MS-II Kathleen McDermott selected for National Health Service Corps
S
tudent Doctor Kathleen McDermott (’23) has been awarded HRSA’s National Health Service Corp Scholarship — a full scholarship for medical students committed to providing care in underserved areas. From Cary, North Carolina, SD McDermott is a graduate of the UNC School of Public Health and a Fellow of the State of North Carolina Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. McDermott comes from a legacy of public service; her father was a social worker and her mother works for the state in public health. She was familiar with the Health Service Corp growing up thanks to a family friend who was a Health Service Corp scholar in psychiatry.
and integrating them into primary care as much as possible.” As a Health Service Corp Scholar, McDermott will have the opportunity to match into any primary care residency she pursues, and after completing residency, she will complete her service by working in clinic or hospital that meets the HRSA score requirement. “The places you get matched with through the Corp for practice are the places where you’re going to have the freedom to do innovative things to advance patient care. Often, you are the only access point for your patients in the entire service.”
“As doctors, we really should do our best to understand our patient’s “She loved her individual situations. experience; she was They asked in the grateful for the financial scholarship essays, ‘what support, but also she does patient centered just really loved her care mean to you?’. You experience in the places have to understand where she got to work.” your patient is at in that McDermott also worked moment in time, what on a HRSA funded project they need, and what they Student Doctor Kathleen McDermott (’23) focused on trying to need might not be what improve cure rates for patients co-infected with HIV you want them to or what they can do at that time.” and Hepatitis C. The combination of family-friend “I was a Health and Wellness coordinator at the legacy and experience lead her to pursue the scholarship Community Care Clinic, and I learned, from one county and gave her a passion for public health. to the next, resources are very different. Because of “Through my undergraduate research, I saw both sides: that experience, I will make a point of learning what I saw priorities from a top-down approach – what they resources are available. I hope to apply my research want to accomplish, but then also what is feasible in a experience and public health experiences through the clinic and what can actually get done. I think we need Corp to identify opportunities to improve health care more people to stay in that space to help ensure public delivery not just for my patients, but all patients.” health interventions are realistic and actually doable.” McDermott joins another Campbell Medicine physician “My big passion is community mental health. I am who received this scholarship – Dr. Elizabeth Gibbs considering Family Medicine or Psychiatry. If I don’t (’17), from Asheville, NC, is currently fulfilling her pursue Psychiatry as my specialty, I really want to Health Service Corp commitment at an FQHC in have some role in normalizing mental health services Los Angeles, CA.
8 SPRING - 2021
