Resident physicians in the Wray Rural Training Program spend their first 15 months 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. In September of their second year of training, the resident physician moves to Wray, Colorado for the remainder of their residency training. Resident physicians are provided with an extra stipend on top of their salary and benefits after moving to Wray. Currently, the Wray Program is limited to one position per PGY year.

The curriculum in Wray is longitudinal and allows the residents to train and practice as a true rural family physicians doing a little bit of everything each day. Workdays begin with inpatient rounds and a morning report of the interesting cases from the emergency department during the night. After teaching rounds, residents then go to the Family Medicine clinic to see continuity patients. Wray residents also work with local and visiting specialists to gain valuable specialty training experience.

Second-year resident physicians cover the emergency department for nine 24-hour shifts per month (from home at night) and third year resident physicians do seven 24-hour shifts per month (from home at night). 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 Wray, residents participate with their classmates back 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 Wray Rural Training Track typically perform about 80 C-sections, 180 total deliveries, 200 colonoscopies, 100 EGD’s as well as exercise cardiac stress tests, OB ultrasound, a high volume of fracture management, tubal ligations, colposcopy, electrical cardioversion, thrombolytics for acute myocardial infarction and stroke, among many other procedures.