The Influence of a Place-Based Foundation and a Public University in Growing a Rural Health Workforce.

An unlikely partnership between a private, place-based foundation and the University of New Mexico's Office for Community Health resulted in an innovative approach for addressing a critical shortage of health professionals in an isolated, rural setting in the southeastern corner of New Mexico. Many place-based private foundations are focused locally and are naturally disinclined to engage distally located public universities for local projects. Large public universities do not often focus resources on small communities located far from their campuses.

Reuniting public health and medicine: the University of New Mexico School of Medicine Public Health Certificate.

The University of New Mexico School of Medicine (UNMSOM) sought to train medical students in public health concepts, knowledge, and skills as a means of improving the health of communities statewide. Faculty members from every UNMSOM department collaborated to create and integrate a public health focus into all years of the medical school curriculum. They identified key competencies and developed new courses that would synchronize students' learning public health subjects with the mainstream medical school content.

Decentralized medical education in rural communities: the circuit rider connection.

Background And Objectives: Successful community-based medical education requires an ongoing relationship among the school, medical students, and community preceptors. The use of medical school faculty as "circuit riders" helps to develop and maintain these relationships. We studied the benefits, challenges, and barriers as seen by faculty participating in circuit riding activities at the University of New Mexico.