Recently, the Kettering Health Rural Health Family Medicine Residency team led a group of Boonshoft School of Medicine and Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine students in a training event to educate them about farm safety and rural health hazards.

Dr. Wes Halderman, associate program director at the Soin Family Medicine Residency, and Soin Family Medicine Residency rural faculty member Dr. Erica Seabold facilitated the event with Rural Pathway residents Dr. Mara Bryan, Dr. Haley Rossiter, and Dr. Stephen Grossi. Boonshoft School of Medicine student group Advocates for Rural Medicine sponsored the event. 

Along with stops at facilities like Kettering Health Jamestown Health Center, the students and faculty traveled to two local farms: Gordin Farm and Baudendistel Farm. Lifelong Greene County residents and farmers Mark Gordin and Tony Tidd provided field demonstrations and led discussions with the students. 

Topics covered during the training included acute injuries, such as crush or rollover accidents, electric shock, road accidents, chemical burns, and suffocation inside grain bins; chronic injuries from chemical exposure and dust exposure; and rural access to care issues, including the need for prenatal and maternity care, substance use disorder treatment, and mental health care.  

“We know that graduates of rural tracks in residency programs go on to practice in rural areas two- to three times more often than residents who don’t,” explained Dr. Halderman. “We’re investing in our rural communities and investing in training providers who are going to care for our rural communities for years to come.”  

The Soin Family Medicine Residency program established a Rural Medicine Pathway in 2021, based in Jamestown. The pathway trains residents who are interested in providing healthcare to underserved and marginalized patients in rural settings.