Become a rural healthcare leader through our diverse residency program

We're on a mission to train and prepare family physicians for practice in the rural communities of South Dakota and the Upper Midwest.

Through a hands-on approach, you’ll experience an education that emphasizes a broad knowledge base, solid procedural skills, a comfort level with telemedicine, and an ability to improvise. Rural medicine involves more than merely staffing the local healthcare facilities.

Watch Overview

Charissa Raymond, DO

Resident, Class of 2023

"I’ve really enjoyed beginning my 2nd year of residency in Pierre. I love the feel of a smaller group of residents, and living in a smaller community. I’m excited to build my level of experience with procedures that I plan to be doing in my practice. You have that kind of opportunity here to focus areas of your training."

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John Chandler, MD

Resident, Class of 2024

"You have peers who have more experience than you who are training you on the job. They treat you like a peer. They give you enough rope to struggle with so you can grow."

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Jalen Lamb, DO

Resident, Class of 2024

"Residency isn't a straight and narrow path. As you work with faculty physicians, you not only get to participate in active management and decision making, but you will have a resource to lean back on."

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The Residency Experience

Get an inside view of each year of residency with sample rotation schedules and learn how you can customize it for your practice.

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Yearly Curriculum

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Welcome to Pierre, SD

We're excited to meet you!

Pierre is a friendly community that's a great place to live, work, play, and raise a family. Click below to explore what Pierre has to offer, and learn more about the community you'd call home for the majority of your residency.

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It's Currently

39°

Visit one of the city's 4 cultural museums for an afternoon full of history.

Site Director

Program Director

A message from our site director

Our program is designed to train you to serve rural communities that are often underserved for primary care and healthcare in general. We understand that having a career serving in a rural community, may not offer all the “bells and whistles” that an urban program may have. We took a lower resource environment into account in designing your clinical experiences. In your first year in Sioux Falls you are able to capitalize on the typical technology and volumes that any city with a population of 250,000 can offer in caring for patients. In Pierre, you will not have the same access to subspecialty consultation that you may have elsewhere, and you may not have the ability to get an MRI immediately. What you will enjoy in this smaller community environment, is a peer-to-peer type relationship with all of your community attendings. This one-on-one relationship will serve as your main foundation as you develop confidence in your skills and medical knowledge.

We are excited to have the support of many local and regional entities to enhance your education. You will have clinics at Sanford Health, South Dakota Urban Indian Health, the women’s correctional facilities and soon Avera Medical Group. We are flexible enough to support your rotation at any rural town in the state, including rural training sites in Mobridge and Miller, SD. The latest programming development is a partnership with the Indian Health Service on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservation. We want to prepare you for the possibility of career in South Dakota which means service to the many indigenous populations of the upper Midwest.

All of this underscores our commitment to prepare you to serve in, as small a community as you would like. As a family physician, my commitment is also to my patients as well as my community. I would love for you to join us!

Dr. Teresa Bormann Site Director

A message from our program director

Our goal at Pierre Rural Family Medicine Residency is to train competent, compassionate family physicians that are prepared to serve and lead in our rural communities. The State of South Dakota has invested considerable resources to expand the rural healthcare workforce, and we’re thrilled to be a part of solving the state’s physician shortage.

Residents in our program practice medicine hundreds of miles away from big referral centers, with the nearest non-critical access hospital more than 150 miles distant. Our resident physicians become very comfortable and competent in providing high-quality medical care in a limited-resource setting. They also engage in the community and participate in their patients' lives in ways that are less feasible in more anonymous, urban settings. These experiences prepare them to thrive in their future rural practices.

Rural training has many advantages, and if you have a pioneering spirit and plan to practice in a rural community, we invite you to join us! After your training, we are confident you will be well-positioned to provide full-spectrum care, effectively leveraging available resources.

Dr. Mark Huntington Program Director