MIDLAND, Texas — At the Texas Tech University of Health Sciences Centers of Midland and Odessa, the rural training track is a unique residency program for medical school graduates founded by Dr. Timothy Benton.
"What we hope is to populate the region with more primary care physicians," said Dr. Benton.
One of only two of its kind in Texas, the three year program pairs residency doctors like Vivien Ingram with participating rural communities including Andrews, Sweetwater and Fort Stockton.
"Aa problem in west Texas and Texas is a general lack of physicians in small communities, so Texas Tech started this program to help communities get doctors to come to them," said Dr. Ingram
Though Texas Tech's rural training track program, up to five rural doctors can graduate from residency every year.
"The big advantage is that they tend to stay where they train, so rural training tracks offer the ability to help solve the rural healthcare crisis," said Dr. Benton.
According to Benton, those residency doctors are able to see and take part in more training than your typical urban family medicine resident.
"Since there's fewer others training in the area and offers the ability to do a lot of different things, and a lot more things and such as delivering babies and participating in surgeries," said Benton.
Benton calls this an essential experience because once residents graduate and become a primary healthcare provider for a rural community, they're often times all that community has readily available.
"Your idea can't be my schedules are going to be nine to five, so to want to be able to care for the baby who's just been delivered and then you're very next patient be a 91 year-old who you're talking to about hospice, and that happens in the same hour of your day," said Dr. Ingram.
Doctor Ingram's been on Texas Tech's rural healthcare training track for almost two years, which has had her practicing at the Family Medicine Clinic inside the Permian Regional Medical Center in Andrews since July 2018.
It's an experience which she say has afforded her the opportunity to treat patients of all shapes and sizes.
"I see babies that have just been delivered for their three-day weight check up to my oldest patient which is 94," said Dr. Ingram
The Permian Regional Medical Center was recently renovated, but Ingram says it still has rural elements to its operations.
"So we have a specialist calendar, so every week during the month we have a specialist come to visit us here," said Dr. Ingram.
This means family medicine doctors and the hospital's two general surgeons have to be prepared to treat and stabilize whatever walk in though their doors.
"So there are certain things that maybe other family physicians might refer out for treatment that we treat here for as long as we can before going to a specialist," said Dr. Ingram.
It might seem like a lot of extra work for a prospective doctor, but Ingram says it's that kind of care that attracted her to the rural healthcare field in the first place.