A rural primary care pediatric residency program.

Rural primary care is often reported in the medical literature as frustrating, lonely, and nonrewarding. Many graduating residents who choose small town practice become quickly disenchanted with the life-style and leave for a more populous territory or subspecialty training. Opportunities to learn how to take advantage of rural settings and establish rewarding community practices are few. The Primary Care Pediatric Residency Program at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has developed a training program in rural primary care. Residents experience over a three-year period the many facets of rural practice and are introduced to community-oriented approaches to child health care. Selected rural pediatric practices within a 45-mile radius of the medical center serve as teaching laboratories in which residents develop the skills necessary to manage children's problems related to school, behavioral disorders, and chronic diseases.