Rural Scholar Joy

Was accepted into our rural scholars program this past week.  It will allow me to do several rotations back-to-back in a single location in a rural environment.  I’ll enjoy the continuity of working with the same folks for almost 4 months and be around the kind of down-to-earth, get ‘er done folks I appreciate so much. Am quite excited about the prospect and hope I find a great match and a location that helps me think through rural issues that I haven’t considered, yet. I hope to open clinics and provide access in a rural area in a way that hasn’t been done before. I hope I can transfer the knowledge I gather here to other locations that could use the help. My goal is to create very effective means of providing care while moving resources into those communities as the communities themselves choose to value and support that care. I hope to help folks take responsibility for their health and show them how they might do that individually and collectively.

I know each community will be different, but I think it will be a terrific adventure. Have been actively planning how to do this and developing contacts over the last couple of years. The goal is to have a model created by the end of school and then begin to discuss implementation when I am assigned to a residency program. Will have to wait until then to actually make it happen. Now is the time to work out the big bugs and learn from the mistakes of others.