Medical schools don’t teach you how to coach Little League baseball.

But that was the task Tom Millard faced this summer when he did a family practice rotation with Atchison doctor John Eplee.

“He’s such a pillar in the community,” Millard said of Eplee. “He coached Little League; he’s in the Rotary Club. He’s definitely multifaceted and multitalented.”

Through the Kansas Rural Preceptor Program, all fourth-year medical students at Kansas University are required to spend one month with a physician in rural Kansas.

The program, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, will be featured in a half-hour documentary at 9 p.m. Tuesday on Kansas PBS stations, including KTWU in Topeka, Sunflower Broadband Channel 11. The documentary will be followed by a half-hour panel discussion about rural health care in Kansas.

KU also is preparing a companion book on the program, due out by mid-December.

“We wanted to preserve the history of this program and show through the stories of these individuals how physicians are educated not just here at the Medical Center but in the community,” said Mary Beth Gentry, executive editor of the documentary and assistant dean for advancement and external affairs. “It’s not just clinical skills but the art of medicine, how they fit into the community.”

The film won first prize for documentary in this year’s KAN film festival.

The film and the book discuss the doctor-student relationships fostered by the program.

But the stories aren’t always heart-warming. Gentry said one student was so excited to assist in surgery for the first time he forgot to tie his scrub pants well and they dropped to his ankles in the operating room.

Another student leaned over a surgery patient to look in his abdominal cavity, only to have his glasses fall in the patient.

“Our biggest audience will be physicians, but I think they’re written in such a way a lot of people will truly enjoy them,” Gentry said.

Physician Dennis Spratt talks with Mary Kowalewski at his office in Ottawa. Spratt mentors Kansas University medical students through the Kansas Rural Preceptor Program, which will be featured in a documentary at 9 p.m. Tuesday on KTWU, Sunflower Broadband Channel 11.

Then-Chancellor Franklin Murphy started the program in 1951 to combat a shortage of doctors in rural Kansas.

Dwindling care

Fifty-one years later, the shortage still exists. There are about 2,000 doctors serving the 17 most populous counties in Kansas. Only 500 doctors serve the remaining 88 counties.

KU data suggests there will be significant shortages of rural doctors in 15 to 20 years. More than 45 percent of Kansas’ family physicians are over 50 years old, and 25 percent are 60 or older. Surveys show 80 percent of this group are considering leaving or scaling back their practices.

Dr. Dennis Spratt, a family physician in Ottawa, knows the challenges of being a rural health care provider. He graduated from the KU School of Medicine in 1984 and has practiced with Ottawa Family Practice since then.

¢ About the program

Spratt, who grew up near Rantoul, said his time as a medical student in Winfield, Osage City and Atchison helped convince him to stay in a small town once he graduated.

“It was neat to see some of the older patients and how much love they have for their doctors,” he said.

New perspective

Now, he wouldn’t think about leaving for a big hospital. He said he enjoys the independence rural doctors have.

Spratt hosts often has KU medical students at his practice.

“Some of them see it and decide that’s not what they want to do,” he said. “For those on the fence, they realize it can be a good lifestyle. We love having students. It keeps us fresher. They ask questions that we have to go look up the answers. They keep us on our toes.”

Millard said his experience in Atchison opened his eyes to rural health care. He admitted he wasn’t looking forward to the preceptor program but ended up having a good time.

“They’re used to having their family doctor being their confidant as well as treating their medical problems,” he said. “And they don’t have the luxury of referring people to specialists. (Eplee) did everything from delivering babies to taking care of people in nursing facilities.”