20-02-2025
Penn Highlands and IUP sign clinical training agreement
CLEARFIELD COUNTY (WTAJ) – Penn Highlands Healthcare is teaming up with IUP's College of Osteopathic Medicine for a clinical training affiliation.
'The new IUP College of Osteopathic Medicine is going to present wonderful opportunities for the students to be beneficial to both the university as well as patients we care for at Penn Highlands Healthcare but most importantly the rural communities that we serve,' Dr. Trina Abla said.
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The agreement between the two will give students the opportunity to complete their clinicals in a rural setting. Doctors say that experience can make a better physician.
'Learning how to practice medicine in a rural setting is challenging. But it's extremely rewarding and I think that it makes the best physicians coming out of it because you learn to not just treat first or second degree aspects of a disease process, but you tend to extend yourself a little bit further,' Family Medicine Chief Resident Dewit Ayalew said.
The university and healthcare system believe that bringing students into the rural environment will also be a step forward in helping what they call a rural healthcare crisis.
'Too many rural residents need medical care and there are too few medical professionals to provide it. According to the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health, our state's rural hospitals are dealing with a shortage of physicians that has become dire,' IUP President Dr. Michael Driscoll.
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