PRR RX for Success: Dr. John Fuhrman

When he was young, Dr. John Fuhrman experienced a calling to spend his life healing others. This led him to combine his passions for science and living abroad and attend medical school in Poland. After earning his medical degree abroad, he did his residency in family medicine at a clinic and hospital in North Dakota.

Dr. Fuhrman then wanted the autonomy that comes with having your own practice. He also wanted to serve patients who were most in need in his rural, low-income community. So, straight out of residency, he became clinically inactive to focus on building an outpatient clinic on bare land. Unfortunately, many unforeseen obstacles led to delays and challenges that could not be overcome, and his dream of opening his own clinic would not come to fruition.

By then, Dr. Fuhrman had not practiced for four years. He knew the longer he stayed away from medicine the harder it would be to gain both malpractice insurance and employment, so he started looking for a position that would get him back to treating patients.

Recruiters gave him the hard truth: He might not be employable after so much time away. Dr. Fuhrman was concerned, but optimistic. Luckily, one of the first medical directors he spoke to at a clinic in Arizona asked him if he would consider enrolling in a physician reentry program. That doctor told Dr. Fuhrman about his own valuable experience with Physician Retraining & Reentry. He told Dr. Fuhrman that, if he completes a physicians reentry program, he will consider hiring him to practice at the clinic.

Dr. Fuhrman had never heard of such programs, but he really wanted the position and was open to participating in a physician reentry program. He researched PRR and other reentry and retraining programs. He chose PRR because it inspired confidence that he would be reviewing the materials he would need and because he was impressed with PRR’s professionalism.

Dr. Fuhrman set a rigorous, fast pace for himself to complete PRR’s self-paced, online modules because he was eager to return to work. Coincidentally, he received other job offers after he enrolled, but he was more interested in the position at the Arizona clinic. When he called the clinic to tell them that he enrolled in PRR but had received other offers, the clinic ensured him he’d have a place at the clinic once he completed PRR.

From the helpfulness of PRR’s staff to the quality of the curriculum to the one-day, in-person practicum, Dr. Fuhrman says PRR helped him to fully prepare to return to practice. He earned his certificate of completion in about three months and returned to work as a doctor practicing family medicine at one of Adelante’s 10 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in Arizona. 

“There are moments in my day where I will recognize that something is fresh because I did PRR — I see it right there in front of me what I reviewed during the program,” Dr. Fuhrman says. “It was a very good investment.”