicine really like Doc Hollywood and Northern Exposure, or are those as unrealistic as Grey's Anatomy and House? What realistic elements, if any, can be found in these Hollywood depictions of rural medicine?

How does one follow through, from beginning to end, a NHSC commitment?

Compared to other specialties, or even urban/suburban Family Practice, what differentiates rural medicine as far as:
Family/Personal life?
Residency and fellowship training?
Business hours and work schedules?
Salary, job availability, and competitiveness?
Details of the business(Office, medical supplies, personnel)?
Patient insurance(Medicare, Medicaid, uninsured)?
Anything else that stands out to you?

Peace,
Matt

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[Doowai]

Dang I spent a long time answering that, then when I hit submit reply, it told me I was not logged in and I lost what I had written. Frustrating. I will try to answer this again later

 

[lyndal]

ragoldp, just checking are you only looking for details from rural docs in the US ? Are you inetrested in rural family docs from Australia?

 

[NewmansOwn]

Dang I spent a long time answering that, then when I hit submit reply, it told me I was not logged in and I lost what I had written. Frustrating. I will try to answer this again later

Doowai, that's infuriating -- I've done that to myself countless times. But I'm going to throw in a vote for a re-write, because I'm very curious as to your answer to the OP's post. Your past posts have been great, so if you get the chance, I for one would like to hear what you have to say.

To our Australian friend, I would also be interested in hearing about the lifestyle of a rural doc in Oz -- financial matters might be different, but there must be similarities in practice style.