Initial and Ongoing Training of the Rural Surgeon

Abstract

Over the last 2 decades, rural locations have realized a steady decrease in surgical access and direct care. Owing to societal expectations for equal general and subspecialty surgical care in urban or rural areas, the ability to attract, train, and hold onto the rural surgeon has come into question. Our current general surgery training curriculum has been reevaluated as to its relevance for rural surgery and several alternatives to the traditional surgical training model have been proposed. The authors discuss and evaluate current and proposed methods for surgical training curriculums and methods for rural surgeon retention through continuing education models.

Keywords: Frontier medicine; General surgery; Residency rotations; Rural surgery; Surgical subspecialties; Training curriculum.