Groups & Initiatives
Rural Health
The purpose of the STFM Group on Rural Health is to promote health in rural places through the preparation of more and better rural family physicians. Our objectives in pursuit of this goal are to:
- Grow connections between and among educators who are working to train learners for rural health practice
- Ensure a presence at STFM meetings and create a space at each of these meetings for the discussion of issues in medical education that are uniquely rural, celebrating our successes and in this way encouraging one another in our valuable work
- Establish and strengthen a rural voice in the workings of the major family medicine organizations, as well as non-family medicine organizations in which we have a stake (eg, the NRHA, the AAMC
- Identify active policy issues for rural family medicine education
- Disseminate information relevant to rural medical education
- Clearly articulate an ongoing vision for sustaining and integrating the teaching and practice of rural family medicine.
The STFM Group on Rural Health is closely affiliated with the Rural Medical Educators group of the National Rural Health Association, a multispecialty and interprofessional group of family physicians, internists, general surgeons, educators, researchers, administrators, and others who have become a voice for rural medical education nationally and regionally. Relationships with this organization and other national and international groups with an interest in rural health continue to evolve.
