Making a difference in underserved communities
New regional medical school and area health center bring game-changing partnerships to Yuma region.
In addition to a relaunched Area Health Education Center, Yuma will soon be home to the University of Arizona’s first rural regional medical school branch.
Photo by U of A College of Medicine -- Phoenix
Dietitian Lily McNair, PSM, RDN, CCMS, FAND, grew up in Yuma and is excited to be part of efforts to boost the health care workforce in her hometown.
Photo by Arizona Western College
When she was a kid growing up in Yuma, Lily McNair, PSM, RDN, CCMS, FAND, couldn’t go anywhere without running into someone who knew her parents.
As the child of two nurse practitioners in the small town, it was pretty much unavoidable.
“When we went to the grocery store, they would always have patients who were running up to them,” said McNair, a dietitian who handles internships for the University of Arizona Yuma, a regional campus that partners with state community colleges. “It's an ongoing joke, especially for my dad, that anywhere we go with him there's a 90% chance he’s going to run into somebody who’s either his patient or who works with him in the health care field.”
McNair saw firsthand how, in a small community, health care providers are extremely important.
“Having lived here so long, I could see where there were areas of need but also areas of opportunity,” said McNair, an adjunct professor at Arizona Western College and its coordinator for SALUDABLES. The initiative between U of A Yuma and Arizona Western supports local nutritional sciences students.
Those areas of need and opportunity reinforced her desire to stay in Yuma for both her undergraduate and graduate education and then to carry on her parents’ tradition. McNair is excited that her hometown will be the site of a new rural medical school branch, which starts in July, as well as a relaunched Area Health Education Center, which started in September.
“This is a big game-changer,” she said.
Reducing disparities
Lily McNair, far right, said she became interested in studying nutrition while shadowing a doctor through the local Area Health Education Center.
Photo courtesy of Lily McNair
Expanding health care in the state’s rural areas is a top priority for the U of A. The regional medical school branch will help address Arizona’s shortage of primary care physicians, while the rebooted Area Health Education Center, known as the Southwest Health Education Collaborative, is designed to improve access to health care and create a strong pipeline of future health care workers for the region.
“It’s an exciting new chapter for our communities,” said Shannan Gonzalez, director of the regional health center.
Arizona has six Area Health Education Centers. Congress created the program in 1971 to recruit, train and keep health care professionals committed to helping underserved populations. The program is designed to use the resources of academic medicine to address local community health needs by creating strong academic-community partnerships.
“AHEC’s mission has always been to strengthen the health care workforce by connecting education, training and community needs,” Gonzalez said. “Our latest focus is planting that seed even earlier, engaging high school and early college students in exploring health care careers.
“By helping young people see themselves in these professions and providing pathways to pursue them, we’re building a stronger workforce and a healthier future for our region and our state.”
The health education center is expected to reach more than 2,500 students across Yuma, La Paz and Mohave counties through community events, educational workshops and other similar opportunities. It was this kind of outreach that had a profound impact on McNair.
Expanding health care in rural and underserved areas is a top priority for the University of Arizona.
Photo courtesy of Lily McNair
While she was a community college student, she had the chance, thanks to the area health education center in place at the time, to intern with an ob-gyn, which piqued her interest in nutrition and dietetics.
McNair said it’s exciting to not only see the program expand but
also to envision what this kind of long-term investment will mean in the future. Once there’s no longer a workforce shortage, Yuma will be the perfect place to tackle high-level health concerns relating to topics like the concept of One Health, which recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to that of animals and our shared environment.
“The medical professionals who will come and train here will be so immersed in that when they’re practicing that they’ll be uniquely qualified to help address things related to the environmental, social and health changes that are woven together,” she said.
McNair said the investment and support in her community will pay great dividends in the long run.
“Yuma has always had a great way of coming together as a community to face challenges that occur here,” she said. “People will have a chance to see there’s a lot of talent here.”