THE BEST MEDICINE

Quality healthcare alive and well in rural America

Dr. Jenny Niblock walks down the hallways of Citizens Medical Center in Colby with a sense of calm, the way a person does in their own home.

For Niblock, who began working at her hometown hospital as a certified nurse’s aide when she was just 14 years old, this is home. Thirtytwo years later, Niblock received her doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree in 2020 from Fort Hays State University and could have found a job anywhere in the country.

However, her home is Colby (population 5,500) in the corner of northwest Kansas, and she prefers the diverse challenges she finds working in rural healthcare. She is the chief clinical officer at Citizens Health, a healthcare organization serving the northwest Kansas region, comprised of a 25-bed critical access hospital, a family healthcare clinic, and a 60-bed long-term care facility.

“I love it so much that on any given day, I get to do a lot of different things – emergency, OB (obstetrics), geriatric,” Niblock said. “I get to take care of the people I see in town on a daily basis.”

Niblock was part of the third graduating class of the Master of Science in Nursing to Doctor of Nursing Practice program (MSN to DNP) at Fort Hays State, which began in 2016.

After graduating with her bachelor’s and master’s degeres erom FHSU in nursing in the 1990s, Niblock returned to rural healthcare because her husband owned businesses in the Colby area.

There’s nowhere she would rather be.

“There’s an increased depth of care here,” she said, “because we are already invested in these people and really care for them.”

A self-described lifelong learner, Niblock decided to check out the new MSN to DNP program when it was ready to launch. She said she felt called to the program immediately after attending an orientation meeting for the program, where she met Dr. Michelle Van Der Wege.

Van Der Wege, an assistant professor of nursing who was also working on her DNP, made Niblock feel comfortable from the beginning.

“I hadn’t been on the Fort Hays State campus in 20 years,” Niblock said. “I got to the orientation early, sat down, and Michelle sat down beside me and visited with me. What a blessing. I think it’s nice when you’re working online to have a good relationship with your students. FHSU does a really good job of that. We students still get that ‘nurses working together’ camaraderie type of feeling.”

There are numerous opportunities available for scholarships, loans, and grants for rural health professions, including some federally funded programs. Fort Hays State’s BSN (bachelor’s) to DNP program gives sizable stipends to graduates who will work in rural and underserved areas for at least two years.

“A lot of our students say their heart is in the rural areas,” Van Der Wege said. “They want to go back to their community and help their friends and family. That’s what makes rural medical service special.”

“People who are from western Kansas tend to go back there,” she added. “They say. ‘This is home. I want to make things better, safer for our families.’ ”

Fort Hays State has long been known for its exceptional Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. With the addition of its DNP programs, FHSU is helping find solutions to the shortage of healthcare professionals in rural settings.

All but one of the 12 students in the first graduating class from the BSN (bachelor’s) to DNP program in 2020 found jobs in rural areas or settings with limited access to services.

“Rural areas are harder to serve because there aren’t as many people, and if a patient required hospitalization hours away, that could be life-ending,” Van Der Wege said. “We are so fortunate that we have really good people who are committed to staying in those rural communities and providing life-saving services.”

After earning her MBA online, Niblock liked the self-paced structure of the online format, but she was concerned about making the human connection so critical in healthcare instruction.

She needn’t have worried. Graduate-level, online nursing classes are recorded and archived so that students can access lecture material at their convenience. And Niblock was pleasantly surprised with the professors’ availability.

“I was thinking, ‘I wish I could walk down the hall and talk to a professor,’ and I couldn’t have that talk in online classes,” she said. “But Fort Hays State is committed to student success. I found that professors were very easy to get in touch with, whether it be by email, texting, or a phone call.”

Niblock was honored to be chosen to present her DNP capstone project, “Increasing Advanced Directive Conversations in the Primary Care Setting,” to Kansas state legislators. She has been asked to present the program across Kansas, and it has been replicated in other facilities.

Earlier this year, Fort Hays State’s online nursing programs were ranked 27th among 173 programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence.

“The DNP program gives our graduates the opportunity to fill both leadership and provider roles,” said Jenny Manry, professor and chair of FHSU’s Department of Nursing. “Now more than ever before, communities need leadership from their healthcare team. Our graduates are prepared to fill that role.”