Five miles in and two thousand feet up: Early providers navigating transitions into rural medical practice

In this study, we explored the transition experiences of recently graduated providers into rural clinical practice to understand their ongoing transition support and wellbeing needs. The study used Jindal-Snape’s Multiple and Multi-dimensional Transitions Theory and Gordon et al.’s Transition-To-Trained-Doctor (T3D) conceptual model as the foundation to explore early providers’ transitions to rural practice. It ultimately aimed to identify key factors that can help develop multi-dimensional support systems as providers transition into rural healthcare roles. We interviewed physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants at two time points to better understand their longitudinal multiple and multi-dimensional transitions in their first three years of practice.

This comic anthology presents the interpretations of interview data from the providers. The comics present composite narratives of different participants. The visualization of the data through comics provides opportunity to explore the complexity of these transitions and to reach a wider audience who are an important part of the communities that support providers in their transitions to rural practice.