Rural Medicine & Community Leadership – Never Boring!

Yes, Rural Medicine is a way of life, with friendly, thoughtful, thankful patients and an area full of the community spirit. It is a calling with the sounds of nature everywhere, a need to help others in need, and to be part of something bigger - a family of community. You are at the top of the class when you are asked to be the President of the Head Start Council, on the School Health Board, chosen as the local Rotary Professional of the Year, or even the Virginia Community Healthcare Association Physician of the Year. And life is freer and easier as you are not owned by anyone (a Hospital practice), not competing with the group down the street, you make the practice as much or as little as you are able, and be home with your family. It is a challenge to be without an Echocardiogram machine or CT scan, but it makes you a better skilled Clinician to make the diagnosis without these. You have an IV running in the back room, a chain saw injury in the Treatment Room, and a nebulizer treatment started in Room 1. Let’s say it is never boring! And with modern technology you are only a connection away from Tele-Medicine services, Tele-Psychiatry Services, Internet Libraries, and colleagues.