Drs. Jill Amsberry and Chris Fallert explain how the University of Minnesota Medical School and CentraCare's new St. Cloud campus is a rural-urban partnership that will transform rural health care and strengthen the region
It's relatively uncommon for physicians that start in an urban setting and finish their careers or continue their careers in rural settings.
Ellen Wolter:We know if we start
Chris Fallert:with students that are rural in their background in the first place, they are much more likely to serve rural communities going forward. From an economic perspective, we know that adding a physician to a community generates about $1,400,000 in revenue and about 17 jobs per additional physician that's part of a community. And so it's not just the physician joining, but it's jobs and economic opportunities that come with that that are going to really help make a difference for communities as well.
Ellen Wolter:The students that we're bringing here are extraordinarily bright.
Jill Amsberry:They're extraordinarily eager. They will provide opportunities and ideas to us that we didn't think of before because we've become a little too myopic in our view. And so I cannot wait for them to show us more of what kind of capital they'll produce. We know that rural physicians tend to be more likely to hold leadership roles in rural communities. So for me, it's the additional benefits of what this is going to do for our communities that makes me the most excited.
Ellen Wolter:That's Doctor. Chris Fallot and Doctor. Jill Amsbury sharing how they anticipate the new University of Minnesota Medical School St. Cloud campus will impact the broader Central Minnesota community. Chris is the regional campus dean, and Jill is the assistant dean of undergraduate medical education at the new campus which opened just a few weeks ago.
Ellen Wolter:Chris and Jill join me to discuss the launch of the new campus in St. Cloud, which is a rural urban partnership developed between the Centricare Health System, the largest provider of rural health care in Minnesota, and the University of Minnesota Medical School. The primary goal of the new campus is to address rural physician shortages and to improve health care access in rural Minnesota by recruiting students from rural areas and training them in rural areas, an approach that is surprisingly not that common. Christens will talk about the critical connection between the University of Minnesota Medical School in the Twin Cities and the Centricare Health System and how they're combining their resources and infrastructure to improve rural health care. The new St.
Ellen Wolter:Cloud Medical Campus is also an innovative example of a rural urban partnership that has the potential to strengthen not only rural health care, but also the human, social, and economic capital in the region.
Chris Fallert:When they've all had their
Ellen Wolter:quarrels imparted, we'll be the same as we started, just to travel along, singing a song This is Ellen Wolter from the University of Minnesota Extension, and welcome to the Side by Side podcast.
Jill Amsberry:Chris and Jill, it is such a pleasure to have you on today.
Ellen Wolter:Tell us a little bit about the University of Minnesota St. Cloud campus that that's opening in the fall.
Jill Amsberry:Sure. Happy to. So the University of Minnesota Medical School will now have a third campus here in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Orientation starts August 18.
Jill Amsberry:We will be welcoming a full four year class of medical students. And this expansion is really part of a statewide strategy to improve access to health care by training future physicians in the communities where we need them most. The Saint Cloud campus, which is developed in partnership between the University of Minnesota Medical School and its excellence in medical education, along with CentraCare, one of the largest providers of rural health for the state of Minnesota. We'll focus on rural and regional and community based care with early clinical emergence in the rural settings, strong interprofessional training opportunities, and a real commitment to recruiting and retaining students in these rural regions. Our students will benefit from small class sizes.
Jill Amsberry:Our first class of students is 24. We intend to have strong faculty mentorship, close knit community of faculty, students, and engagement with our community, and then close integration with health systems across Central, Western, Southwestern Minnesota. And again, the goal is really to grow a physician workforce and that is well prepared and invested in practicing in rural and underserved areas in our region and in our state. And we are incredibly excited about what this means for both medical education and long term health of Minnesota communities.
Ellen Wolter:And Jill, you're with CentraCare, correct?
Jill Amsberry:That's a great question. So I kind of wear two hats. So I have been a pediatrician at CentraCare for the last fourteen years and have long been interested in education and actually have been engaged as an adjunct faculty with the University of Minnesota Family Medicine Residency Program. So I've been connected to the university for a long time. And now, actually, most of my employment is as assistant dean at this new campus and is now under the university umbrella, though I still do maintain some of my clinical practice
Ellen Wolter:at Centricare. Oh, and Chris, you are with the U. Is that correct?
Chris Fallert:Yeah. So I've been with the University of Minnesota since 02/2008. I joined the faculty at a family medicine residency program in St. Paul and have been engaged in resident education since then. I quickly got involved in medical student education almost right away when I joined the faculty and have had various leadership roles and teaching roles and join the the St.
Chris Fallert:Cloud campus as the Regional Campus Dean in the 2024.
Ellen Wolter:So how did this idea come about? I'm sure it's been a long time coming, but what was the impetus for, hey, you know, we should really open a campus in St. Cloud?
Chris Fallert:I think we have to give a lot of credit to Doctor. Ken Wolman. Ken is the CEO of CentraCare. And when he took the position in approximately 2015, it was quite clear to me that his vision at that time was to create a medical school in some way that would serve central and rural Minnesota. And so that was a long term vision that he had formulated when he took that job.
Chris Fallert:And it finally came to fruition in his relationship with Dean Tolar at the University of Minnesota. And they formed a partnership of like minded people who really wanted to bring a rural medical education and expand rural education to the St. Cloud area. I think, really, Ken deserves a great deal of credit for initiating this process. It would have not have happened without his vision.
Ellen Wolter:What do you think the need is that this campus filled?
Chris Fallert:The physician shortage in rural Minnesota is substantial. The mean age of physicians, especially primary care physicians in rural Minnesota, is 55 and up to thirty percent of them are going to be retiring in the next five years. And that builds on an already present shortage of physicians in rural communities compared to urban communities. And so there's an existing shortage that is likely to be exacerbated over the next decade or so. And so there's a pressing need to fill that with physicians that are likely to practice and stay in rural Minnesota.
Ellen Wolter:Why is there such a shortage in rural areas?
Jill Amsberry:Over the last thirty to forty years, rural health care has really undergone some significant shifts. You know, decades ago, rural communities often had locally owned hospitals and clinics that were staffed by their local family medicine physicians who served multiple roles in their communities. Over time, however, there have been increased economic pressures, provider shortages, and then there's this systemic health care change across The United States that's led to hospital closures, consolidations of health systems and just in general service reductions. And, you know, I've seen this in my own clinical practice when I came here fourteen years ago as a pediatrician. I largely served the local St.
Jill Amsberry:Cloud region outside of some kids with complex needs who would seek specific pediatric care. Most of who I took care of, they were local to the area that I served. And now I have families that drive two to sometimes three hours to seek care from me. So that has changed even in the last fourteen years as our rural communities are losing some of these really important pillars of their community. Now there have been some advances in technology, and telemedicine is one of those that's helped to bridge some of the gaps.
Jill Amsberry:But we still just have many challenges that remain. There just aren't enough rural physicians. There aren't enough rural nurses, mental health professionals and other clinicians to really help bridge the gap that we're seeing. And then with that, there are geographic barriers, this geographic isolation, challenges with transportation, limited broadband in some of our rural communities as well. And all of this is leading to increased health disparities.
Jill Amsberry:Our rural populations are experiencing higher rates of chronic disease, mental health needs, maternal health challenges with a lot of the maternal health deserts that we're seeing really across the country in rural regions and just fewer resources overall. My husband's from rural Minnesota, and and we see this individually as a family where my mother-in-law had a hip fracture, and we had to figure out a way to transport her two hours from where she was, where she lives independently, to a place where she could get appropriate orthopedic care. So it's it's very challenging right now. And as Doctor. Holman likes to say, if not us, then who?
Jill Amsberry:And if now, then when? We cannot wait any longer to try to address this challenge.
Ellen Wolter:What are some of the ways the the new campus in Saint Cloud will be able to address some of those challenges?
Jill Amsberry:Yeah. The simple fact that we're building this campus in this region, recruiting students from this region, as evidenced by our first class of students. So we have students that weren't otherwise planning or able to apply to medical school because they couldn't uproot and leave to go to the Twin Cities even or Duluth campuses for a multitude of reasons. And so the physical presence of the campus here makes a difference in our ability to take rural students, train them here. And then obviously our goal is to keep them here so that they stay in work.
Jill Amsberry:The curriculum itself is the same across all three campuses, but there are some unique features. So we like to say that the curriculum is the ice cream and then each campus has its own flavoring. And some of our flavorings in our rural mission campuses include what I said previously, which is that we are going to send our students out into rural communities for rural immersive experiences even within their first year of training so that they begin to understand what it means to practice rural medicine. All of our students who are coming to our campus have demonstrated a commitment to rural health in a multitude of ways. So they are already wanting those experiences.
Jill Amsberry:And so our plan is to help deliver that. And then partnering with a health system that understands rural care is crucial. So when our faculty are coming in, we have faculty from our rural communities who are teaching them that can tell them, you know, this is what it's like when this case comes in and I don't have the resources that I need or I have the resources, but it looks different in how I utilize them in my rural setting as opposed to my urban setting where I have a multitude of subspecialists and resources at my fingertips. Right? So the training, the sprinkles, is one of the other ways that we're really hoping to ensure that the students, now that we've recruited them and we give them this high quality education that the university has to offer, But we add the sprinkles that help them feel confident in delivering care in those unique rural settings.
Ellen Wolter:And when you say faculty in rural settings, these practicing physicians that are with Centricare?
Jill Amsberry:Yeah. Most of the faculty are practicing physicians within Centricare. We have also an interdisciplinary team of people who are helping. So we have public health experts and pharmacists and health administration, etcetera, who will also be helping to support this work.
Ellen Wolter:Chris, what does the U bring in to support this new campus?
Chris Fallert:Well, the curriculum is essentially the same curriculum that is delivered at the Twin Cities and the Duluth campus. And so what the university brings to that is the experience in delivering that content, the infrastructure to evaluate students and deliver the content from the experts that have been doing this for decades at both of these campuses. So it brings all of those experts, coaching and facilitation that can help our faculty develop and deliver that same content with its local flavors, with their local sprinkles on top of that. CenterCare has brought tremendous resources. The robust enthusiasm, for future faculty has been tremendous, and we've had great excitement and a sense of ownership and a sense of this is a unique opportunity for us to be able to really be part of something that is new and transformative for our region and for our state.
Chris Fallert:And they all get that and excited to bring that to students. Jill and I have talked to so many people, have expressed interest and support in being part of our faculty. But CenterCare has also brought a lot of resources to the table as well. They have really built and transformed a building which will host our students for their education. They've built a housing complex immediately adjacent to the medical school building that students can choose to rent space in.
Chris Fallert:It will be super convenient for them. So the learning environment, we're trying to optimize the conditions for students to be able to be successful within that environment with a really nice facility and then also an opportunity for students to have housing close by as well.
Ellen Wolter:I'm curious. The folks that you've recruited, are they largely from rural communities from Central Minnesota? The idea is that they will stay in their communities or be in rural communities and practice in those communities. Are there incentives for them to do that, or are you just expecting that they are wanting to do that because that's their ultimate goal?
Jill Amsberry:Yeah. That's such a great question. So all of our students are from Minnesota. They're all Minnesota residents. And all of our students have some ties to Central Western And Southwestern Minnesota.
Jill Amsberry:And I think a large part of that probably in this first class is just an awareness from this area that that this campus was coming to fruition. And so there's a little bit of a selection bias, I think, in who's applying to our campus. All of our students have demonstrated a commitment to rural health, and so we're starting there. Right? These are largely rural students from our region.
Jill Amsberry:We have some students from Saint Cloud and Sac Rapids who have a passion for rural health for individual reason. Now there is no requirement if you come to this campus that you have to do that. But what we're hopeful for is that we create a culture that trains them to feel confident and committed to the mission of our campus. What we do know is that you are much more likely to serve in rural communities if you are trained in rural communities. Our training through undergraduate education or medical school will help serve that, recruit them from our rural communities, We'll train them in undergrad to be successful in rural communities.
Jill Amsberry:And then we are also building out graduate medical education programming, so some residency programs where some of our students will actually be able to stay and train locally even through residency. And there's really good data to suggest that if you do that, those individuals are much more likely to stay in in your region. I mean, we want to support our students in who they are and what their hopes and goals and dreams are for their life. But, obviously, our intent with this campus is to recruit and train to serve our mission.
Chris Fallert:As I've been visiting a number of the Centrica hospitals in the region, the physicians that serve at those hospitals are generally from rural communities and almost without exception. They started somewhere near where they're working or in a rural community and found a practice location that fit that background. It's relatively uncommon for physicians that start in an urban setting and finish their careers or continue their careers in rural settings.
Ellen Wolter:And so that we know if we start
Chris Fallert:with students that are rural in their background in the first place, they are much more likely to serve rural communities going forward. So we know that from the data, but also from anecdotal conversation that I've had with people in rural hospitals that has only confirmed that the data that we've seen.
Ellen Wolter:So are residency programs typically in urban settings? Is it unusual to have a residency program in a more rural area?
Chris Fallert:Yes. It's much more common for residency programs to be in parts of larger academic centers, are typically in urban locations. But we are working hard on expanding rural opportunities here in St. Cloud. I think starting right now, actually in July, a new residency program that is very much rural focused is, is beginning with a residency program that is in family medicine that will spend their first year in St.
Chris Fallert:Cloud, but then their last two years in Wilmer. And, so that class of two residents is happening right now. There are additional rural family medicine tracks that are going to be coming into play in the next two years across the state. So that, and that's stressing the specialty of family medicine, but we hope to expand here through our campus, our opportunities to have rural experiences in pediatrics and psychiatry, perhaps internal medicine, general surgery, core specialties that are really needed in rural Minnesota.
Ellen Wolter:So I went to graduate school at the University of Washington. So I'm familiar with the program, which for listeners who don't know, that's a program at the University of Washington that helps to support education of rural health care providers. And that's a program you go to Seattle, right, and you go to school there, and then you ideally go back to your community and practice. And so I'm curious if this is a newer model where there's a medical campus opening in a rural adjacent area as opposed to, you know, come to this city, learn about medicine, and go back to your communities.
Jill Amsberry:Yeah. That's such a great question. The adage is that if you have seen one rural medical campus, you have seen one rural medical campus. There are regional medical campuses across the country that are being built or have been built to serve needs like the one that we intend to serve. Duluth being a great example of that.
Jill Amsberry:But we are certainly not alone, as you mentioned, in the build out of regional campuses and intent to get individuals back into these rural settings. So there are some similarities with the WAMI program that you mentioned. So we embed students in community based health systems for these authentic longitudinal rural experiences. The whammy program has also found that students who train in rural underserved settings are two to three times more likely to remain in those areas to practice. What's a little different compared to the whammy program for us is this public health system university partnership that's not just, hey, will you take our university student, but a real intent from the health system to collaborate with the university to deliver this care.
Jill Amsberry:We also are a fully four year rural focused campus. So our students who come here, they can stay in this area and learn and train for all four years, so they don't have to go anywhere. That being said, there is a wonderful program within the University of Minnesota called the Rural Physician Associate Program that allows students to go out into the rural setting for a longitudinal clinical experience. And so our students certainly can, and I imagine will, participate in that. But our campus is set up to be a full four year campus, which is somewhat different than a lot of the other regional campuses across the country that are focused on rural health.
Jill Amsberry:You know, when I talk to not whammy necessarily, but I imagine that they have these challenges in other friends in regional campuses are sometimes challenged to find clinical placement for their students. So the campuses are really focused on the educational side of things. But how do you get your students into the clinical space that you need to to effectively train them for the mission that you intend to accomplish. And so Centricare, though we have taken on students from the University of Minnesota and many other medical schools and obviously other learners as well across the state and region. There's certainly capacity or has been capacity to bring students in a more intentional way into the health system.
Jill Amsberry:And now we're going to be able to do that through this four year affiliation.
Ellen Wolter:So providing medical education is one aspect of functioning rural health care system in a community or a small town or even in a regional area. And I'm curious where you feel like there are aspects of the system that you don't control and have nothing to do with that need to catch up in order to make sure there's a functioning rural health care system.
Jill Amsberry:I mean, obviously, our our lens is education. But as you mentioned, there are many different areas that could be improved within the overall umbrella or construct of health care system. I think the things that I can speak to include research in rural health, and that's one of the other lanes that we're really trying to build out between this you know, within this affiliation. So if we don't know what we don't know. Right?
Jill Amsberry:And so if we can work to better understand what our rural community needs are, what our rural health population looks like in more detail, and what strategies could be employed that are effective in helping to reduce some of these challenges that we're seeing outside of just the physician workforce, which obviously our campus is intended to support, that will be immensely helpful. And, of course, from a funding standpoint, it's not uncommon that funding for research isn't necessarily prioritized for rural health research. And so I think, again, the collaboration between the health system, which has this beautiful opportunity, along with the expertise of research funding, recruitment and delivery that the university has, will be incredibly helpful in helping to identify some of those other issues. I think many times our rural communities feel like they just haven't been heard. So though that isn't a health system challenge per se, I would argue that it is.
Jill Amsberry:You know, our health systems are put in place and have need, not just a desire, to serve the communities that they serve. And in doing so, they need to listen and understand what's happening in those communities that we serve. And, you know, obviously, I think CentraCare, I may have a little bias here, but I think CentraCare does a really lovely job of that, listening to our rural communities to say, what is it that you need? How can we help? What can we do?
Jill Amsberry:I'm not sure across the state if our rural regions really feel like people hear and understand them. And then finally, health systems are also engaged with our state legislation. And that is one of the areas that has been another, I think, lovely thing to celebrate is that our state legislators from a bipartisan standpoint have been very engaged and excited about the work that we're doing at this campus. And I think that bipartisan support also helps to bring the rural voice to our state capital. And hopefully, that will continue to expand advocacy in our rural settings beyond just the medical school.
Chris Fallert:I wanna just add to that as well. Jill pointed out the importance that political leaders within rural Minnesota made, the value that they've made towards this project and to provide assertive funds to be able to help transform our medical building and to get support our campus. It's been substantial, and it was driven by leaders within rural communities that represented them effectively at the state. And and then that led to substantial support for this campus. And so I think that needs to be appreciated.
Chris Fallert:At the same time, it was a really cool bipartisan effort that made this happen. And it showed that everyone could get behind the idea that there needs to be an enhanced workforce in rural medicine and enhanced delivery of healthcare. Rural hospitals tend to run on thinner margins. And I, I do think they're going to be challenged going forward by some of the payment changes that are likely to impact rural communities through changes in reimbursement with Medicaid over the next few years. We'll see how that all plays out.
Chris Fallert:We don't really know quite yet, but it is something that is of concern. But at the same time, Centricare has been strong in support of, this campus, and we are quite confident that we'll be able to move forward successfully.
Ellen Wolter:Because this is a community development podcast, I'm going to ask you some community development question. I'm curious how you see the campus supporting the community from a community development standpoint. You know, we've talked about things like human capital, right, the workforce, but there's all kinds of things that may impact the community. Have you thought a little bit about what this campus means for the community?
Chris Fallert:From an economic, perspective, we know from the academic literature that adding a physician to a community generates about $1,400,000 in revenue and about 17 jobs per additional physician that's part of a community. And so we know just from a financial capital perspective, it's not just the physician joining, but it's jobs and economic opportunities that that come with that, that are going to really help make a difference, for communities as well. And so I think that's just one simple economic, answer to your question.
Jill Amsberry:One of the things I am most excited about is this connection to community. I think, you know, there were a lot of challenges during COVID, and I spent a lot of time during that experience outside of the bricks and mortar of the health system talking to community members in many different forms, listening, learning from them. And through that time, I really began to recognize the importance of not just the brick and mortar of the health system and how that impacts our community when our community comes to us, but what we do as a health system, and in this case, medical education in going out into our communities where we take ourselves out of that bricks and mortar and engage with our community in different ways. And the drug care has incredible relationships with community partners across the region. And so one of the things that excites me the most is in the work that that we've been doing and that Centricare has been doing in the community based setting, bringing students along into those projects.
Jill Amsberry:And I know our students, they are so eager to serve our community. They are not they have not started school yet, but are already asking how they can get engaged with some of the projects that we're already doing. So as examples, we have some free clinics that we serve. And so bringing students along to free clinics. We have a community outpost where a lot of wellness checks are done out in the community, so bringing students along to that.
Jill Amsberry:So there is so much from a community social capital, and you can blend in cultural capital into that, I think, in getting our students out of kind of the echo chamber that is health care, that is medical education so that they can really learn who we're taking care of.
Ellen Wolter:And students the students that we're bringing here are extraordinarily bright. They're extraordinarily eager.
Jill Amsberry:And and I might say they're altruistic in the best way. And so so we're also gonna listen to them because, undoubtedly, bringing them in in that space, they will provide opportunities and ideas to us that we didn't think of before because, you know, we've become a little too myopic in our view. And so I cannot wait for them to come and and show us more of what kind of capital they'll produce. And we talked a little bit about the political capital that's already been developed because of the build of this campus. We know that rural physicians tend to be more they're more likely to hold leadership roles in rural communities.
Jill Amsberry:They're more likely to be community health advocates. And so we need to train them in that way so that when they go out into their communities and inevitably hold those leadership roles that they feel confident to do that and can advocate in the way that they need.
Ellen Wolter:We've talked a lot about how Saint Cloud is an urban area that is, of course, you're connecting to more rural areas. But what are ways that you think the Saint Cloud of campus will connect to the Twin City so that there's building this connection between Greater Minnesota and the Twin Cities area? How do you feel like this campus strengthens that connection?
Chris Fallert:Yeah. I mean, from a just simply a clinical delivery perspective, I think this campus is already strengthening some of the specialty expertise, for instance, that is at the University of It's bringing some of that to the St. Cloud area. Centric here St. Cloud Hospital is a tremendous hospital organization, but there are some gaps and some places that can be filled with some of the expertise that comes from the university of Minnesota.
Chris Fallert:It's already happening with respect to orthopedics, with gynecologic oncology. Those are some examples of how that's happened, but we're exploring other ways that telemedicine may be able to help bring resources from the twin cities more effectively into Saint Cloud and then rural medicine. And so all of those are being built through tighter connections between the two institutions that I think continue to happen going forward.
Ellen Wolter:What are some of the things you're most excited about, and then what are some of the challenges that you'll be navigating in the next year or so?
Jill Amsberry:You know, for me, this is really personal, the build of this campus. And so my great great grandfather founded a small town in North Dakota where both of my parents grew up and most of my family still lives. So I have seen the evolution of health care in those areas for some time now. And then my husband is from rural Minnesota. And as I mentioned, you know, have been able to actively see the challenges in the rural health setting there as well.
Jill Amsberry:And so, you know, certainly this rural physician shortage feels deeply personal to me. I lost an uncle on a ranch where the ambulance just wasn't able to get there in time. And in addition to that, I've always had a passion for medical education. And a few years ago, before all of this came to fruition, I felt like we could do a better job delivering evidence based medical education in the community based setting. And I'm actually just finishing my master's in health professional education, which started before the development of this campus.
Jill Amsberry:And so one of the things that's so exciting to me is to see how medical education actually improves the quality of care for the people that are receiving care in this region. And we know long term that will be the case because we will be training and educating our physician workforce with high quality medical education, evidence based medical education. But we also know that bringing learners into the medical settings directly improves health care. And so, you know, I can have a student that will say, you know, doctor Amosbury, did you mean to order amoxicillin for that ear infection? Because I think you put in azithromycin.
Jill Amsberry:Right? And so it's just having those additional eyes and ears in the clinical setting makes us better. Plus, they ask us questions. And so I love bringing students into the clinical setting because they challenge me to make sure that I'm as up to date on the care that I'm delivering as possible. They ask challenging questions.
Jill Amsberry:They make me open my book more often. They make me look at research projects more often. And all of that is better for the care that we deliver across our communities. So there's a multitude of things I'm excited about. Of course, helping to serve our mission is one of them, but I think it's the additional benefits of what this is gonna do for our communities that makes me the most excited.
Chris Fallert:Well, over the next four to five years, we will have graduated some students. And so to have them then take the next step in their training and to see where they land and how they develop and how we effectively prepare them for the next step in their training. I mean, that by itself is going to be just a key component and a challenge to make sure we are absolutely delivering the type of care that prepares them effectively for residency. We also expect to be able to enhance the number of residency programs. And so a number of opportunities for our students to continue their training within our system.
Chris Fallert:And we hope to be able to expand that and hopefully have the kind of environment where we attract students from elsewhere that might want to come here to to continue their learning. And so I'm very excited about that.
Jill Amsberry:Yeah. And, you know, I'll speak to the challenges and then maybe add to what Chris just said. We are dealing with the rural physician workforce challenge. Right? And so one of our challenges is making sure that our faculty who want to help support this work don't get too burned out because they're also having to support the delivery of health care.
Jill Amsberry:Right? So we have incredible psychiatrists who are helping to deliver our clinical psychiatry education and our didactic psychiatry education. And they are very willing to do this, and they are very excited, and they are brilliant teachers. And we have a psychiatry shortage across The United States and certainly across Minnesota. And so there will always be, right now, this balance of our mission, our reason for being is here for a reason, and our reason for being may make it more challenging for some of our folks to engage as fully as they want to until we can begin to fulfill these gaps that we see.
Jill Amsberry:So I think those are not at all insurmountable barriers, and the people, as we've mentioned before, are so excited to help us. But my job will be to make sure that they feel supported so that this doesn't become additive. That this actually becomes additive for their careers and something that they you know, that fills their bucket that they really enjoy and not something that becomes a drain for them.
Chris Fallert:We have to you know, we have to help support them being efficient and effective in their already busy practices and not detracting from that. We're asking busy people to do more things. And so we have to be able to make that that balance acceptable for for them as well and still be able to meet the health journeys that the community has as a result of their everyday work.
Jill Amsberry:Yeah. And building something new is, there's always a steep learning curve involved in that. You know, this is the first medical campus in fifty years in the state of Minnesota, so none of us who are doing this have done this before. So there's a learning curve that will inevitably happen. And, yeah, that also provides this blank slate for opportunity, innovation, collaboration that, again, sometimes you become a little myopic in your view when you're doing things the same all the time.
Jill Amsberry:And so when it comes to our big dreams outside of fulfilling our mission and eventually helping to transform our rural health outcomes and really redefining rural medical education. I also see us being leaders in rural health education across the country, helping other people do the same, helping their health systems see how health system engagement and medical education collaborations between those two things can be so beneficial. And then, of course, we're hoping to grow our local talent. And we know that students, rural students, have been applying to medical school at lesser rate. And when they do apply, they've been less likely to get into medical school.
Jill Amsberry:And it's not because they're less talented, and it's not because they're any less capable of doing this work. Much of it is because they just simply haven't had access to the same tools to be successful in the application process. And they haven't objectively seen something that has shown them that's what I wanna do. If you take away the inspiration, if our rural communities no longer have those impressive rural family physicians who are such pillars of their community, the youth in those communities don't see someone there to aspire to be. We really need to shift that so that we grow inspire our local youth to go into health care, and we give them the tools to be successful through that application process.
Ellen Wolter:Jill and Chris, thanks so much for being on today. We are so excited about the campus and really appreciate the great work that you're doing to support rural health care. And I'm really looking forward to seeing what you learn and how you lead in this area across the nation.
Jill Amsberry:Well, thanks so much for having us.
Chris Fallert:Yeah, we appreciate it, Alan. Thank you.
Ellen Wolter:Thank you for listening to Side by Side. We welcome your emails at sidebysideumn dot edu. Side by Side is a production of the University of Minnesota Extension and is written and hosted by me, Ellen Wolter. Special thanks to Jan Jackula, who designed our wonderful logo, and Jim Griswold, who sings and plays guitar in our opening and closing credits. You can find episodes of side by side wherever you get your podcasts.
Ellen Wolter:We'll be back next week with another episode. I'm Ellen Wolter, and this is side by side.
