Growing up in a rural community increases the chances of entering rural practice, but rural residencies have an even more significant impact. Our next guest, Dr. Randy Longenecker, a senior advisor and consultant at the RTT Collaborative, discusses his passion for rural healthcare and the importance of upbringing and training location on physicians’ likelihood to practice in rural areas. Dr. Longenecker emphasizes the need to increase residency training in rural areas to address the shortage of healthcare professionals. In our conversation, we discussed how expanding rural education opportunities can help improve access to healthcare in rural communities.
“Train for Rural in Rural”
-Randy Longenecker
Randall Longenecker, MD is a family physician who has dedicated his career to caring for rural communities and growing a community of practice in rural health professions education and training. He practiced comprehensive family medicine in Logan County, OH, for 30 years including maternity care, and 15 years as Program Director of a rural training track program in family medicine. In the past 20 years, he has designed and established more than a dozen programs in undergraduate and graduate medical education and in continuing professional development. He has consulted in the design and implementation of many others.
He is now Assistant Dean Emeritus for Rural and Underserved Programs and Professor of Family Medicine at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Athens, Ohio, where he initiated the Rural and Urban Scholars Pathways program among other programs in preparing students and residents for work in rural and urban underserved communities. In retirement, he and his wife moved to Bridgewater, Virginia. Having founded the organization in 2012 and served as executive director for 10 years, he is now Senior Advisor and Consultant for The RTT Collaborative, a national non-profit board-directed cooperative of rural programs devoted to sustaining health professions education in rural places, providing technical assistance to developing and existing programs and pursuing research in rural health professions education and training.