Enterprise students begin Rural Medical Scholars program at UA

Jackie Parks and Brad Peden of Enterprise have been chosen as 2010-11 University of Alabama Rural Medical Scholars and entered the first year of the program this fall.

The Rural Medical Scholars Program (RMSP), which has been cited nationally as a model program for educating rural physicians, is a five-year medical education program leading to the M.D. degree. It is open exclusively to rural Alabama students. National recognition of the success of the RMSP has helped to lift The University of Alabama School of Medicine into the Top Fifteen Rural Medicine programs named by U.S. News and World Report to its list of “America’s Best Graduate Schools, 2009.” 

Parks is the daughter of Danny and Arlene Parks of Enterprise. She is a 2006 graduate and valedictorian of Enterprise High School, where she served as President of both the Senior Class and the National Honor Society.  She was also a member of the EHS Encores Show Choir and EHS dance line. She graduated from The University of Alabama with a B.S. degree in Biology in 2010.  She was on the Honors College Student Advisory Board and was chosen for membership in top honoraries at UA, The Anderson Society and the XXXI (honor society for University Women). She also served as the President of Project Health, which is the peer health educating group on UA’s campus. Through Project Health, Jackie created the “Beautiful Health” Mentoring Program for middle school girls. Beautiful Health stresses the importance of self-concept, healthy body image, and having a healthy regard for others.

 Parks’ interest in the medical field was inspired by her high school human anatomy and physiology teacher.  She was also inspired by Dr. Beverly Jordan, a family physician in Enterprise, who was in the second class of Rural Medical Scholars to finish training and enter practice. “Dr. Jordan made medicine fun and intriguing while exemplifying how to balance being a caring physician and active mother,” said Jackie, who also admired how Dr. Jordan talked about her own kids with her patients.  In 2009, Jackie took part in a medical mission trip to Honduras under Dr. John Waits. This trip opened Jackie’s eyes to the great need of medical professionals in rural areas. This trip deepened her passion for global health.  Jackie plans to become a physician and eventually serve and treat families and children in rural Alabama.

 Peden is the son of Dr. and Mrs. Monty Peden of Enterprise.  He graduated from Enterprise High School and attended Birmingham-Southern College, where he was a Dean’s List student and member of Theta Chi fraternity.  He was also inducted into national honor societies for premed students Alpha Epsilon Delta and biological sciences Beta Beta Beta)and also into Alpha Lambda Delta and Phi Eta Sigma, both undergraduate honoraries.  He transferred this summer to The University of Alabama as a senior biology major and member of the 2010 class of UA Rural Medical Scholars (RMS), which enters the UA School of Medicine next summer as the 15th class of RMS to go to medical school with the intent to enter rural practice. 

 Peden has volunteered at Children’s Hospital, Northstar Soccer Program, Up ’Till Dawn (a student-led program that raises money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital), and Habitat for Humanity.  He has shadowed Dr. Fleming Brooks and Dr. Patrick Lett, orthopedic surgeons in Enterprise;  internist/pulmonologist Dr. Hayden Childs in Samson and five Birmingham physicians--Dr. Lauren Savage at Alabama Spine, Orthopedic, and Sports Medicine, and otolaryngologist Randy Real, vascular surgeon Michael Drummond, cardiologist Alain Paul Bouchard, and internist William Kirby, all at Princeton Baptist Medical Center. 

Though Peden has sampled a variety of medical specialties through shadowing, he credits his father, an internist, for being most influential in his decision to pursue medicine.  “Observing primary care in a rural setting has allowed me to witness first-hand the impact that such a physician can have on his patients and the impact that his patients can have on the physician.  I hope to someday build similar relationships with my patients and serve in the same way that he has done.” 

 Peden considers his community’s response (and everyone’s immediate outpouring of help and support) after the March 2007 tornado in Enterprise a good example why he likes living and working in a small town.

Selection for the Rural Medical Scholars Program is based on a competitive application process open only to students from rural Alabama who wish to become rural physicians. RMSP includes a year of study leading to the master’s degree in Rural Community Health and early admission to the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham.

 About 10 students per year are accepted into the 5-year program, in which students can earn a master’s degree [or complete their senior undergraduate year] during the first year of the program at The University of Alabama.  RMSP provides training with rural preceptors, agromedicine experiences, and courses related to rural community health during the initial year at UA’s College of Community Health Sciences (CCHS), a branch campus of the UA School of Medicine. 

 Rural Medical Scholars then matriculate at the University of Alabama School of Medicine (UASOM)  in Birmingham for the first two years of medical school—the basic sciences; and return to CCHS for the final two years of medical school (clinical training, including two months of family medicine and rural community medicine in a rural setting).  Dr. Thomas Holt, from Elba, was the first Rural Medical Scholar from Coffee County and a member of the first class of Rural Medical Scholars in the program. He is a family physician in Jasper, AL. Dr. Beverly Jordan of Jack, now a family physician in Enterprise, was in the second class of Rural Medical Scholars.

 Besides Dr. Holt and Dr. Jordan, Rural Medical Scholars from Coffee County include LeeAnn McAlily, MD, who is now in residency training following her 2008 graduation from medical school, and medical student Ashley Jackson. Enterprise pediatrician Daniel Whitaker is also a Rural Medical Scholar, part of the second class of RMS doctors to complete training and begin medical careers. Graduate students and senior undergraduates from rural Alabama are eligible to apply for RMSP.  Applications will be due in April, 2011, for the incoming RMS class, which begins next August.

 The Rural Medical Scholars Program admitted first class in 1996.  Now in its 15^th year, the UA Rural Medical Scholars Program has admitted 153 rural Alabama students from 52 of the state’s 67 counties. 

One hundred thirty two (132) of the 153 Rural Medical Scholars have successfully completed the initial Rural Community Health year and entered medical school from 1997, when the first RMS class started at UASOM, until 2010, when last year’s Rural Medical Scholars became medical students.

Twelve of the 153, including Parks and Peden, are currently at UA in the RMS class which starts medical school in Birmingham next summer. It takes a minimum of 7 years for students to complete medical school and residency to become primary care physicians, so many RMSs are still in training.