{"id":4704,"date":"2020-04-27T10:17:04","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T14:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/?p=4704"},"modified":"2020-04-27T15:10:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T19:10:30","slug":"emily-wilkins-22-aims-to-fill-void-in-rural-health-care-responds-to-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/2020\/04\/emily-wilkins-22-aims-to-fill-void-in-rural-health-care-responds-to-covid-19-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Emily Wilkins Aims to Fill Void in Rural Health Care; Responds to COVID-19 Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Emily Wilkins is a second-year Physician Assistant Studies student from Rutherfordton, North Carolina who returned to work in neighboring Hendersonville as a paramedic during the COVID-19 pandemic to serve our state.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\n<!-- iframe plugin v.5.2 wordpress.org\/plugins\/iframe\/ -->\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JVRValXmNe8?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" 0=\"allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;\/iframe\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\"><\/iframe>\n\n<figure id=\"attachment_4705\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 235px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4705 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/04\/Emily-Wilkins-22-225x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Emily Wilkins \" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/04\/Emily-Wilkins-22-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/04\/Emily-Wilkins-22-600x800.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/04\/Emily-Wilkins-22.jpeg 606w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Emily Wilkins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With student clinical rotations on hold, Wilkins decided her experience as a paramedic prior to PA school would be beneficial to rural communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe virus is just now beginning to spread rapidly here,\u201d Wilkins said. \u201cWe still have PPE [personal protective equipment] but are trying to reuse some supplies when it is safe to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wilkins said regional hospitals are working together to prepare for when the peak of the virus hits residents; Wilkins explained it has already affected those in residential care.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know our local physicians and nurses are trying to keep patients safe and keep them contained to control the spread of the virus,\u201d Wilkins said. \u201cThe community seems to be doing well so far.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wilkins said as a future PA, it is encouraging to see how the community has come together to help combat the virus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince working as a paramedic again, I feel like I am helping my community in the best way that I can,\u201d Wilkins explained. She said several of her colleagues, including herself, hadn\u2019t seen their families as often as they\u2019d like in order to prevent unnecessary exposure.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Chelminski, the program\u2019s director, said the PA program is fortunate to be training already full-fledged professionals in other essential medical disciplines.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that professionals like Emily already have abiding commitments to their communities that allow them to be mobilized rapidly during the COVID crisis is inspiring to us all,\u201d Chelminski said.<\/p>\n<p>Following PA school, Wilkins hopes to return to return to her family in Hendersonville and continue to serve in rural medicine. Wilkins believes everyone should have accessible health care no matter where they live.\u00a0Wilkins\u2019 goal is to provide quality care that rural communities need yet lack. These areas are greatly affected because hospitals are not located nearby.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one wants to do rural medicine,\u201d Wilkins said. \u201cIt does show me there is a need for me to go there [&#8230;] to fill that void.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The division is one of seven housed in the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/\"><em>Department of Allied Health Sciences<\/em><\/a><em> in the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/\"><em>UNC School of Medicine<\/em><\/a><em>. Paul Chelminski (\u201995 MD, &#8217;03 MPH) has served as program director since its inception in 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>-Lizzy Laufters, public relations and communications intern<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Emily Wilkins is a second-year Physician Assistant Studies student from Rutherfordton, North Carolina who returned to work in neighboring Hendersonville as a paramedic during the COVID-19 pandemic to serve our state. With student clinical rotations on hold, Wilkins decided her experience as a paramedic prior to PA school would be beneficial to rural communities. \u201cThe &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/2020\/04\/emily-wilkins-22-aims-to-fill-void-in-rural-health-care-responds-to-covid-19-pandemic\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Emily Wilkins Aims to Fill Void in Rural Health Care; Responds to COVID-19 Pandemic\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55977,"featured_media":4705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/04\/Emily-Wilkins-22.jpeg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/04\/Emily-Wilkins-22-225x300.jpeg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/04\/Emily-Wilkins-22.jpeg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/04\/Emily-Wilkins-22.jpeg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/04\/Emily-Wilkins-22-150x150.jpeg","featured_image_alt":"Emily Wilkins '22","category_details":[{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55977"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}