Rural Clinical Rotations

JABSOM Rural Training Programs

Contact Kelley Withy, MD, PhD at (808) 692-1070 or withy@hawaii.edu.

  • First Year Medical Students

    • Community Health Rotations: available in community health centers in rural areas on Oahu. The major goal of the community health experience is to explore methods for promoting health and improving the quality of life for patients by working with a community organization. (funded through AHEC)

  • Summer Between First and Second Year

    • Clinical Skills Preceptorships: Students can choose to work with preceptors in the community to improve their history taking and physical exam skills. Students are encouraged to work with preceptors in rural areas.
    • Quentin Burdick Interdisciplinary Rural Health Program: This is an interdisciplinary program involving students from nursing, medicine, social work, psychology, and public health. Students are placed in six diff erent rural communities across the State of Hawai‘i. The students partner with rural health associations and community leaders and work toward providing community-based, culturally appropriate health care for rural communities. They also participate in health career activities to educate and motivate high school and community college students about higher education careers in health care.

  • Third Year Medical Students

    • 6L Program: Alternative longitudinal track for students completing their clinical clerkships. Students spend one semester (5-1/2 months) in a rural community completing the out-patient portion of their clinical training. They work one-on-one with individual preceptors in the community. The other semester is spent in urban Honolulu completing their inpatient training. Current out-patient training communities include Hilo, Maui, Kauai, Waimanalo, Leeward Oahu, and Wahiawa.
    • Family Medicine Clerkship: Students completing the traditional clerkship track are generally placed in rural locations for their Family Medicine Clerkship. Students are placed with individual community Family Physicians and are encouraged to go to the Neighbor Islands for this rotation. Clerkship training sites include the Big Island (Hilo, Kamuela, Kona), Maui (Kahalui, Kula, Kihei, Lahaina), Molokai, Lanai, and Kauai (Kapaa, Lihue, Waimea).

  • Fourth Year Medical Students

    • Rural Preceptorships: Students are given the option of doing elective rotations on the Neighbor Islands and in other areas of the Pacifi c Rim. These electives are mainly off ered through the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health.

  • Family Medicine Residency Program

    • The Family Medicine Residency Program: is establishing a rural training track on the island of Hawai‘i, located in the city of Hilo. The family medicine residents spend one month each in their second and third years of training in Hilo. When the track is implemented, two family residents per year will spend their fi rst year of training on the island of Oahu and will complete their last two years of training in Hilo. If successful, the rural track program could be expanded to the other Neighbor Islands.

Instructions for Students and Residents Interested in Hawaii Preceptorships/Rotations:

The Hawaii/Pacific Basin AHEC works closely with the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (DFMCH). If your school requires that UH provide credit, you will have to go through a department such as DFMCH. Even if you do not need school credit, we request that you contact them to alert them to your interest so that local students will not be negatively impacted.

  • Third Year Medical Students: JABSOM usually does not support clerkships for students from other schools because of the volume of local demand. Non UH credit opportunities in rural Hawaii and the Pacific are available through AHEC. Contact Dr. Kelley Withy at withy@hawaii.edu.
  • Fourth Year Medical Students: Contact Lira Quitevis at lira.fmch@gmail.com regarding subinternships and other rotations in Family Medicine. If she is unable to assist you, she may be able to provide some physician names for you to contact, or Dr. Kelley Withy can assist with neighbor island suggestions. If you would like to work in the US Jurisdictions of the Pacific, your school will need to provide any necessary credit, but we have opportunities in American Samoa, Guam, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Family Medicine Residents: Contact Dr. Lee Buenconsejo-Lum at lbuencon@hawaii.edu. For residents, we take each request on a case-by-case basis. For it to count for credit, it is best to coordinate it though the Department of Family Medicine. You will need to get a temporary Hawaii license, even if working under supervision. The application form is form found at: http://hawaiiresidency.org/pdf/out_of_state_elective_application.pdf

PA Students: Contact Dr. Kelley Withy at withy@hawaii.edu. AHEC allocates $250 a year per students for travel to Hawaii for rotations. Original receipts for travel or lodging must be submitted. If you have a site already picked out and the preceptor has agreed, please complete the attached forms (student trainee checklist and WH-1 forms. If you do not have your boarding pass, you must complete the memo_no_boarding_pass also)

APRN Students: Please have your faculty contact Dr. Kelley Withy at withy@hawaii.edu to figure out the easiest way to support travel expenses for clinical rotations and training.

Allied Health Students: Please have your faculty contact Dr. Kelley Withy at withy@hawaii.edu to figure out the easiest way to support travel expenses for clinical rotations and training.

Forms

Experience By a Past Student

“It was important for me to see what the practice of medicine would be like on the neighbor islands because I had interest in working there after residency. Now that I experienced the community and health care system there, I feel much more secure in my decision to practice there or in a similar rural community”.

-- Student, 6L Program