MOREHEAD, Ky. — The University of Kentucky’s Rural Physician Leadership Program (RPLP) announced new scholarship opportunities from Anthem for medical students who are interested in going through the program.
The RPLP’s goal is to recruit students who are from rural areas of Kentucky and get them to do hands-on work in a rural setting. Once they get through the program, the hope is that there will be students who eventually work in rural communities.
Makayla Arnett is in her final year of medical school at UK and has spent the past three semesters completing the RPLP.
Arnett has always wanted to be a doctor and with her father being from Eastern Kentucky, she has a passion to work in rural parts of the state. When Arnett was 11 years old, she watched her uncle fight cancer, and he went to UK to get treated.
“When he passed away two years later, I knew that it wasn’t just my dream, but it was the dream of my family for me to go into health care and really, you know, that passion for me to become a doctor,” said Arnett.
Arnett heard about the RPLP while studying pre-med at Morehead State University, and it was her dream to get into the program. After completing the first two years of medical school at the Lexington campus, she is now finishing out in Morehead, where she feels she’s made an impact with her patients.
“People are having to travel to get, you know, high-quality care and I think it’s so important that this program is here and is educating people that hope to go back and really fulfill those needs in our communities,” said Arnett.
The number of primary care physicians per 100,000 people is 21% lower in Appalachian Kentucky, according to UK. Over 50% of the program’s graduates who are out in practice are choosing to work in rural areas, says the program’s associate dean Dr. Rebecca Todd. She attributes this success to who they recruit.
“Let’s take people who love Eastern Kentucky, who want to live in Eastern Kentucky, who really feel that mission and let’s train them to be physicians and the program is working beautifully and we’re so excited to have more students and potentially grow the program,” said Todd.
Arnett and Todd are excited for students who will benefit from the new scholarship opportunities from Anthem, since paying for medical school can be a barrier.
“Having the opportunity to come here and practice and do exactly what we love and what we want to do with our careers and having the opportunity of the Anthem scholarship in order to decrease that financial burden is gonna be so important because we’re able to fulfill our mission of providing care to rural areas but do so without the financial weight,” said Arnett.
Arnett is looking forward to graduating in May and is currently applying for residencies. She is passionate about women’s health and wants to practice obstetrics and gynecology in rural Kentucky.