Demand for Doctors in Rural Areas

Due to the limitations of living in rural communities, new (young) doctors are less willing to go out and offer their services to those in need of medical assistance. While some would not dwell too much on the fact that certain grocery stores or department stores, such as Macy's, are not available in these areas, the lack of luxuries does make a difference. Cathy Frey, the executive director of the Alliance for Rural Community Health in Ukiah, Mendocino County, admits that, "As silly as that may sound, that's what some people look at." She goes on to say that, "It's beautiful [in Ukiah], but (for) somebody new coming out of medical school, this is kind of like no man's land." Because of Ukiah's unfortunate feature of seemingly having not much to offer, there has been significant shortage of doctors that is concerning to both "experts and health care providers." Regarding a UC Health Care Workforce study, 20% of California residents reside in rural areas, yet merely 9% of state physicians practice there. This, as you can already infer, poses a problem.
Since new doctors are not pouncing at the opportunity to serve those in rural California, there is a greater demand for both nurse practitioners physical assistants. Additionally, there has been talk of telemedicine, a term that refers to medical specialists examining and sometimes treating patients from the specialists' current location through the use of "interactive audiovisual media." In a way, it would be like video-chatting, but just with more medical examinations and diagnoses involved. Overall, Ukiah is doing the best they can to get by, and they're more than willing to try new methods in order to solve their problem of having too many people go by without medical attention.
Aside from not having a lot of options for leisurely time and fun, another reason why doctors are hesitant to move out to rural areas is because a lot of the once-medical students most likely have student loans that they need to pay back, and living in the countryside simply isn't going to cut it for them. Over 50% of the doctors in Mendocino County are above the age of 55, so that percentage is focusing more on their retirement plans, not on elongating their time practicing medicine. Therefore, the fate of the physically and mentally ill are essentially in the hands of the younger doctors. While these doctors are not legally required to work out in rural areas and while I understand what the burden of student loans must be like, I hope that some of them will try to contribute their time and skills to helping those who need it most.