Rural Health Leaders Pipeline
Students in the Rural Health Leaders Pipeline are recruited from rural communities, and there are some scholarships to help them complete training in order to return to those communities as physicians and other health professionals. The Rural Health Leaders Pipeline is a concept which illustrates the importance of finding and nurturing capable rural students who are interested in becoming physicians and practicing in their hometowns or similar rural areas. These students are more likely than non-rural students to establish their medical practices in underserved areas after completing their training in urban medical centers. The "pipeline" includes a patchwork of rural program opportunities at multiple levels in the educational pathway from high school through medical training. The programs include summer field work and rural research options, an interim course between Spring and Summer semesters at UA, college electives, and rural community medicine rotations for medical students and family practice residents at CCHS. Additional planned components are a fellowship in rural medicine and a rural practice "incubator" to help newly trained rural physicians and their chosen communities to establish successful practices. The pipeline was expanded in 2007 to include the Black Belt Health Scholars Program for 9th and 10th graders in Hale, Marengo, and Perry counties.
