MAINE, USA — Northern Light Health has partnered with Morehouse School of Medicine, a historically Black college, in an effort to give students hands-on experience and to help ease Maine's health care provider shortage.
"I know these students are the best trained," Northern Light Vice President Darmita Wilson said.
Wilson was at the helm of the planning it took to get Morehouse physician assistant students to Maine to combat Maine's health care provider shortage.
Bringing the students from Atlanta, where Morehouse School of Medicine is located, to Maine was a twofold solution: it provides students with experience with rural health care and helps Mainers undergoing rural health care with improved services.
"To a rural area, you face kind of a unique set of challenges. Maybe specialists are hours away. That poses barriers to transportation and access to those specialists. And even just primary care providers as well," physician assistant student Katie Bandstra said.
Other students like Hillary Birago and Detavious Veal relied on personal experience as to why they felt compelled to come to Maine for rural healthcare.
"I just see the kind of the environment [in Ghana] of long, long, long lines of people just waiting to see a doctor, to see a nurse, to see anybody," Birago said.
Veal echoed Birago's sentiment about a long wait for health care.
"And so growing up [in Milledgeville, Georgia], it's not that many specialists in the area. Probably the nearest specialty or nearest access to specialty care is probably 20-30 minutes away," Veal said.
Of the four Morehouse students in Maine, all four were in agreement that the state's seafood, especially lobster, is one of the things they enjoy about being here.