PHOENIX - State representatives moved one step closer to instituting a rural rotation program for medical students with the passage Monday of House Bill 2301.

If the bill is approved by the Senate, it would establish a Rural Health Professions Program that would allow state universities to select four pharmacy, 10 nurse practitioner and 15 medical students to participate in an 18-week rural rotation program over three years.

Under the program, the University of Arizona College of Medicine would select students to work in a rural area for four to six weeks between their first two years of medical school. The students would then return to the same area during their third years for a six-week clerkship and, during their fourth years, would complete a six-to-eight-week clinical rotation.

A similar rotation schedule would be followed by the UA College of Pharmacy and the state's three nurse practitioner programs.

A floor amendment was added by the bill's sponsor, Rep. Lou-Ann Preble, R-Tucson.

The amendment specified that the UA and Arizona State University must select four nurse practitioner students to participate in the program, while Northern Arizona University would be have to select two.