THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 15, 1995 TAG: 9505150039
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Linda Morrill was born and raised in Axton, Va., a country crossroads in Henry County, west of Danville. She and her husband are raising their girls there.
So even when she earns a master's degree as a nurse practitioner - a job that could take her many places - she plans to stay where she is and use her skills to help the people she's known all her life.
Morrill's commitment is what the designers of Old Dominion University's Distance Program for family nurse practitioners hoped for when they created the program last year. The joint project between ODU and the Virginia Hospital Association uses some new tools to tackle the old problem of bringing health care to rural areas.
Old Dominion's program is for nurses with bachelor's degrees who live in rural areas. As nurse practitioners, the nurses can do some of the same basic health-care jobs that doctors perform.
Some live too far from a school with a similar program to attend classes part time and they can't afford to quit work to study full time. Others can't change their schedules to take day classes. The distance program holds classes at night and on weekends.
Evening sessions are beamed via satellite to classrooms at hospitals in Danville, South Hill, Lynchburg, Harrisonburg and Culpeper.
Classes are broadcast live, and the technology lets teacher and students talk to each another.
One class is taught face-to-face by ODU instructors one weekend a month at each of the five hospitals.
The 56 students also do internships in doctors' offices and clinics.
The first students will graduate from the 15-month program in December. They could take jobs with doctors' office or medical centers, or they could set up their own offices. A nurse practitioner must be supervised by a doctor, who audits patients' charts monthly.
Morrill, who works in Danville, isn't sure how she'll practice. She may try for a job at Axton's busy clinic, a federally funded office with one doctor and one nurse practitioner. The next closest medical facility is about 15 miles away, she says.
Morrill will be able to conduct routine exams for pregnant women and well-baby checks for their children. She'll help her neighbors maintain their health by teaching them how to manage chronic problems like high blood pressure and diabetes. She'll prescribe medicine and advise them how to take it.
Because the Axton area doesn't have enough medical facilities, some people simply don't get the regular care they need, she says.
Lack of medical care is a problem in many rural areas in the United States. Health officials have tried to solve it in a number of ways, with limited success.
There are programs that pay for a doctor's medical education if he or she agrees to serve a rural area for a set number of years.
Unfortunately, many of those doctors bolt after their tour of duty, said Angela Martin, who manages ODU's distance program. They have been trained at major medical centers, and they miss the stimulation of working with other doctors.
But people in the distance program are used to working in the country - two-thirds of the students have lived in the same community all their lives.
``If you fund people who already live there, the chance of them staying is much greater than recruiting someone from New York City to work in Galax, Va.,'' said Martin.
Some of the nursing students receive state grants. As in programs for doctors, nurses who accept the money promise to serve a rural area for a time.
Morrill isn't getting a grant. But there's little chance she'll take her skills to the city.
``I will definitely continue as long as there is a job available - and I think there will be until retirement,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: TAMARA VONINSKI
Staff
Angela Martin, an assistant professor of nursing, lectures in the TV
studio at Old Dominion for students in the school's Distance
Program. She's coordinator of the program, which trains rural nurses
with bachelor degrees to do some basic tasks that doctors perform.
by CNB