Program immerses medical students in Eastern Plains

STERLING - Maret Felzien understands the problem too well. She grew up on a farm near Sterling and knows the challenge of keeping health care workers in town.

"To get them to stay, that is really difficult," said Felzien, a Logan County resident. "If you don't have a doctor in the community, sometimes you're driving 20 to 60 miles to your nearest doctor."

For generations, rural areas have had problems with a shortage of health care workers.

"There's a lot of counties in Eastern Colorado that are the lowest level, they're frontier-level counties," Felzien said.

So, the Colorado Area Health Education Center system is working with the University of Colorado-Denver Medical School on the Anschutz Campus in Aurora to get more students interested in working along the Eastern Plains.

More than 20 students from the school of medicine, school of nursing, and school of pharmacy are taking part in the Interdisciplinary Rural Training and Service Program, led by Dr. Mark Deutchman.

"The goal is to immerse students in rural life," said Deutchman, director of the rural track at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus. "It's really a lifestyle choice. It's a different kind of life. It's also a family choice and so that's why we've invited spouses along with these students."

Most of the students in the immersion program are no strangers to rural life. Deutchman says they target people from rural backgrounds to foster their feelings of giving back to communities they can relate to.

"They know rural life, but they don't necessarily know rural health care," Deutchman said.

Julies Agwe grew up in a rural part of Cameroon. He's a UCD pharmacy student who is thinking about working in places like Sterling while he says most of his classmates are focused on urban areas.

"Most of them lived in cities," said Agwe. "If given the opportunity to interact with these people, they would find interest in practicing in a setting like this."

Agwe and the other students are spending a week in the Sterling area studying various health care issues and how they are inter-related to all aspects of life, from law enforcement, to senior care, to traditional medicine.

"So, if I'm coming out here maybe in the next few months to do my rotation, I know exactly what to expect," said Agwe.

Casey Beardsley is studying to be a physician's assistant. She is from Sterling, but she admits this program has changed the way she looks at her town.

"Things I didn't know, it's fun to find out," Beardsley said. "You probably don't get everything in one week. I think you can get a lot in one week."

The effort to get students interested in working in rural areas isn't starting with college. Deutchman says programs with the Area Health Education Centers are aiming much younger.

"Targeting students all the way from the elementary level to get them thinking about health care careers," Deutchman said.

The program is funded by The Colorado Trust, a grant-making foundation. It's also paid for by a $2.4 million grant from Kaiser Permanente.

Felzien just hopes this program can be the beginning of convincing more health care workers to stay out on the Eastern Plains.

"To nurture their innate desire to work in a small community," said Felzien. "That's just one battle, we don't have to fight."