Second-year medical students Jon Bushman, Elise Whitson and Tony Zarbano studied rural health care this summer.

The textbook is rural Oklahoma, the teachers are rural physician and the students are future doctors.

During the summer, a select group of OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine students experienced rural health care through the Oklahoma Area Health Education Center’s Summer Rural Externship Program. They shadowed rural Oklahoma physicians who live and work in what some might call out-of-the-way places. Many Oklahomans call these places home, and dedicated rural physicians help keep both town and residents healthy.

Toni Hart, program coordinator, matches students with doctors for clinical experience, but, more importantly, for a taste of rural medicine. Participants Jon Bushman, Elise Whitson and Tony Zarbano give the program high marks.

Bushman observed family medicine and primary care in Woodward with OSU alumni osteopathic physicians Frank Evans and Kenan Kirkendall, both 1994 OSU Medicine graduates. “I found myself falling in love with small-town life again,” the Woodward High School graduate noted in his summary.

Bushman already has set his sites on a career in rural medicine in northwest Oklahoma. “Seeing how much the two physicians enjoyed their careers, and knowing how well I related to them and their lifestyles, values, morals and faith, all of that has confirmed my feeling that this is what I want to do,” he said.

Zarbano worked with Stacey Knapp, a 2001 OSU Medicine graduate practicing in Clinton. He saw routine clinical care, home health care at a senior facility, and care at a free clinic. “I had not thought about how large the population of uninsured is in rural areas,” he said. “A lot of people depend on community services, and the flip side is that there are few physicians.”

Whitson rotated in Weatherford and Hydro with Brenda Stutzman a 1992 OSU Medicine graduate. She observed the doctor’s clinical skills with patients. She also learned more about hospital admissions, deliveries, tests, radiology and various procedures. She is inspired by it. “Nobody signs up to become a medical student, we sign up to become physicians,” Whitson said. “I wanted the experience and the clinical setting…to remind myself of what I am in medical school for, and that is to see and help patients.”

Hart said students called the externship a positive experience that introduced them to rural medicine in a personal way and reinforced their interest in rural practice.  The students also took part in a community activity that contributed to better health for the community and in an interdisciplinary experience with at least two other health care professionals who were not physicians. 

Congratulations! OSU-CHS finished a successful United Way campaign recently.  Campus donations raised $23,333.24 for Tulsa Area United Way, surpassing the $20,730 goal. OSU-CHS also has a total of 23 Key Club member level donors (who gave $500 or more).