Students Use Apprenticeships To Work in Rural Medicine

During the past two years Harvard's Rural Health Apprenticeship Program (RHAP) has placed 23 students in areas of the United States where they can work to improve inadequate health care facilities.

Students participating in RHAP said Monday that the internships provide an opportunity for people to "see what medicine is really about" by getting away from the impersonal type of medicine often practiced in an urban community.

RHAP has been in existence for two years and is growing in popularity. It was first set up by students looking for internship opportunities for themselves. They decided to share the extra job opportunities they found with others.

John Rosenberg '76-4, program coordinator, said Monday he tries to match rural doctors who need student help with Harvard students interested in medical careers. These students work from four months to a year in a rural community.

"The students who participate in the program are interested in seeing how medical care can be administered in a situation, and for some students, an inbecomes an intention to go into the field," Rosenberg said. He added that the program could potentially produce a group of people who will encourage change in the present medical system.

The reactions of students who have participated in the program appear uniformly favorable.

"If a person is willing to chop down trees, it's a great way to see what the country is like, and to meet people you wouldn't come in contact with in Cambridge," Sherry L. Baron '77-3, a student who spent six months working in the coal mining regions of Tennessee, said yesterday.

David August '77, who is presently working in Yuba City, California, said Monday that he is getting a real look at medicine in a rural area populated by migrant workers. August said he believes less emphasis should be placed on medical research until all people are guaranteed basic medical care.