UND Minot-Williston Rural Track
Overview
The family medicine residency is sponsored by the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences, a unique, community-based medical school with a strong commitment to family medicine. Trinity Hospital in Minot, N.D., and CHI St. Alexius Health-Williston Medical Center in Williston, N.D., are the primary clinical partners.
A new program as of July 2014, it is a natural for medical students with strong leadership skills looking for intense training opportunities that can be customized to their particular needs and interests. The faculty members are experienced clinicians with years of teaching experience, eager to develop a program specifically designed to graduate family physicians prepared to work in the most rural settings.
The rural track is administered by the staff and faculty of the 6:6:6 core program in family medicine in Minot, N.D., which was the first residency program in the state in 1975 and has graduated a total of 209 family physicians.
The University of North Dakota (Minot) Program Rural Track Williston, Program 1203700682 was approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
Two Locations
The program emphasizes rural family medicine training in the setting where it is practiced. Residents enjoy a well-rounded first year in Minot, N.D., a small city of 47,800 and the subsequent two years in Williston, N.D., a smaller city of about 30,000.
Both sites provide mostly 1:1 training situations with supervision and teaching by dedicated rural physician educators in the setting of a community hospital. The program is approved for two residents per year, is registered with the NRMP and ERAS, and accepts applications for PGY1 positions.
Features of Rural Track Residency Program
The residents in the program will have unlimited opportunities in high-volume emergency, obstetrics, and procedural training. The leadership opportunities for the residents in the program are tremendous.
- Unopposed, personalized programs (freedom to customize education)
- University-sponsored
- Medical school focused on primary care
- Exposure to individuals of diverse ethnicity
- Community setting
- Beautiful western environment
- Experienced rural physicians as teachers/mentors
- Unlimited clinical exposure
- High volume trauma, OB, minor surgery
- High volume office procedures with one-on-one mentoring
- New program—opportunity for leadership
Characteristics of Ideal Applicants
Our rural track program is looking forward to enrolling medical school graduates with a strong passion for full-spectrum family medicine. Candidates should exhibit:
- Strong leadership characteristics
- Previous exposure to rural life
- Desire for personalized, intimate educational program
- Strong passion for family medicine
- Self-motivation with adventurous nature
- Desire to practice in rural setting
Curriculum
Year 1
During the first year of the rural track program, residents are located in Minot where they see their continuity patients at the Center for Family Medicine - Minot. Residents participate in didactics, care for their patients at the family medicine clinic, and complete 12 months of block rotations. They develop important general family medicine skills.
Rotations are be completed at Trinity Health, which consists of a hospital and outpatient clinics. Trinity Health has a 451-bed hospital with a 230-bed nursing home. A level II Trauma Center, Trinity Hospital is the referral center for many regional and critical access hospitals. With a catchment area of 16 counties (about 20,000 square miles), Trinity is able to support many specialist physicians and provide many more services than might be anticipated from a community of its size. Trinity's 200+ physicians provide a wide variety of comprehensive services. In addition, Trinity has recently joined the Mayo Clinic Care Network. This provides opportunities for collaboration with the specialists and resources at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Years 2 and 3
After the first year, residents move to the Williston, N.D., campus at the new family medicine clinic, where they are immersed in a more rural environment and have intensive training in the heightened responsibility and experience of caring for patients in a more rural setting.
Resident physicians complete their rotations at CHI St. Alexius Health-Williston Medical Center. The staff and administrative team for the residency are motivated in their commitment to medical education and in making the residents a part of the community. The facilities have expanded with the recent oil boom population and include a beautiful new birthing center.
Although the facilities are well-equipped, having fewer specialists highlights the importance of the family medicine physician and creates opportunities for developing competence in this challenging environment. Residents located in Williston continue to have access to the didactics at the main campus through video conferencing. The main campus faculty also remain involved in supervising and mentoring residents, and visit throughout the year.