USD Sanford Medical School expands FARM program announces new student participants
Each student selected for the FARM program will receive nine months of intense and hands-on clinical training in a single, rural location that will help them understand the opportunities and rewards of practicing medicine in a small-town setting. Selected students are in their third year of medical training.
Dr. Susan Anderson, M.D., director of the FARM program, said the program introduces students to rural health care, and encourages students to practice in South Dakota’s non-urban locations. “Providing South Dakota with physicians who will practice medicine in in our smaller communities is an important mission of the medical school,” said Anderson. “The FARM program is a useful tool to help us accomplish that.”
FARM students are supervised by practicing physicians in clinical, hospital and other health care environments in host communities.
The first group of FARM students launched the program in fall, 2014. That group included six students and five hospitals in five rural South Dakota communities. The third group includes seven students and hospitals in six locations. The program’s original host communities were Milbank, Mobridge, Parkston, Platte and Winner. Those communities will continue to host FARM students. New FARM communities hosting FARM students in the future are Vermillion, starting in February 2016, and Pierre and Spearfish, beginning in February 2017.
The Class of 2018 FARM students, who will begin the program in February 2016, are listed below. Assigned FARM communities and each student’s hometown are also listed:
Adam Fitzgerald Platte FARM Site Hometown: Ketchikan, Alaska
Ami Garrigan Mobridge FARM Site Hometown: Onida, S.D.
Elizabeth Hedman Milbank FARM Site Hometown: Brandon, S.D.
Amanda Johnson Winner FARM Site Hometown: Sioux Falls, S.D.
Julia Nichols Winner FARM Site Hometown: Rapid City, S.D.
TiAnna Vogt Vermillion FARM Site Hometown: Bonesteel, S.D.
Liz Westhoff Parkston FARM Site Hometown: Rapid City, S.D.
