Warner Hospital and Health Services and Central Illinois AHEC hosted two students for a five-day Rural Health Experience (RHE) in Clinton during the week of June 12.

The RHE provides aspiring health care professionals with the opportunity to shadow health and human services providers working in rural settings, with the hope the students will consider returning to practice in a rural community in the future.

Megan Ptak, an Illinois native studying Health Administration and Policy at Creighton University in Nebraska, and Abby Good, an Illinois Wesleyan University student majoring in Biology, spent the week shadowing medical staff at Warner Hospital and Health Services. They also shadowed staff at the DeWitt-Piatt Bi-County Health Department, Encore Developmental Services, DeWitt County Drug Court, and other providers in DeWitt County.

At Warner Hospital, Megan and Abby rotated through several departments, including surgery, the emergency department, pharmacy, physical therapy, the walk-in clinic, and the Family Medicine Clinic. Both agreed that their favorite part of the week was observing surgeries – a hernia repair, a gastric sleeve surgery, and a gallbladder removal.

Megan shared: “It was great to hear [Dr. Rohrscheib’s] perspective on the challenges the medical field will soon be facing all while learning about surgical procedures and observing his work. His dedication to explaining each aspect of the procedure was much appreciated and will be something that I will never forget.”

The students sat in on meetings with hospital staff, including a Recovery Oriented System of Care (R.O.S.C.) meeting, which they felt demonstrated a high level of investment by the hospital staff in the overall health of the community. Abby shared that the RHE taught her a lot about the importance of preventive care and public health in rural communities, because prevention and catching health issues early on puts less strain on smaller rural hospitals.

Observing the work involved in health care administration was eye-opening for Abby. “I have never thought a lot about what goes into running a hospital besides what the health care providers do,” she said. “But there are a lot of decisions to be made including when to make expansions to the building [and] creating partnerships with other organizations.” Likewise, Megan said meeting with staff at the DeWitt-Piatt Bi-County Health Department, especially in the emergency preparedness department, tied together and highlighted the importance of all the components that go into keeping rural communities healthy.

Rural communities often face unique challenges when it comes to managing their population’s health needs, as well as obstacles in recruiting and retaining health care professionals. Building opportunities for aspiring health professions students to explore careers in rural health is one way the Illinois AHEC Network is committed to improving access to quality health professionals for rural Illinois residents.

Of the entire RHE, Megan said, “I truly had a wonderful experience in Clinton and my time there was both transformational and confirming in, what I hope becomes my career in rural medicine.”

Health professions students interested in practicing in a rural area in the future can apply to the National Center for Rural Health Professions for a Rural Health Experience. For information, visit https://ncrhp.uic.edu/programs/experiences/rural-health-experience/