Perspectives Winter/Spring 2018

Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences 47 First Rural Track Student Graduates By Charlene Couillard, M.P.A.S., PA-C, Assistant Clinical Director and Assistant Professor THE FORT MYERS PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT (PA) Program mission is “to provide health care experiences in medically underserved communities.” Additionally, each student is re- quired to complete at least one clinical rotation in a rural or underserved area. Class of 2017 graduate Danika Cornelius exceeded that ex- pectation, completing eight of her nine rotations in rural and underserved areas and volunteering with the Red Cross after Hurricane Irma. Her dedication to patient care and desire to help others began during her first career as a K–12 Spanish language and culture educator. During that time, Cornelius said she “saw students who had access to quality health and those who did not. I saw the difference it made in their lives.” She hopes to bring quality health care to underserved areas as she begins her next career as a physician assistant. The PA profession was created and has grown with the intent to serve patients in rural and underserved areas. These pop- ulations deserve the quality care afforded to those in urban and wealthier areas. In addition, just like other specialties, their needs, treatment plans, and resources are a niche of their own. Cornelius’s parents are from the Ozarks. Her father, who had severe asthma as a child, told her about a doctor who had come to his rural town and had saved his life. If not for that one provider, her father would have had a much different outcome. While on rotations in Belle Glade and Clewiston, Florida, Cornelius learned that one of the most important lessons is to do what you can where you are. “Working in a rural or underserved area provides a PA experi- ences that are difficult to have in more affluent or urban areas, where patients may get sent immediately to a specialist,” she explained. “There are more opportunities for learning a variety of routine and lifesaving techniques. PAs can better assess real community needs and implement programs and initiatives to meet those needs.” NSU has supported the PA Program’s mission to serve in these areas by providing safe and clean student housing to those doing rotations in the area. Cornelius praised this support because “It allowed me to work additional hours, gaining even more patient contact hours that I would have lost if I had been commuting instead,” she said. It seems like an easy equation to solve—students needing patient exposure plus underserved patients needing quality care equals a win-win situation. Fostering this relationship, however, will be a long and arduous task. Lack of preceptors in these areas and limited funding are factors that will have to be overcome to make this dream a reality. The Fort Myers clinical team aspires to expand student opportunities in these areas and attract PA students with the same vision and passion as Cornelius. Piloting this rural track has brought new promise and energy to the program’s mission to provide health care experiences in medically underserved communities. With the help of integrated, local health care providers and motivated students like Cornelius, the Fort Myers PA Program hopes to turn this concentration in rural medicine into a specialty designation of its own. ●