When I made the decision to work in community health, my best girlfriend asked me, “Why in the world would you pick a community health center when you could have gone into specialty medicine or private practice and saved yourself the headache?” I looked at her crazy and said, “When you were pregnant and had no insurance, weren’t you glad that Johnson Health Center (JHC) was there?” (That shut her right up). My family is why I chose to work in a community health center. When I was a child I don’t think there was such a thing as "No Child Left Behind" in education and my family was dependent on the availability of Community Health Centers (CHC) where we lived to provide our health care. If there was no CHC, we used the Health Department or the Emergency Room as our Primary Care Physician. I know how difficult it is to find consistent, quality healthcare when you have no insurance and limited funds. One of my goals in life has been to spend some time serving in a community and provide others with quality and consistent healthcare.
Don’t get me wrong, I had other motivations too. I did a clinical rotation at JHC as a Nurse Practitioner (NP) student and absolutely enjoyed my experience. The camaraderie of the staff was refreshing and I wanted to be a part of that team. I also got to take advantage of the National Health Service Corp loan repayment program - http://nhsc.hrsa.gov/loanrepayment/. In exchange for working for 2 years at the CHC you can get a huge chunk of your student loans paid off. I also get to meet and have relationships with people who really appreciate JHC being there and you know you can make a difference to someone.
And for a patient who is part of JHC, it’s a good deal if you think about it. What private practice do you know of that offers medical, dental, pediatric, mental health, and OB/GYN services and a PHARMACY under one roof? Well technically, it’s a couple of buildings but you get the idea.
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