Is it really this hard?

WayOutWestMom
Thu, 03 May 2012 21:57:43 +0000

@mcat2–it’s not just the financial situation, though rural practioners do make a good bit less money than their counterparts in more populous areas. It’s also the professional isolation.

One of my co-workers is from a smaller town (pop. under 35,000), her brother is one of only 6 doctors who practice there. He cannot take a vacation because of the difficulty of arranging coverage for his practice (OB/GYN–only one for 90 miles). He’s on call 24/7/365. He has no professional colleagues he can kick back with and talk shop. And when the coroner is on vacation–he has to take coverage for him, despite it being way, way, way outside his scope.

The professional isolation is so bad in parts of rural South Dakota that there is currently a pilot project being conducted there using telemedicine to support the rural docs who are largely family practioners but who are expected to treat everything from measles to snakebite to pre-term labor to massive gunshot injuries to heart attacks to mental illnesses and just about everything else you can imagine.

It’s a tough life.