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Rural Health Information Hub
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) Program

The Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) Program supports the establishment of new rural residency programs. The initiative includes two components: a technical assistance program and a grant program with funding to cover start-up expenses including accreditation costs, faculty development, and resident recruitment. The RRPD grant program is typically competed annually.

The Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded $64 million to 85 RRPD grantees in 38 states and 1 territory. As of August 2024, award recipients have:

  • Established 46 new accredited rural residency programs
  • Created 575 approved new residency positions in rural areas
  • Enrolled over 460 resident physicians to train in rural settings

The RRPD Technical Assistance (RRPD-TA) Program, RuralGME.org, provides webinars, TA advisors, and toolkits to RRPD awardees. Limited free resources are available to other organizations interested in rural residency development, such as the new and improved Rural GME Hospital Analyzer tool (registration required). Topics include accreditation, financing, faculty development, curriculum development, and resident recruitment and training. A Roadmap to Rural Residency Program Development provides more information about rural residency programs and key stages of the process of developing a rural residency program.

RuralGME.org offers profiles of RRPD-funded residency programs, with information on specialty, class size, training time in rural areas, and more.

Growing the Rural Physician Workforce: Decades of Federal Funding Impacts Rural Graduate Medical Education, a November 2024 Rural Monitor feature, provides an in-depth history of rural graduate medical education, highlighting the impact of the RRPD Program.

The Rural Monitor also features the accomplishments of three awardees from this program in the September 2021 FORHP Grants in Motion article:

Creating New Rural Residency Programs: Three Grantees Share Their Stories
St. Luke's University Health Network in Pennsylvania, Baptist Memorial Hospital in Mississippi, and Sutter Health in California share what the RRPD grant has allowed them to accomplish so far.

For information about the most recent application cycle for this program, see the funding summary in our Online Library.

Program Contact

For more information about this program, contact:
Jason Steele, RRPD Program Coordinator
Email: RuralResidency@hrsa.gov