Why I’m Pursuing Rural Medicine

I grew up in Flora, Mississippi, a small, bucolic town of about 2,000. I cherish the memories of being in a community where almost everyone you passed throughout the town knew you. However, as I grew older, I started to recognize a deficit of our town: we didn’t have a doctor.  This deficit would have an impact on me and my family.

During my senior year in high school, my dad started to develop a small lump on his left cheek, just in front of his ear. It annoyed him more than anything. We didn’t have much money, or health insurance, and he was working night shifts unloading trucks at a store about 45 minutes away. During the day he was a handy-man, installing cabinets, sheet rock, counter tops and anything else that could be done inside a house. He didn’t have much time, or the financial stability, to chip out a few hours in a day to go to a doctor; the nearest clinic was about 30 minutes away. Eventually the lump started to bother him a lot. It was growing and becoming painful. My twin sister and I insisted that he go to a doctor, even if it had negative financial impacts on our family. Finally, he went; however, it was too late. The lump was metastatic melanoma that had infected and spread throughout his body. There wasn’t much that could be done. We were able to go to an oncologist at our local medical mall, an old mall where stores were turned into clinics. A few months later, during midterms my freshman year in college, the cancer claimed his life.

I knew going into college that I wanted to be a family doctor. The variety of patients they see, the impact they have on a community, and so much more excited me. My father’s death, however, was the impetus that drove me to pursue rural primary care. I’m convinced that if we could have seen a doctor sooner, without the traveling and financial barriers, my dad would have lived longer. Perhaps he could have been treated successfully. We will never know.

I heard about the Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program that same year in college. The program was started by a group of doctors and some members of our state legislature. They recognized the massive deficit of primary care physicians we have in our state, and took measures to ameliorate this shortage. The program offers a scholarship to medical school with early acceptance, and in return the scholar must practice at least the same number of years that they were awarded the scholarship. (They define primary care as either family medicine, med-peds, internal medicine, pediatrics or OB/GYN.) They hope that after practicing in a community for a few years, our roots will grow deep and we won’t leave. So far, we have many doctors practicing throughout our state in areas where they are deeply needed, and each year we add several more. This program was exactly what I was looking for.

I’ve have had tremendous exposure to both primary care in general and rural medicine in particular in this program. As undergraduates, we are required to shadow a primary care doctor at least 40 hours per year before medical school starts. This exposed me more to what I was pursuing, and it caused more affection and passion to grow inside me for primary care. We also had medical encounters a few times each year as undergraduates where I learned how to intubate a patient, perform CPR, suture a wound, and I even delivered a baby on a high-fidelity OBY/GYN simulator! Furthermore, health advocacy is an integral part of the program. I had the rewarding opportunity to discuss the ill-effects of tobacco to a class of third and fourth graders at my local elementary school. We also are encouraged to be involved in Capitol Day, where medical students and scholars visit our state capitol during the yearly legislative session. During this, we get to mingle with state legislators, take part in health advocacy, share our stories, and talk about the importance of this program and the deep need for it.

Over the past several years that I’ve been a rural scholar, I’ve seen more of the side of primary care that I otherwise wouldn’t have seen if I weren’t in this program. I’ve learned about specific problems facing rural doctors—and one of them is that there aren’t enough of them so the patient volume can be tremendous. Many of these rural physicians become doctors to better this deficit, something I’ve appreciated deeply. I have even developed friendships with practicing physicians, and they have afforded me great clinical exposure, as well as advice for medical school. This is truly a multifaceted program that yields great rewards both to the participants, as well as to our underserved state.

I long to offer to a community that which I lacked: a helping hand and guidance with family and community health. Offering preventive care to a community can have penetrating impacts. I saw what the lack of this did to me, and I hope to offer what I can to help this problem in our state.