Univ of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences Rural Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a small, unopposed, university-sponsored rural family medicine track in which two residents per year train first in Minot at Trinity Health (a 451-bed Level II trauma referral center serving a 16-county, 20,000-square-mile catchment) before relocating for two years to the more remote CHI St. Alexius Health-Williston Medical Center. The structure is built around near-1:1 faculty supervision, high-volume obstetrics, trauma, and office procedures, with explicit design to produce physicians for full-scope practice in the most rural settings rather than subspecialty pipelines. Distinctive elements include the two-city longitudinal design (Minot then Williston), elective rotations at the Turtle Mountain Native American outreach clinic and Garrison's critical access hospital, a required pediatric rotation at Children's Hospital Colorado, and a Mayo Clinic Care Network affiliation for specialist backup despite the rural setting. The program values self-motivated, adventurous applicants with genuine rural-life exposure who want a personalized, low-competition training environment over research output or urban academic prestige.