Rural Surgery--A Crisis in Wisconsin

Abstract

Recruitment of general surgeons to practice in rural environments is challenging. We believe that innovative training programs focusing on the specific needs and experiences of rural surgical practice can play an important role in addressing this clinical workforce issue. For practical reasons, our program will start out small, but if 50 centers around the nation were to establish a similar rural track, we could see a substantial collective impact over time. We hope our new program will serve as a model for the development of other university-based residency training programs with similar opportunities. We are grateful to have received state funding to support the development and early implementation of this program (see Table). We commend the state for understanding the importance of primary care surgery, and we look forward to measuring and reporting the impact of our rural training program on rural surgical care in Wisconsin.