Minnesota's rural health school: interdisciplinary community education.

The Minnesota Rural Health School was established in 1996 and is administered by the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Duluth. The program provides rural interdisciplinary clinical experiences for health professions students in seven community sites. The core disciplines include medicine, physician assistant, pharmacy, nursing, dentistry, and social work. There have been more than 230 participants. Students benefit by learning to work in collaborative teams and by participating in rural health care delivery. The communities benefit from service-learning projects, from the introduction of telecommunication technologies, and from the increased potential for recruiting future rural practitioners.