NHSC Scholar Flourishes in Unfamiliar Territory

NHSC alumnus Dr. Yvette Brown has this advice for medical students who are considering the National Health Service Corps: “Don’t be scared of the placement process. You’re not just put anywhere. You go out and sell yourself, and if you interview well, you can wind up in a place that is suitable for you.”

That’s exactly what she did when she finished her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Philadelphia's MCP Hahnemann University. Brown knew early on that she wanted to work in underserved communities because that’s where she came from. A native of inner-city Baltimore, Maryland, she was accepted into NHSC’s Scholarship Program during her second year of medical school. After completing her training, Brown found a job with Keystone Health Center in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

“My family is not wealthy,” she explains. “I had family members who didn’t have health insurance because they couldn’t afford it. That’s what I grew up around, that’s what I knew. So to me, it was like going back to serve people who are like my family.”

Chambersburg, a small farming community, is nothing like Brown’s hometown. Instead of row houses and smokestack industries, her practice is set amid quiet streets and small shops, bordered by fields filled with corn or grazing cows.

The local population is only about 17,000, and lacks the ethnic diversity that Brown was used to during her childhood in Baltimore and later years in Philadelphia. Still, she appreciates the mission of Keystone Health Center, as well as the fact that its location allows her to travel home on weekends to visit her family.

“People would say to me, ‘Don’t you know you can be stuck in Timbuktu?’,” she laughs, remembering the time when she was considering NHSC’s scholarship program. “But to me, that wasn’t a big issue. I knew I could adapt to life wherever I was.”

Life in Chambersburg has been an adjustment for Brown, but it’s one that she’s made successfully during the last 2 years, despite some surprises.

“When I first came here, I thought, ‘Well, I know I’ll be busy because it’s an underserved area.’ But I didn’t realize I would be as busy as I am. And as Keystone’s practice has grown every year that I’m here, it just seems that we’re becoming more and more busy.”

Aside from delivering brand-new lives into the waiting arms of Chambersburg families, Brown’s experience working with culturally and ethnically diverse populations has been one of her greatest gifts to the town’s people. In addition to lecturing students at local high schools and colleges about topics like testing for sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy prevention, Brown draws on her experience treating patients from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds to provide training on culturally sensitive patient interactions for the nursing staff at the nearby Shippensburg Health Services clinic.

Research shows that physicians from urban areas tend to have difficulty adjusting to practice in rural communities, a situation compounded by long distances from family or the lack of other support networks.

But Brown has managed to overcome these obstacles and make a comfortable life for herself, both during and outside of her work. She just bought a house in Chambersburg, first of all. And on the weekends, she stays in town if there’s a festival or other special event, but otherwise heads to the city to visit with friends and family, and to enjoy attractions like theatre and the opera.

For other physicians from urban areas who are considering work in a rural community like Chambersburg, Brown advises them to “give it a chance. Just because you’re not in a major city doesn’t mean you can’t be close to one and still enjoy the cultural aspects that you may think you’ll be missing in a small town.”

Although Brown has already finished her commitment with NHSC—the scholarship helped her complete medical school with the comparatively small student loan debt of $32,000—she’s decided to sign up for another 2 years with Keystone Health Center because of the great personal and professional satisfaction it provides.

“I honestly think this is the best way for me,” Brown declares. “I can’t see myself working in a private office where I wouldn’t have the opportunity to provide the services that all of my patients need.”