The farm tour was part of a week-long program designed to introduce future doctors, pharmacists and nurses to rural life.  The goal: Get the students interested in working in rural areas.

Across the United States, there’s a push to give new doctors cultural training to work with refugees and other immigrants. And some say it’s the difference between healthy and sick patients.

At the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, students will be immersed in clinical settings from the very start and will begin interacting with patients in their first year instead of waiting until later in their training. The idea is to prevent some of the problems that can arise when engineers and medical professionals do not work hand in hand.

The project would found an engineering-focused medical program out of a partnership between the U of I and Urbana-based Carle Hospital.