RUOP FAQs

This is a six-credit elective course in community health that coincides with the RUOP clinical experience. This course fulfills UW SOM’s Independent Investigative Inquiry requirement.

There are two curricular track options to choose from that will fulfill the III requirement.

Intervention Analysis is a theoretical exercise comparing and contrasting the feasibility of a possible intervention to public health issues present in the individual RUOP community.

Health Education requires working alongside a community partner to develop and distribute content aimed at informing the community about a pressing health issue.

No.

RUOP rotations begin:

• Earliest start date: June 30, 2025
• Latest start date: July 28, 2025

Please remember the clinical rotation for RUOP is 4- continuous weeks. Most students will be notified about their dates by mid-April (depending on region). Students in Washington will be asked to identify their own RUOP rotation dates following site assignment. RUOP rotations scheduled during the summer break week require advance permission from the RUOP Office, the site, and the student who will be impacted.

Yes. Any extenuating circumstances that would prevent this would require advance permission from the Regional Clinical Dean, the RUOP Office, and the site.

Currently, Idaho is the only region that is offering a pilot hybrid Research (Discovery) / RUOP experience. For Idaho Foundations students, this would mean completing your Independent Investigative Inquiry (III) scholarly project requirement through Research (Discovery) and also committing to a four-week clinical rotation during the summer in a rural or underserved setting that builds upon your research project.

Before applying for a hybrid Research/RUOP clinical rotation, Idaho students should be aware of the following:

• To be considered, students will need to apply to both the RUOP & Research (Discovery) programs AND be an Idaho Foundations student.
• RUOP rotations are four consecutive weeks. Anticipate spending 30-35 hours per week in clinic.
• Students will need to commit to the program by January 17th, 2025

For students outside of Idaho, please talk to your Lead Research Coordinator at your Foundations campus about the best research opportunity for you. You are also welcomed to reach out to Toby Keys ( keyst@uw.edu ) with questions.

We highly encourage you to attend an Info Session in the Fall of your first year in medical school, connect with your colleagues who have gone through the program, and read the student reflections. For more information contact somrural@uw.edu or find a list of contacts in our office.

Yes, it fulfills the program requirement for TRUST and may fulfill program requirements for the Pathways Program, see more info here.

To apply to the program you will need to complete the online application. The online links will be available from December – early January.

The online application is designed to accept edits to your submission, please make your edits there if the application has not closed. In order to take advantage of this, please save your application to generate a return URL and return code. Additionally, please email us at somrural@uw.edu to inform us of any edits or concerns that you may have.

Yes, however, please keep in mind that site placements are determined based on student availability. If you are unable to begin your RUOP rotation between the dates of June 30 – July 28, 2025, perhaps another Triple I program would be better suited for your schedule. Remember, a clinical rotation is 4 continuous weeks. For example, if a rotation begins July 21, 2025 it ends on August 15, 2025.

All students who agree to participate in the program must be available to do their rotation once assigned.

Please contact somrural@uw.edu if special circumstances are at play (e.g., your wedding, military commitment, etc.).

The commitment date is January 17, 2025. Students will be informed of their regional/state placement prior to this date but will not know the specifics of where they are going when they are asked to commit to the program.

No. Each community placement takes RUOP and our partners several months of planning. After committing to RUOP, only under extenuating circumstances, will you be allowed to drop from the program. Learning about other summer opportunities or disappointment over your community placement will not be an acceptable reason for a late drop.

Yes. You will still need to commit to RUOP by the January 17th deadline. In some cases, that may require you to make the decision to commit to RUOP without knowing if the other program has accepted you. If you decline RUOP in hopes of getting accepted to another program and you end up not getting this opportunity, you can check back in with us about availability. We will do our best to find a placement for you, however we cannot guarantee a placement.

Yes. The same timeline applies to TRUST students. TRUST students submit an abbreviated application.

If you are a student who has, or think you may need DRS accommodations for the clinical, academic or housing environments of RUOP, you must reach out to Disability Resources for Students (http://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/) within two weeks of applying to RUOP (or by the deadline of Jan. 10, 2025). Please contact Kowan Russell, Senior Access Coordinator in Disability Resources for Students at kowanr@uw.edu to schedule an appointment to discuss your needs. If you choose to not disclose information about your disability/specific needs by the deadline, we cannot guarantee your accommodations will be considered or implemented during the placement process, which could result in you being unable to participate in RUOP.

There are two steps to determining student placement:

On the application form, you will rank a list of six geographic WWAMI regions in order of preference. Based on regional capacity and your preferences, the RUOP office will assign you to one of the six WWAMI regions.

After you have been assigned to a region, your application will be forwarded to the appropriate Placement Coordinator for that region. The Placement Coordinator will review your application and consider your interests. Coordinators will then determine appropriate placement based on their preceptor availability for their region. Preferences and priorities such as being matched with a preceptor of a particular identity or working with a specific population are given particular consideration, though there may not be placement options that match your desired experience.

These are our regional partners who help with coordinating your placement in one of the six WWAMI regions (Eastern and Western WA, WY, AK, MT, ID). Your Placement Coordinator will inform you of your placement and discuss transportation and housing issues with you.

Pathways may give credit to students participating in the RUOP III program. The RUOP III program attempts to place Pathway students in communities that allow them opportunities to further explore their areas of interest. However, due to site availability and/or other logistical considerations, this is not always possible. In these events, all Pathway programs have contingency assignments. Please check with your individual pathway program for details.

Yes.

No.

RUOP will do their best to place you in that specific community, but we cannot guarantee a placement. We encourage students to keep their expectations open and adopt a flexible attitude when it comes to site placements.

It is unlikely. Unless you have strong ties to the region, it is best if you do not rank Alaska first on your application. It is also unlikely for Alaska students to be placed in other regions without similar strong ties. This is primarily because of the high costs associated with travel and housing.

RUOP sites are rural and urban under-resourced communities in any of the five WWAMI states: Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho.

No. Each year we recruit volunteer preceptors. Therefore, we do not know the participating sites until late spring. Feel free to browse a list of sites from past years on the student resource page.

Please include that preceptor’s contact information (Name, email, phone, clinic name, etc.) in your application and explain your rationale. RUOP sites must meet certain requirements in order to be eligible for a rotation so a Placement Coordinator will reach out to the preceptor if they feel like the site meets program requirements. Please do not attempt to arrange your own rotation or reach out to previous RUOP sites to arrange your own rotation. RUOP sites are built on relationships and back-channel communication can confuse and frustrate our partners.

RUOP pays for your travel to and from your Foundation campus to your RUOP site (1 round-trip stipend). Additionally, if you are commuting more than 40 miles one-way to your RUOP site, you are eligible for additional reimbursement. The program does not pay for any other travel during the RUOP rotation, including daily commuting less than 40 miles one-way.

Rural placements frequently work best with a car. Placements in Alaska are an exception to this rule.