Rural advocacy: Meeting the challenge.

Rural settings can be challenging with regard to the level of resources and general support of surgery. Effective advocacy is the means to deal with barriers to good surgical care. While advocating for more support for rural health care can appear daunting, it can be accomplished. This article gives concrete examples of tools for rural surgeons to participate in strong advocacy as well as success stories. This article can serve as a primer to begin or amplify a surgeon's advocacy journey.