Resident physicians in the Sterling Rural Training Program spend their first year training with the Core Program in Greeley, Colorado. Their continuity clinic occurs at North Colorado Family Medicine and a firm foundation in inpatient adult medicine, inpatient pediatrics and inpatient maternity care is built. Resident physicians then move to Sterling, Colorado for the remainder of their training. Resident physicians are provided with an extra stipend on top of their salary and benefits after moving to Sterling. Currently, the Sterling Program is limited to two positions per PGY year.

The curriculum while in Sterling is arranged in a longitudinal fashion on a weekly/monthly basis. Resident physicians will do a rotation of 4 recurring weeks—one week of inpatient Medicine, one week of Obstetrics, one week of Outpatient Clinic, and one week “Swing” (a combination of clinic, elective/specialty time, emergency room time, and overnight call). Electives and time with other specialists, both local and visiting, is intermixed and arranged on a longitudinal basis. One day per month, residents will spend a designated 12hr shift in the emergency department working with the ED physician. Resident physicians take overnight, in-house call twice per month.

This longitudinal approach leads to a tremendous experience in both rural continuity clinic and rural emergency department coverage while still meeting all ACGME requirements for training in other disciplines.

While training in Sterling, residents participate with their classmates in Greeley for Wednesday afternoon didactics, alternating between traveling back to Greeley once per month for this activity and, at other times, participating via live streaming video. Graduates of the Sterling Rural Training Track typically perform about 70 C-sections, 180 total deliveries, 100 colonoscopies, 50 EGD’s as well as OB ultrasound, fracture management, tubal ligations, colposcopy, among many other procedures.