Rural Residency Program

A graduate medical education training program in which physicians complete specialty training (residency) in a rural healthcare setting. Research shows that training in a rural residency increases the likelihood that a physician will choose to practice in a rural area by nearly three times compared to urban residency training. Oklahoma's RHTP allocates $22.4 million for expanded rural residency programs in surgery, psychiatry, and OB/GYN.

Rural residency expansion is a long-term infrastructure investment — its benefits accrue over a decade as trained physicians establish practices in rural communities. The federal government has recognized this through the Rural Residency Planning and Development Program and CMS's rural track GME payment policies. Psychiatry residencies are particularly strategic given that mental health is one of the highest-demand telehealth use cases and rural psychiatric provider shortages are severe. As more psychiatrists train in rural Oklahoma, telehealth becomes both a tool they use to extend their practice and a gateway patients use to reach them — creating a virtuous cycle between workforce development and telehealth infrastructure.