Eligibility and Application

Who is eligible to apply?

Current students in a U.S. medical school or a nurse practitioner or physician assistant program, residents in a U.S. rural residency program, or other health professionals training for primary care practice in a U.S. rural location. Other health professions students (e.g., pharmacy students) who are not training for ‘first contact, continuing, comprehensive and coordinated care of the individual in the context of family and community” (Starfield definition of primary care) are encouraged to collaborate with a student or students in an eligible discipline.

A rural residency program is a separately accredited residency program where residents spend >50% of their total time in residency training in a rural location. We consider a residency or other training program “rural” if it meets any two federal definitions (See the web-based tool “Am I Rural?”; note that “Census 2010, Percent Rural” does not count for this purpose). If a resident is part of an urban “rurally-focused” residency, then the project must be anchored in a rural place and meet the criterion “other health professionals training for primary care practice in a rural location.” In other words, the proposal must clearly indicate that the learner is training for primary care practice in a rural community, e.g, a study of the rural rotations that a learner’s training peers are experiencing, or an exploration of the community’s perceptions of learners in a rural community.

Overview of Requirements