Opinion: the secret sauce to a vibrant physician workforce is early community exposure
Over the summer, many young Alaska WWAMI medical students participated in a transformative 4-week elective across the state. The Rural Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP, said as “roo-op”) is for students between their first and second years of medical school that are interested in experiencing a practice in the Alaska bush. Physicians in remote communities are jack-of-all-trade, rugged individualists and those characteristics serve as healthcare cornerstones in many areas of Alaska’s Greatland.