First year students are in the community and hospital for a 3-week immersion experience concluding their first year of Medical School.

Third year students spend their entire year in Marianna. The students live in the community and become part of the Medical Staff in a clerkship capacity. They rotate through training with the Hospital’s Active Staff physicians practicing Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Orthopedics, and Pediatrics. The Medical Staff at Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee and the VA CBOC provides Psychiatry rotations for the students. Dr. Steven Spence, Internal Medicine Associates and Jackson Hospital’s Rural Track Program Site Director, says "The Rural Program continues to be a rewarding experience for the students, the physicians, the hospital staff, and the patients in our community."

Jackson Hospital welcomes to the community its 2011-2012 Third Year Rural Track Medicine Students Jason Boothe, Emily Dodenhoff, Shaun-Pierre Hall, and Souhail Karram. These incoming four students bring the number to 17 who have been selected to participate in the program with Jackson Hospital.

Dr. Maggie Blackburn, Director of Rural Track Medicine, Florida State University College of Medicine says, “Our relationship with Jackson Hospital is the heart of our Rural Track Program.” She continues, “It is a true rural experience.”

The four students were welcomed to the Community and Jackson Hospital at a June 8th reception. Faculty from FSU’s College of Medicine, Physicians on staff at Jackson Hospital and Florida State Hospital, as well as members of the community attended.

Jackson Hospital has added many new services, such as infusion therapy, reverse shoulder surgery, medical stabilization, and diagnostic ultrasound services including guided needle ultrasound, to name a few. The hospital has added 9 new physicians to its active medical staff in the last two years: specialists in Cardiology, Hematology/Medical Oncology, OB/GYN, Orthopedics/Sports Medicine, General Surgery, Urology, and Primary Care. The Hospital has OB/GYN outreach clinics in Bonifay, Chipley and Sneads and has opened a Primary Care Clinic in Sneads to better serve Eastern Jackson County and surrounding communities.