Two New Rural Residency Programs Approved and Funded, Strengthening the Future of Healthcare in Western North Carolina
UNC Health Appalachian is proud to announce that two new physician training programs—Psychiatry and General Surgery—have been awarded Planning and Development Grants from the North Carolina General Assembly. These programs will be established alongside the MAHEC Boone Rural Family Medicine Residency Program, further expanding the pipeline of physicians trained to serve rural and underserved communities.
The new Psychiatry and General Surgery residencies build upon the strong foundation of the Boone Rural Family Medicine program, a partnership between UNC Health Appalachian and the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC). Located at Watauga Medical Center and AppFamily Medicine, the program was created to train full-scope family doctors to serve in rural and underserved communities.
Addressing a Critical Rural Healthcare Need
North Carolina has the second largest rural population in the nation, with one in three residents living in rural communities. Yet fewer than three percent of the state’s primary care physicians practice in these small towns (1). The expansion of rural residency training is a direct response to this urgent need.
The funding—made possible through an investment by the UNC System and the North Carolina General Assembly in collaboration with UNC Health, ECU Health, Area Health Education Centers, and UNC System health affairs programs—aims to ensure that more than 3.4 million North Carolinians can access care closer to home (2).
The grant program was intentionally designed with flexibility at its core to remove barriers for rural residency growth. It allows for:
- Reduced rural training time requirements
- Expanded rural partnerships, including rural regions within larger counties
- Four grant types to support both new program development and expansion of existing programs
The two Development Grants awarded to MAHEC and UNC Health Appalachian will establish newly accredited rural residency training programs in Psychiatry and General Surgery—two specialties critically needed in rural Western North Carolina.
Training Rural Physicians Who Stay Rural
The MAHEC Boone Rural Family Medicine Residency Program was created to train full-scope family physicians who are equipped to serve entire families and lead healthcare transformation in rural communities. Residents complete three years of intensive training rooted in community-based, patient-centered care.
The program has earned statewide recognition from the Rural Medical Training Collaborative with 13 family physician graduates to date—nine of whom are practicing in rural North Carolina, including Ashe, Avery, Watauga, and Surry counties. Its guiding principle is simple and proven: We train rural, and they stay rural (3).
As of June 2025, more than 900 physicians, pharmacists, and dentists have graduated from MAHEC’s residency and fellowship programs, with over 80% of North Carolina graduates practicing locally in Western North Carolina (4).
UNC Health Appalachian’s Role in Advancing Rural Care
UNC Health Appalachian has played a pivotal role in the evolution of rural graduate medical education in the High Country. By partnering with MAHEC to host and support residency training at Watauga Medical Center, Appalachian Regional Behavioral Health Hospital, and AppFamily Medicine, UNC Health Appalachian provides the clinical environment, mentorship, and community integration that make rural training successful.
Adding Psychiatry and General Surgery shows our commitment to strengthening the regional healthcare workforce and ensuring patients have access to primary care and critical specialty services without leaving their communities.
“Psychiatry and behavioral health providers remain in short supply across Western North Carolina,” said John Nicholls, MD, JD, DFAPA, Chair of the MAHEC Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. “Our new rural psychiatry residency program helps address that gap by training talented mental health professionals who are committed to this region. Our goal is to train them exceptionally well, and to inspire them to build their careers right here in the communities we serve.”
“These new programs represent more than expanded training opportunities—they represent long-term access to care for the High Country,” said Molly Benedum, MD, Program Director of the MAHEC Rural Family Medicine Residency Program in Boone. “By investing in residency education, we are investing in healthier communities for generations to come.”
For more information about the MAHEC Boone Rural Family Medicine Residency Program, visit boonefm.com.
(1) https://www.northcarolina.edu/rural-health/
(2) https://www.northcarolina.edu/rural-health/
(3) https://www.boonefm.com/
(4) https://mahec.net/home
About Watauga Medical Center
Watauga Medical Center, a member of UNC Health Appalachian, is licensed as a 117-bed regional referral medical complex, offering both primary and secondary acute and specialty care. Services include laboratory, imaging, radiology, physical and occupational rehabilitation therapy, respiratory therapy, surgical services, cancer treatment, heart and vascular services, sleep services, pain management, and emergency services. The medical center is certified by The Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center and earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for Chest Pain Certification in 2018. The Seby B. Jones Regional Cancer Center, located on the campus of Watauga Medical Center is recognized as an approved community cancer care center by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. In July 2022, Appalachian Regional Healthcare System entered into a long-term Management Services Agreement (MSA) with UNC Health. This affiliation enables transformational change in primary care to improve lives in the High Country region of North Carolina. For more information, visit unchealthappalachian.org/
More About MAHEC: Established more than five decades ago, MAHEC—Mountain Area Health Education Center—is a leader in healthcare, education, and innovation, with a mission to inspire and equip the next generation of healthcare professionals and expand access to care for all. As an academic health center, MAHEC offers residency and fellowship training for physicians, dentists, and pharmacists, with patient care provided at numerous locations across Western North Carolina. The largest of nine Area Health Education Centers in North Carolina, MAHEC is also a Federally Qualified Health Center and one of the largest nonprofit employers in the mountain region with more than 1,100 team members. With its main campus in Asheville, MAHEC also serves as a branch campus for UNC schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and public health. For more information, visit mahec.net and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and X.
