IFM | For rural doctors, impactful work must be supported

In this episode of the Inside Family Medicine podcast, host Rebecca Fuller Beeler talks with Kimberly Becher, MD, a West Virginia family physician and chair of the AAFP's new Rural Health Advisory Committee, about the challenges, opportunities and future of practicing family medicine in rural communities.

Becher shares what drew her to family medicine and why she has spent her career practicing in a community without a hospital. She discusses the broad scope and flexibility of rural practice, where physicians may care for patients across generations while navigating limited access to specialists, emergency transportation, food, reliable utilities and other resources. At the same time, she challenges assumptions that rural medicine is less innovative, describing opportunities to test new care models, use emerging technologies and even participate in clinical research.

The conversation also explores why the AAFP created its Rural Health Advisory Committee. Becher discusses a shrinking and aging rural physician workforce, hospital closures, financial pressures on outpatient practices, and the need to ensure family physicians can practice at the full scope of their training. The committee is examining workforce development, sustainable payment, administrative burden, rural training, and other factors that can help recruit physicians to rural communities — and give them reasons to stay.

Becher also shares how addressing patients' needs sometimes requires thinking beyond traditional clinical care. She describes a project that provided patients experiencing food insecurity with vouchers to choose their own fresh fruits and vegetables, illustrating how relatively small interventions can have a meaningful effect on patients and their relationship with their care team. Looking ahead, the Rural Health Advisory Committee plans to develop a rural health roadmap for family medicine while finding ways to incorporate perspectives from rural physicians, students and others throughout the family medicine community.

For medical students and residents considering rural practice, Becher's advice is simple: find the people and the type of work that resonate with you. Rural family medicine can offer broad clinical experience, independence, strong community relationships and opportunities to make an impact that extends far beyond the exam room.

References and resources

• AAFP Rural Health

• Rural Health Care in Medical Education

• Rural Health Transformation Fund

• Rural Practice Resources from FPM

Chapter markers

00:00 Introduction and meet Dr. Kimberly Becher
01:09 Why she chose family medicine
02:10 The unique challenges of rural health care
04:48 Why choose rural practice?
06:20 Introducing the Rural Health Advisory Committee
07:39 Building and sustaining the rural physician workforce
08:36 What would make the biggest difference in rural medicine?
10:18 Addressing food insecurity and making an impact beyond the exam room
12:19 Building a rural health roadmap for family medicine
15:20 Advice for students and residents considering rural practice