Celebrating rural ob-gyn partners and residents on National Rural Health Day 2025
November 20, 2025 is National Rural Health Day, which celebrates the dedication and accomplishments of rural healthcare providers and acknowledges the unique healthcare needs and challenges in rural parts of our country. The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology would like to thank the physicians and partners across Wisconsin who are training future ob-gyn physicians in rural practice.
The UW Department of Ob-Gyn created the first rural ob-gyn residency training track in the country to help address shortages in the ob-gyn workforce. According to the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health, 40 percent of hospitals in rural Wisconsin do not offer obstetrics services.
Residents who match into the rural ob-gyn residency track rotate at rural hospitals across the region. While on these rotations, the rural track residents get hands-on experience providing ob-gyn care – including prenatal and obstetric care, gynecologic cancer screenings and management of complicated gynecological problems – to people in small communities.
Partnerships with these health care organizations are invaluable in providing the training experience necessary to prepare rural ob-gyn residents for their future practice:
- SSM Health Monroe Clinic Medical Group
- Western Wisconsin Health - Baldwin
- Marshfield-Marshfield Medical Center
- Reedsburg Area Medical Center
Though the UW-Madison rural ob-gyn residency was the first in the nation, residency programs around the country are starting to offer opportunities for ob-gyn residents to train in rural settings. UW rural ob-gyn residency graduates have moved on to practices in Minnesota, Arizona, California, and Wisconsin. The UW Department of Ob-Gyn plans to expand the rural training program with a grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services through the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Current rural ob-gyn residents include Dr. Kaitlyn Anderholm, Dr. Olivia Johnson, Dr. Jessica Gillespie, and Dr. Michelle Breuer.
Meet the Rural Ob-Gyn Residency Partners: Christy Trautman, MD
Christy Trautman, MD, is an obstetrician-gynecologist at Reedsburg Area Medical Center and trains the UW Department of Ob-Gyn residents when they rotate in Reedsburg. She shared insights into what makes rural practice so special and how these rotations help prepare residents for the realities of working in small communities:
What drew you to a career in rural healthcare?
Christy Trautman (CT): I grew up in the rural space, I'm married to an agronomist, and I am very passionate about agriculture, and certainly the work my family's done raising horses. That's where we want to live and engage with our community. When your out-of-work passion can align with your work passion, there's greatness in that. Living and raising our family in a rural community is very important to us.
Healthcare in that rural space becomes very important. I moved to Reedsburg when we were recognizing the challenges coming in staffing in the rural space, in particular with maternal care. Because I'm passionate about women's health, and maternal health, and rural communities, this was a natural role for me.
What does an average rotation look like when a rural resident is training with you?
CT: I'm able to give them a different kind of rotation experience in this rural space that I hope mimics their life moving forward as a rural practitioner, so I consider that certainly a privilege. They come with me to clinic a few days a week, and then we work on getting them some OR cases as well. I do ask them to take one day of call a week or so, and so they help to manage the labor and delivery unit and see and feel what that's like to be a provider on call at a rural hospital, because it is a bit different.
It's important that they also learn the limits of a rural system, because they're used to being at the tertiary center. Instead of receiving a maternal transport, which they’re used to from working in Madison, they have to understand how to package someone up to be transferred.
How do you show residents what it’s like to live in and be part of a small community as a healthcare provider?
CT: I ask the residents to participate in a community service-type project while they’re here. It helps them get to know the community, and the community get to know them. The residents who want to be in the rural space want to be in that rural space for a variety of reasons, but often cited is the ability to connect with the community in a more intimate way. A community project gives them the time and opportunity to really do that.
One resident helped us fundraise and install a Safe Haven Baby Box in our EMS. Other residents have volunteered at food pantries or schools. There are a lot of opportunities locally in Reedsburg to really sink into the community when you're here.
What are residents learning on rural rotation that’s unique to the setting?
CT: I really want this rotation to be an opportunity for the residents to think about parts of learning that they don't learn in the same way at their academic center. That’s things like being community-minded, setting boundaries and maintaining professionalism in the rural space. It's how do we take care of people in a resource-limited setting?
And the other big part of this is leadership. In a small hospital, you will be asked to be a physician leader, because it’s necessary. When residents are here, I bring them to every meeting that I go to, so medical executive committee, and peer review committee, and things like that, so they get a taste of what that ask will be like, how to provide that leadership and get excited about it. It's really important for us to be leaders. We have to be a voice for maternal services, be able to engage with leadership and help people understand why this service is so important to the community.
How do rural residents benefit your practice and hospital?
CT: The rural ob-gyn residents are all extremely knowledgeable, energetic and motivated doctors. They’re learning things that all of us as a group need to stay up-to-date on, and so having that level of knowledge brought here to this rural space helps elevate our awareness and inspire us to keep up to date with information.
We love having the residents. The nurses love having residents because they're a very positive source of great information and teaching. The residents are great teachers and can teach back to us. The energy and the brightness that they bring to the physical space and the emotional space is really important as well.
What are the most important skills you hope residents will learn on rural rotations?
CT: Without a doubt, provision of maternal care in a resource-limited setting, how to provide that care to a community where you are highly engaged and also setting professional boundaries, and learning how to interact at a leadership level so that we can have providers in the rural space really advocating for maintenance of maternal services, and perhaps even growing maternal services, as is so needed out in rural Wisconsin.
Meet the Rural Ob-Gyn Residents: Kaitlyn Anderholm, MD
Kaitlyn Anderholm, MD, is the UW Department of Ob-Gyn residency class of 2026 rural track resident. She shared thoughts on how the rural ob-gyn residency track is preparing her for her future career:
Why were you interested in training at the University of Wisconsin?
Kaitlyn Anderholm (KA): I’ve always been really interested in women’s health. My medical school included a focus on rural training. The UW rural ob-gyn residency combined those two priorities. That’s really what drew me here.
What makes your rural ob-gyn rotations different from training in Madison?
KA: The primary difference on rural rotations is that we're not focused on one discipline. When we're on our rural rotation, we're doing a little bit of everything which is really representative of what a generalist life is actually like. We might spend a morning in clinic and also be managing a laboring patient at the same time. We may have some afternoon gynecology, we may be on call overnight.
What do applicants need to know about the rural ob-gyn residency program?
KA: We’re getting all the same experiences and training as our residency classmates, with the addition of the extra skills and experience of our rural rotations. The bread-and-butter ob-gyn care doesn't change regardless of where you practice. The acuity might be a little bit less just because of different resources in those areas, but we're still really busy and get to see the full scope of what we do in care in rural Wisconsin.
**Interview support provided by Ob-Gyn Communications Intern Melis Baskaya