Physician Assistant Students Tackle Rural Healthcare Issues

Cedric Ruffin

Mississippi’s rates of heart disease, diabetes and obesity are among the worst in the nation.

Health concerns like these in rural areas will be the focus of an October 27 conference attracting graduate students from a half-dozen Mississippi institutions.

Mississippi College will send three physician assistant students to the Rural Interdisciplinary Case Experience Bowl at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

MC students like Cedric Ruffin of Pushmataha, Alabama remains familiar with health deficiencies in his hometown. “I hope that participation in the RICE Bowl will allow me to share my passion for rural life and the people that live in these areas,” he said.

Ruffin will join physician assistant classmates Stephanie Keith of Madison, and Heather Dunham of Quitman, Louisiana to share their insights.

Students from a wide range of academic disciplines including dentistry, social work, law, health informatics, nursing and pharmacy will participate in the discussions.

“Too often we would find patients with no primary care provider, sometimes due to a lack of insurance, but more frequently because of the lack of healthcare resources in rural areas of Mississippi,” Keith said.

Growing up in Grenada that located along the outskirts of the Mississippi Delta, Stephanie knows there are many residents struggling without access to proper healthcare. “It is our job as a medical community to reach out to these patients.”

Dunham believes the conference will stress teamwork to take on major healthcare challenges in the rural South. “Teamwork is central to my training as a physician assistant,” she says. “It is important that I learn to interact with all the disciplines of medicine.”

Mississippi College will also send students from its School of Law in Jackson. Other schools represented include: Mississippi State, Jackson State, the University of Mississippi, and Belhaven University.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to attend the 2^nd annual conference at the Jackson Medical Mall’s Thad Cochran Center. It begins at 5:30 p.m.

Sponsors are: the Office of Population Health and the Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.