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Rural Medical Scholars Serve Mississippi Masses - Landmarks November 2016 Article

Filed Under: Rural Health

From the article:

Dr. Deke Barron works alongside veteran practitioner Dr. Edward Hill as they allow future medical students to shadow their activities in the Family Medicine Residency Center in Tupelo, Mississippi. When Barron was a rising high-school senior considering a medical career
in 2003, he took part in the MSU Extension Rural Medical Scholars (RMS) Program. The Hernando, Mississippi, native returned as an RMS counselor in 2007 and 2010. The 5-week summer program at Mississippi State seeks to identify and encourage the state’s future primary-care doctors.

“I remember the shadowing experience as being very helpful when I was making career decisions,” said Barron, a 2014 medical-school graduate who is completing his third year of residency at the North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo.

Hill is not surprised to hear Barron’s positive review of the RMS Program. He has supported the program since its first year in 1998 by recruiting doctors to be shadowed by participating scholars. “Most doctors are very willing to participate because they recognize the importance of the shadowing experience,” Hill said. “Watching a doctor is totally different from the classroom experience and certainly impacts decisions on the type of medical career the student wants to pursue.”

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