Spring Break 2024 marked my third journey to Jackson, Kentucky. Eleven students, a fellow Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences faculty member and I embarked on the 11-hour drive. What inspires someone to undertake this trip to such a remote corner not just once but three times?
My husband thinks I am crazy, but I look forward to this experience each year. I can feel the excitement build as I get ready for another trip. It all comes back to me as I read the pages of my journal from my previous trips about the planning, packing and repacking. I value the experience because I get to know a small group of interprofessional students and help them connect with patients who have unique, cultural upbringings. Together, we will experience the rural health care arena.
DMU’s global health program offers this spring break trip. Two faculty members accompany students and two students who were on the trip the year before lead the trip. I am not on this trip to practice medicine. My expertise in working with people from different cultural backgrounds gives me the foundation to guide students on this trip.
A trip to Kentucky offers students fields of bluegrass, swamps, mountains, curvy roads, creeks and a small Walmart. There aren’t any beaches, but students get to interact with and learn from residents who need and deserve compassionate, high-quality health care.
I help the students focus on what a collaborative relationship with the patient looks like. We base this relationship on the principle of respect for the health, safety, welfare and dignity of all human beings. With our focus on the experiences in Kentucky, the group observes a comprehensive scope of services in a high-need community
in a medically underserved area. Governed by community involvement, the Federally Qualified Health Center hosting us helped shape what Obamacare is based on: pay-for-performance and value-based care — a quality-driving primary care network.
The services and qualities observed cannot be taught in a classroom setting. Through experiences in the home health care setting, students witness professionals working with the existing resources and limitations of the local health system. They learn to be responsive and accountable to the patients and the society they serve. They learn respect for the customs and culture of the local working and living environments and gain respect for the local traditional folk beliefs and limitations of home health care medical practices. They come to understand how all this affects the patient and community.
With these experiences and observations, our students will tremendously influence the future of their respective professions. Experiencing federally qualified health care clinics in underserved areas and interacting with underserved populations governed by community involvement are unique. Treating patients, regardless of their ability to pay, creates a challenge and a chance to make a difference.
Health is not the absence of disease, but the ability to evolve something sustainable and be a good steward of the medical profession.
Laura Delaney, M.S.P.A.S.’99, PA-C, is the director of clinical education for DMU’s Master of Physician Assistant Studies program.
