A new rural medical school in the upper Midwest is trying a different approach to increasing the rural healthcare workforce – instead of asking rural students to come to urban communities to learn rural healthcare, they’ve brought the medical school to the rural community.
The University of Minnesota Medical School launched its new regional campus in St. Cloud, Minnesota, to address Minnesota’s shortage of rural physicians. Formally the University of Minnesota Medical School CentraCare Regional Campus in St. Cloud, the school currently provides medical school curriculum to 24 students.
Chris Fallert, regional campus dean for the school, said the approach allows rural students to get the training they need in the rural setting they will be practicing in.
“Our campus is centered in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, which is a town of around 60,000 or so, but is a hub for rural communities in central Minnesota,” Fallert said in an interview with The Daily Yonder.
In fact, all of the students in the school come from rural communities, he said. The goal of the school is to increase the number of physicians in rural communities. According to a report by the Minnesota Department of Health, the average age of physicians in rural communities is 60, and about a third of them have said they are likely to retire in the next five years. However, in urban Minnesota communities, the average age is 47. Combined with other factors, the aging rural physician workforce creates a looming problem in the state, Fallert said.
“We already have a relative shortage and an access challenge, but that’s going to be magnified by impending retirements in an aging physician population,” Fallerte said. “This is the time to be able to invest in systems and in people who are motivated to serve rural communities, and that’s what we have here at this campus.”
CentraCare, a regional healthcare system, serves St. Cloud and the surrounding communities of Benson, Long Prairie, Melrose, Monticello, Paynesville, Redwood Falls, Sauk Centre, and Willmar. It provides the building for the campus, as well as the funding for renovations. In all, the healthcare system spent $20 million for the campus, with the state adding another $10 million.
CentraCare also built a housing complex that attaches to the campus, providing living spaces for the students and their families. Students being so close to the classroom setting has its advantages, Fallert said.
“Parking and travel time and all of those things are reduced, so students can literally walk across the hall and they’re in class,” he said. “They can come back and study in this space at night, if they wish to. They can practice in our simulation center when they want to.”
The space was designed with the students in mind, he said.
“They collected that all together as they were creating this building, and created a really nice, welcoming space, with lots of natural light, a lot of whiteboards for students to write on, and just a variety of study spaces that are technically connected to the Twin Cities campus,” he said. “Then to live on campus — it’s just a really well thought-out space.”
Medical student Peyton Kopel grew up in Foley, Minnesota, a town of just under 2,700 people. Being part of a smaller community has been a way of life for her, and one that she hopes to preserve.
“I really think that a rural setting is always going to hold a special place in my heart. The access to nature, engaging with wildlife, the really strong sense of community that we have here, it’s all very special,” Kopel wrote in an email interview.
“There’s a need for better access to healthcare and more doctors. I want to see these rural communities thrive. And so, it feels like a calling and a full circle moment to be able to give back to these communities that raised me.”
Kopel became interested in medicine when her grandmother fell ill.
“I had the wonderful opportunity to care for my grandmother,” she wrote. “She has chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, and over the years, has reduced her ability to walk and function daily. The family was able to provide care for her in her home on the farm. That was an amazing opportunity to serve her and witness what a rural healthcare setting can be like.”
Being a rural doctor will allow her to continue to help communities like her hometown, she said.
“There’s a need for better access to healthcare and more doctors,” she wrote.“I want to see these rural communities thrive. And so, it feels like a calling and a full circle moment to be able to give back to these communities that raised me.”
Fallert said he hears many stories like that, and this campus helps the University accommodate those goals and dreams.
“Because the medical campus is now here and present for them close to home and close to their families, they could logistically make the change and the substantial commitment to go to medical school and do residency,” he said. “Having a campus nearby made it available to them, whereas they wouldn’t have gone to Duluth, or they wouldn’t have gone to the Twin Cities to get this education, because it wasn’t as available to them; now it is.”
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