Recruiting Homegrown Talent to the Medical Field

Megan Price fell in love with taking care of others as a resident assistant at Cedarhurst Assisted Living and Memory Care in Springfield.

The 25-year-old from Petersburg was touched by the trust patients placed in their medical providers during vulnerable times.

“That is really when I decided I wanted to pursue medical school,” she said. “I felt it would be a true privilege to gain that trust and to provide care to others.”

Thanks to the Rural Medical Education Program (RMED) at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford, Price is well on her way to becoming a first-generation physician. The nationally and internationally recognized program recruits and educates medical students who will practice medicine in a rural location upon completion of residency training practice. RMED is an add-on to medical school curriculum.

As part of RMED requirements, Price trained in several rural communities throughout Illinois as part of third-year rotation requirements. She spent two- and four-week trainings in Dixon, Galesburg, Jacksonville and Kewanee. She did a pediatrics rotation at Lincoln Memorial Hospital and then finished with a longer immersive clinical rotation at Memorial Care in Lincoln under the supervision of longtime family medicine physician John Wahab, MD.  

Dr. Wahab has mentored many SIU School of Medicine interns over the years, but Price was his first through RMED. As a medical student himself, Wahab was part of SIU’s Lincoln Rural Track Program, now called the Lincoln Scholars Program, which allowed him to do an elective in a rural clinic. He came to Lincoln as part of that program and never left. In 2023, the Illinois Rural Health Association presented him with the Rural Physician Lifetime of Service Award. He understands the importance of training and recruiting talented young people to the medical field, especially in rural areas.

The timing of Price’s rotation with Memorial Care couldn’t have been more perfect. Dr. Wahab had injured himself over the holidays in a fall and had one arm in a sling for some of her rotation.

“It’s been a good experience for both of us,” he said. “She’s helped me with ENT exams. We called the patients with scheduled injection procedures and told them I wouldn’t be able to do them, but we had a medical student who could under my supervision. They were always pleased to learn she was local talent from Petersburg. She’s done a great job.”

For her part, Price has appreciated the hands-on training in rural areas, especially in Lincoln where she was given the opportunity to form longer relationships with patients that included monitoring their progress at follow-up appointments.

“The opportunities offered through RMED are truly unique in that you receive an added curriculum based on rural healthcare,” she said. “Being able to witness rural healthcare firsthand during clinical rotations where I was given so much autonomy as a medical student was incredibly valuable.”

Alyssa Schmidt, director of Quality, Safety and Compliance at Lincoln Memorial Hospital, coordinates with RMED and physicians to facilitate relationships with the incoming students as well as coordinating logistics like housing.

“We want them to experience Lincoln while they are here,” she said. “We also set up entrance and exit interviews, so they know us and not just the position. This experience is a great way to show them what we have here.”

The first RMED students came to Lincoln in fall 2020, and LMH has hosted 15 since then. Schmidt said the goal is to recruit several of the more local students back to the area after they finish medical school.

“They are rock stars, all of them,” she said of the RMED students. “For smaller communities, continuing to maintain access to care in rural areas through providers is essential. This is a great program that sets us all up for success.”

On Match Day in March, Price found out she will do her residency at Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. She is excited to finish residency close to home and plans to return to the area to practice medicine.

The Memorial team in Lincoln hopes to welcome her back.

Additional Resources

For more information about the Rural Medical Education Program, visit the National Center for Rural Health Professions.