Rural Experiences for Health Professional Students

Miranda Tracy Alyssa Osborn

Visitors to Redfield Clinic and Randall’s Pharmacy throughout the month of June will note a couple of new faces. That’s because there are currently two students here training as part of the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Rural Experiences for Health Professionals Students (REHPS) Program through the Sanford School of Medicine of The University of SD.

The program was created to give the upcoming health profession workforce an opportunity to experience their future career in rural areas that are considered underserved populations. Community Memorial Hospital and Redfield Clinic is a certified AHEC training center.

At the Clinic and CMH is Miranda Tracy who is shadowing Dr. Owens. Miranda is from Pierre originally and has just finished her first year of Med School at The Sanford School of Medicine, The University of South Dakota.

Her father is a farmer and her mother an engineer. She has one sister who is also a medical student. Miranda knew at the age of nine that she wanted to deliver babies and said that when she was younger a love of science and the fact that her Mother and Grandmother were sick and in the hospital at the same time turned her future plans to medicine. She arrived in Redfield on Sunday and will be shadowing different departments at the clinic and hospital throughout the month of June.

At Randall’s Pharmacy you have the opportunity to meet Alyssa Osborn. Alyssa is originally from Bushnell, a little town located in Brookings County, SD. She is a Pharmacy 3 student and has two years left to study in the six year program.

Alyssa admits that her path to her future career has veered a bit from her original course. “I started out in a field that was removed from the Medical Profession and then when my mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away I started studying Nursing. During that time I had the opportunity to shadow a pharmacist and decided that I was interested in that, so here I am.”

Alyssa would eventually like to work in a hospital pharmacy in a smaller town a goal that is no doubt fueled in part by her small town upbringing. At the 2010 census Bushnell had 65 people.

An only child, Alyssa credits her grandmother with her success to date. “She is my closest family and has been very helpful and supportive of my choices. She’s awesome. Alyssa will also be in Redfield throughout the month of June.

Both students will be working together to do a community project as part of the program requirements while they are in Redfield. Details of that will be made available to readers closer to that date.

The National AHEC Program was developed by Congress in 1971 to recruit, train, and retain a health professions workforce committed to underserved populations.