About R/UOP in Wyoming

[University of Wyoming R/UOP Rural Underserved Opportunities Program. Click to go to HomePage.]

About R/UOP

The R/UOP program is for WWAMI students just completing their first year of medical school. It seeks to further the University of Washington School of Medicine's commitment to produce primary care physicians (family medicine, general medicine and surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics) for Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. It gives students a chance early in their professional studies, while their preferences for practice specialty and location are forming, to see how rural primary care medicine is practiced.

R/UOP encourages primary care careers in rural communities by providing students with hands-on experience in clinical practice and intimate exposure to a rural community. It provides students with an opportunity to discover how patients receive health care away from the highly specialized resources of the academic medical center in Seattle.

Student Placement

The R/UOP program is based in the University of Washington School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine. Additional information on the R/UOP program is available from the University of Washington's R/UOP web site.

Student placements are facilitated by the School's six Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) in the WWAMI region:

Wyoming

Preceptors

Interested students are matched with clinical preceptors in rural areas. These preceptors donate their time (four weeks) to provide a highly unique and individualized learning experience.

Financial Support

Students receive a small stipend and partial reimbursement for travel expenses. AHEC Centers in each state work with the physician preceptors and their communities to identify free housing for the students.

History of R/UOP in Wyoming

In our eight years of participating (1995-2002), Wyoming physicians in eighteen communities have provided experiences for 65 University of Washington first-year medical students.

Students interested in a R/UOP site in Wyoming must have their own transportation during the time they expect to be placed. Public transportation in Wyoming is scarce to non-existent in our smaller, rural communities.