Document Type

Abstract

Publication Date

2-11-2026

Academic Year

2025-2026

Comments

Presented at the 2026 Scholarly Inquiry (SI) Research Project Symposium.

Abstract

Introduction/Purpose: There is a significant shortage of physicians in rural Pennsylvania. Programs like the Physician Shortage Area Program (PSAP) at SKMC aim to address this gap by providing support and guidance for medical students who grew up in rural areas and hope to return to practice in a rural area. This project focuses on identifying rural health topics and modes of delivery recommended by practicing primary care physicians to inform new learning objectives (LOs) for a future curriculum intervention for first and second-year medical students.

Methods: SKMC PSAP graduates practicing in rural areas were interviewed using semi-structured interviews that included questions about perceived knowledge gaps that could be addressed via future modes of delivery within the PSAP curriculum. The resulting transcripts were analyzed using a codebook based on SKMC Graduation Competencies. The target beneficiaries for this project include PSAP faculty and preclinical PSAP students at SKMC.

Results/Conclusions: Nine rural PSAP graduates were interviewed. Preliminary analysis revealed that Systems-based Practice and Personal and Professional Development competencies were the two most frequently cited for improvement. Patient Care also emerged as a secondary area of need but with less emphasis. Participants most commonly recommended more frequent opportunities to engage in opening discussion with practicing rural PSAP physicians and expanding both the availability and variety of rural rotations. Limitations include small sample size and limited generalizability to other components of SKMC curriculum. Future directions include meeting with PSAP faculty to discuss feasibility of recommended interventions and explore possible implementation.

Additional Files
Gayman_Caleb_poster.pdf (1337 kB)

Language

English

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