Fourth year medical student Christin Donnelly took an interest in medicine at a young age when she saw the significant role her own primary care provider played in the health of her family and her community. She felt grateful for the consistent, stable presence her pediatrician had in her life, and, more importantly, she saw firsthand the benefits of having a provider that knew her background and her family.
When she experienced health issues of her own in high school, she developed an appreciation for holistic medicine and the power of developing healthy life habits. This passion began to truly take root when she started courses at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where she interacted with patients from Baltimore’s neediest communities. “I considered specializing briefly, but I was drawn to family medicine because it encompasses everything. As a family practitioner, I will have the opportunity to treat the whole patient – not just one aspect of their health.”
In her third and fourth years of school, as she began taking on clinical work, she quickly came to realize that even in cities as large as Baltimore, there were entire communities who struggled to get adequate health care resources.
“My future fell into my lap because of where I went to medical school,” said Christin. “The opportunity to do hands-on work within underserved communities allowed me to see the kind of difference I could make and inspired me to choose a career in primary care,” she said. Christin staunchly believes in keeping the costs of health care services down, so they remain accessible to all – so she chose family medicine because she believes it is a cost effective service that will encourage patients to embrace preventative care and keep emergency room costs down.
So Christin applied for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Students to Service (S2S) Loan Repayment Program in December 2011 to enable her to continue serving communities with limited access to care and manage her medical school debt. S2S is a pilot program which offers loan repayment to students in their last year of medical school in return for a commitment to serve in an underserved area upon completion of a residency program.
Christin was recently accepted early this year, and she cannot wait to start her residency. “I look forward to being matched up in a community where I can make a difference,” Christin said.
Before graduation, Christin spent a month working in Bolivia to broaden her horizons and solidify her fluency in the Spanish language. In her Baltimore community – and increasingly in cities across the country – many patients and families speak Spanish only. “During this trip, I wanted to make sure my Spanish was up to par. It is critical that I can guarantee that my patients who do not speak English get the same level of care as those who do.”
Christin ultimately hopes to match to Baltimore for her residency because she wants to bring her expertise back to this community and to continue strengthening her existing patient relationships. Wherever Christin serves her residency, she anticipates learning how to deliver the highest level of care to her patients and bringing that expertise right back to Baltimore.
