Program Advantages

Candidates will benefit from financial incentives and an accelerated integration of medical school and residency that features advanced training and less loan repayment debt. The program is rewarding in many other ways including:

• Reward and recognition for interest in Family Medicine
• Early acceptance into a dynamic and well-established Family Medicine Residency
• Ability to commit to personal plans knowing that training will continue beyond medical school in Morgantown
• Entry as a third year student into “the Family of Family Medicine at WVU” with full access to educational, administrative and social support
• An enhanced fourth year Family Medicine curriculum with three one-month courses designed to build skills in the areas of community health, wellness promotion, patient education, outpatient management, clinical assessment, and acute and chronic illness management
• A Family Medicine Residency experience that includes specific opportunities to develop skills in practice management, leadership development, community health, emergency medicine, acute trauma management, and rural medicine procedures
• Substantial monetary support that can offset educational debt and can be paired with other local, state and federal loan repayment programs
• A supportive and personalized learning environment that spans more than four years and provides for professional growth and mentorship

Benefits to West Virginia

Despite a growing presence of rural community preceptors and an increased emphasis on rural primary care in medical school curricula, some regions of West Virginia have limited access to healthcare. With the development of the Rural Scholar Program our mission is to establish long-term relationships between our physicians and communities while providing a level of care previously unobtainable in the region.

Continued success of the rural scholars helps us in our mission by:

• Enhancing our ability to attract and retain excellent MS IV students from West Virginia Medical Schools.
• Increases retention of medical students for in-state residency programs.
• Provides a mechanism to sponsor innovation in residency curricula and increase physician placement and retention in undeserved areas of the state.
• Provides meaningful financial to medical students possessing the desired traits for success in rural family medicine. In doing so it attracts talented individuals who are willing to commit themselves to in-state residency training and hopefully continue practice in rural communities.