Tulsa World: New program of OSU's aims to produce rural doctors

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New program of OSU's aims to produce rural doctors
A Coal County woman is excited at the opportunity to practice in her hometown.

By KIM ARCHER World Staff Writer
Published: 10/11/2009 2:26 AM
Last Modified: 10/11/2009 2:52 AM

While growing up in tiny Coalgate, Charity Holder always dreamed of becoming the town's doctor.

Now a second-year medical student at Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, she is among the first students to join its new rural health option program.

"I am here to become a rural doctor," she said.

Already known for its mission to produce rural doctors, the school started the program to provide additional training and rural medical experience to students interested in such practice, said Dr. William Pettit, the school's associate dean for rural health.

"We're getting kids from rural Oklahoma and nurturing them to go back home as primary care physicians," he said.

Pettit has seen a disturbing trend at OSU that mirrors the rest of the country: The number of medical school graduates who enter primary care residencies has dropped significantly, from a high of 79 percent in 1977 to just 55 percent this year.

Holder is exactly the type of student the medical school is seeking — someone who wants to live in rural Oklahoma and become a primary care physician, Pettit said.

"It is hard to get doctors who want to practice in rural Oklahoma. Walmart might just be 30 minutes away," he said.

Not to mention the pay and the

long hours. But Holder knows all about that.

"Some doctors want to work a 9-to-5 job, and you don't have that in a rural area," she said. Her hometown's doctor often sees up to 100 patients per day, she said.

'Meant to be here'

For Holder, 23, that workload is offset by the night sky, the rolling hills and the lakes of southeastern Oklahoma, where her family operates a cattle ranch.

"I personally can't live that close to a city," she said.

She was drawn to the medical field by both her admiration of her hometown physician and her firsthand view of the critical need for medical care in rural Oklahoma.

"The doctor in my town is so loved in the community and everyone respects him," she said. "As long as I can remember I've always wanted to be just like him, the town hero — a small-town doctor."

That man, Dr. Richard Helton, is the only doctor in all of Coal County, she said. After nearly a quarter-century of practicing there, he is near retirement, Holder said.

The self-described cowgirl figures that she'll graduate just in time to step into his shoes.

"I'm the only student in my school in the past 15 years to go to medical school," she said.

She plans to recruit other students to come with her. "It would be great to have a partner. Maybe I could have a vacation sometime," she said, smiling.

Holder was so adept at making her dream known that Mary Hurley Hospital, a small-town critical access facility, paid $160,000 for her to go to school and return to serve Coalgate as a family physican.

"It is like I was meant to be here," she said.

Only one drawback

As the inaugural president of the Student Osteopathic Rural Medicine club, Holder, along with StORM's secretary-treasurer, Katie Luthy, enrolled 115 members.

"We're going to storm Oklahoma for rural doctors," she said.

As a country girl, she said, she understands rural Oklahomans and their needs.

"They're honest and, for the most part, hardworking people. There are a lot of cattle ranchers and farmers," she said.

Although Ada, a larger town in the area, has a regional hospital, it is not near enough, she said.

"It's a 45-minute drive. So when you fall off your tractor, you could bleed to death before you got there," Holder said. "My job would be to stabilize them and get them ready to send to the city hospital."

She sees only one drawback: "Everyone in that town is like family. My teachers, friends and relatives, I'm going to have to watch these people die. I'm going to have to tell them they have cancer. That is hard to think about."

But, she said, a friend asked her, "Wouldn't you rather tell your friend they have cancer than a stranger?"

Holder agreed.

"I might have to watch you die, but I can be there for you," she said.

As part of the rural health option, Holder likely will spend part of her third year and all of her fourth year completing medical school in Durant, Enid or Tahlequah, three towns where OSU has family medicine residency programs.

"I'm ready as soon as possible," Holder said. "The people are there. They're not going anywhere and they're going to need care."

Kim Archer 581-8315
kim.archer@tulsaworld.com By KIM ARCHER World Staff Writer

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