Rural and Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP)

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Rural and Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP) is 4-week, elective immersion experience in community medicine for students between their first and second years of medical school.

Program Objectives

Provide students with an early exposure to the challenges and rewards of practicing primary care medicine in a rural or urban underserved setting.
Promote in students a positive attitude toward rural and urban underserved community medicine.
Provide students with an opportunity to learn how community health care systems function.

Preceptor applications are accepted each year in December. Please reach out to us if you are interested in providing students with this valuable experience, or if you would be willing to donate housing arrangements, which is always in need!

About the program

AHECWW, UW School of Medicine and Southwest WA AHEC to work together to recruit these preceptors, as well as coordinate housing and travel accommodations for students with support from the Office of Rural Programs at UW.

Students gain their first extended clinical involvement in community medicine alongside Primary Care Physicians in rural and underserved communities throughout Western Washington.

Student Overview

RUOP - Student Walking

During the four-week program rotation students live in rural or urban underserved communities throughout Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI).

Be prepared to

Work in clinics and hospitals side-by-side with preceptors –experiencing their first extended clinical involvement.
Provide healthcare to underserved populations

How to Apply

You must apply in order to participate in RUOP. An online application link generally opens in early December of your first year in medical school and closes in early January.

Become a RUOP Preceptor

Prospective Preceptors

Volunteer preceptors are exemplary community physicians with a strong interest in introducing students to the joys and challenges of providing care to rural and urban-underserved populations.

Busy physicians recognize that their clinic time can be hectic, but every year our preceptors comment on the enjoyment clinical teaching brings. Young, enthusiastic learners challenge them to be at their best and patients enjoy interacting with the students and seeing their physician in a teaching role. Preceptors find shaping and influencing young physicians-in-training quite rewarding. We find them quite extraordinary!

BENEFITS OF BEING A RUOP PRECEPTOR

CME Credits: RUOP preceptors are eligible to receive CME credits.
Get access to medical library resources through the UWSOM.
UW Faculty Appointment: Community physicians who provide a minimum of 50 hours teaching UWSOM students are eligible for clinical faculty status.
Information about clinical faculty appointments and applications.

Preceptor Commitment

Program Overview

During RUOP's four-week, elective immersion experience for students between their first and second years of medical school, students live in rural or urban underserved communities throughout Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI). They work in clinics and hospitals with preceptors like you –experiencing their first extended clinical involvement. This has proved to be a sought after and dynamic learning experience for the majority of our medical students.

RUOP Season: July – August

Teaching Activities

Along with expanding history-taking and physical exam skills, students are eager to participate in a full range of clinical activities.

They want to experience through you what it is to be a physician.
RUOP students are not yet independent. They need your direction and supervision.
Your role modeling and clinical teaching can shape a professional lifetime.

Students & Community

Most RUOP students plan to combine their clinical work with a community medicine experience.

While working with you, students also complete a web-based community medicine course with UWSOM mentors.

They learn about the social determinants of health.
They assess your community for health strengths/challenges
They research potential interventions to public health issues and contextualize them to build on existing community assets.

If you are interested in becoming a RUOP preceptor in Western Washington, please email Jazmin Calmer.

Impact

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Site Placements - History

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Rural and Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP)

PAST RUOP PLACEMENT SITES

2022 RUOP Placements (PDF)

2021 RUOP Placements (PDF)

2020 RUOP Placements (PDF)

2019 RUOP Placements (PDF)

2018 RUOP Placements (PDF)