Family Medicine offers a wide variety of career opportunities for interested students and residents. Several of these opportunities are highlighted below.
1) The Department provides training for residents and medical students through rural rotations with community-based physicians. In addition to working with rural family medicine preceptors, participating students and residents learn interdisciplinary healthcare from a diverse team of professionals, e.g. sub-specialty physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, lab techs, administrators.
2) In conjunction with the Family Medicine Interest Group, the Department sponsors an annual Physician's Opportunity Fair which brings healthcare organizations to the UMMC campus for residents and medical students to preview potential employment opportunities.
3) In 2007, the Ms Legislature created the Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program. This program was initiated by The MS Academy of Family Physicians and supported by the University of Mississippi Medical Center leadership and The MS State Medical Association. The program accepts 15 undergraduates from Mississippi institutions who commit to a primary care medical career and practice in rural Mississippi.
4) The Department works cooperatively with the State Department of Health's Office of Primary Care Liaison to link communities and organizations in need of healthcare professionals with family medicine graduates.
5) The Department of Family Medicine is part of the Robert Wood Johnson Initiative, Southern Rural Access Program. The Mississippi Access for Rural Care (MARC) project brought together stakeholders from across the state to develop programs in several content areas: 1) rural leaders pipeline, 2) recruitment and retention programs, 3) network development, and 4) revolving loan funds for community development. Strategic to the rural leaders pipeline effort is the implementation of career development programs in area schools. Students from the department present antismoking presentations to area fifth graders throughout the state.
6) The Department supports the MS Area Health Education Center (AHEC) which supports numerous projects throughout Mississippi.
7) The Department supports the work of the Mississippi Health Professionals Placement (MHPPS), a free service to match participating facilities to job canidate needs.
Additional Links:
American Academy of Family Physicians
Mississippi Hospital Association