We sat down with our 2021 Community Stars and asked them what resiliency, resolve, relationships and readiness meant to them and the communities they serve.
Resiliency
You will find a unique endurance quality in those who choose rural health as their career path.
Our leadership has had to be very resilient through this time. We just saw business stop overnight, and it was a challenge we didn’t even think about. The resiliency came through in our leadership to have faith that this was going to be temporary, and that things would get better.
Darlene Rose Melk, MD, FAAPARIZONA 
In healthcare today, that is the only way you can be. You have to be resilient; you have to bounce back. I think what helps my team and I be resilient is that we always remember why we chose healthcare. No one promises that it is easy. Early on in this (COVID-19 Pandemic) it was a moving target. We were building the plane as we were flying it.
Linda Webb, MBA, BSN, RN, NEA-BCINDIANA 
I think that our resiliency comes from our workforce. We couldn’t do as an organization what we do if we didn’t have the great employees that we have working for us. If you are in healthcare, you have to be willing and ready to adapt quickly. There are a lot of changes that are thrown our way. Covid certainly presented lots of challenges for us, we had to change the way that we had always done things.
CommuniHealth ServicesLouisiana 
Most people can juggle three things. If you juggle three lemons, it isn’t hard. But if you juggle four lemons, you can’t do it. So, what you have to do is increase the size of the lemon to the size of a grapefruit, and so by increasing the size of what you do, you can juggle three grapefruits as easily as you juggle three lemons. That way, you increase the three things you do, instead of increasing the number of things you can do.
Joseph Hardy, MDNevada 
Previous
Next
"No losses, only lessons” is what I teach the kids I coach. We learn more from our challenges than from victories. As the greatest challenge of our lifetimes COVID provides an opportunity for us to get better and face our weaknesses that can no longer be hidden.
Resiliency in our job right now is just keep getting up every day and continuing to come into work, it is as simple as that. You never know what is going to be here, you never know what is going to face you on any given day. You tackle whatever the day presents to you on that given day.
(Resiliency) is what we so much want to build and instill in our children so that they drive, particularly for those facing adversity, it is paramount. I think that if we have ever been tested as a community, certainly Covid has tested our resolve and our resiliency.
Rural health is one of the toughest areas and avenues of healthcare out there. What keeps us resilient is that there is such a great need. The area is so underserved, that if we gave up there would be very little opportunity for these patients.
I think it is very important to recognize when somebody is having a problem. But more than that, it is recognizing how to keep the bucket full to begin with. My personal bucket, when it gets empty and I have something that is catastrophic, it dumps the whole thing. So, my job is to figure out how to keep the bucket as full as possible to begin with.
Tammy BartonUtah 
Both of my hospitals actually have a specific program around Resilience, called R.I.S.E. (Resilience In Stressful Events). It is a peer support program where other clinicians and caregivers can provide support.
WVU Potomac Valley HospitalWest Virginia 
Our resiliency relies on that we just really care. We just really care about the farming population and our rural individuals- they are often forgotten. We see the need every day.
ThedaCare Rural Health InitiativeWisconsin 
In healthcare today, that is the only way you can be. You have to be resilient; you have to bounce back. I think what helps my team and I be resilient is that we always remember why we chose healthcare. No one promises that it is easy.
Memorial HospitalIllinois 
Resolve
Although resources are often constrained, you’ll find rural health professionals are masterfully skilled at securing solutions.
I resolve to do my utmost to leave behind the process for collaboration between multiple fields.
Mark S. Borer, MD, DLFAPA, DLFAACAPDelaware 
In our staff meetings, we end every one with, “Let’s go help some people.”
Kelley Withy, MD, PhDHawaii 
If I can help even one person make a change for the better, that is a successful day. Finding that one thing you did well, or did right.
Jamie Coffey-Kelly, LCSWIdaho 
I came saying that I must make healthcare better, and healthcare must be better when I leave than when I came.
Memorial HospitalIllinois
Previous
Next
For me, the resolve is the long-term sustainability of this culture of who we are. The resolve comes from performance improvement just becoming part of the everyday work.
A patient in the middle of Covid brought me a cross cut out of wood that says ‘Amazing Grace’. You look up at the end of your day, and you know that we are here, and we made it through the day.
In the work that I am doing, I am resolved to the fact that if I can make a difference in the life of a person who lives in a rural area, and has a limited access to care, and I can improve that access. I can make sure that they are receiving quality care, and that all patients are put first in the equation, then I am resolved that I have done something good at the end of the day.
My resolve to make sure that my employees, that this community continues to be able to give the best care that they can, but come out of this hole. The people that are left are burning out, and they need a lot of support to continue to keep doing what they are doing. My resolve is to try to bring that to them every day so that they can continue to give excellent care to our community.
My core values align with the work that we do in serving others and serving the community and helping and advocating for the underserved population, or the vulnerable populations.
Jody HoenerKansas 
We resolve to be really accountable to our communities and for our communities. We are grounded in where we are and the responsibility that we have in giving space to others in our community to have their voices heard.
Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research (HACER)Minnesota 
My resolve is to serve. I feel a really strong resolve and urge to see improvements and to figure out what I can personally do to make some of these changes, and programs and services come to fruition.
Katie Beyer, CHESNorth Dakota 
Relationships
Behind the story of rural health heroes are extraordinary people collaborating to make rural life better.
Alaksa, big place, small population, but the whole space is like a village. It is like a network of people living off of the grid.
William Murray Buttner, MDAlaska 
I think that relationships and resiliency are absolutely hand and hand. The relationship and us pulling together as a team and an organization, has really been a tremendous help in us all getting through this together.
El Dorado Community Health CenterCalifornia 
In rural settings, relationships are so much more important. Relationships are in place in rural settings because we don’t have as many resources so we just have a long history of working together collaboratively.
Susan Starkey, MPH, MS, RDConnecticut 
Our tagline is, ”One voice louder.” We see ourselves as the glue for rural health, and the dissemination of information and the resource hub. So, our intent is to connect individuals and then share resources, and be the convenor of those relationships.
Florida Rural Health AssociationFlorida 
Previous
Next
We really built a relationship with our ER staff to the fact that we cared that we would be there and stand with them. Even if we didn’t have to be in the room we would stay in the room until we could get them stabilized or whatever.
We have to do a lot more reaching out to the people we serve. There is a lot of shame around needing food services, shelter. So helping people, and fostering that relationship and explaining to them that this isn’t something that you did, and it happened to all of us.
Relationships to me has always been important. We believe that one person can’t do it all, so the more people we have working together as a team makes the job easier.
In terms of relationships, public health cannot accomplish anything, we can’t serve the community if we don’t have in-place partnerships. If we are not already in an existing collaboration with somebody, what is it going to take to open the door, so that we can better serve.
Our whole program really is built on relationships, because it is a collaboration between the school staff and the nurses. The school staff really know the kids, and the nurses have the medical background.
Avel eCARE (Sheila Freed)South Dakota 
I absolutely could not do this alone. My job would just be irreverent if I did not have relationships.
Henry County Medical CenterTennessee 
It really comes down to building relationships when you are rural, so you can call a friend. So that you have people you can rely on, so you have a team. Being a rural community, you have people that choose to be here, work really becomes a family.
Pamela Schlauderaff, RN, BSN, MSM, AAPC, CPHQ, CPPSWashington 
In healthcare, relationships are important regardless of urban or rural. But in a small facility, relationships are everything because you rely on each other so much because everyone wears multiple hats, and everybody has to do their fair share or it doesn’t work.
Margie MolitorWyoming 
Readiness
The work of those committed to rural vitality is never-ending. The challenges they encounter are met with determination.
People underestimate the backend of what it takes to see a patient. There are hundreds of people that we had trained (in telehealth) and if we had started at when the pandemic had started, it would have taken us 6 months to do it. It was two weeks before we declared the emergency that we started scaling. We hit the ground running on March 13th (2020) and by April 74% of all of our visits were telehealth.
Eric Wallace, MDAlabama 
In what I do, we have to be ready for anything to walk through that door. In a rural setting we don’t have the urgent cares that a metropolitan area has an advantage of. You have to be ready at just the moment’s notice.
Tamara Laws RN, BSNColorado 
Let’s see, we had an F1 tornado, a category one hurricane, and a blizzard in the same year. We knew early that we needed to be prepared to meet the COVID testing needs at our nuclear plant.
Knicole Lee, DNP, MSEd, MSN, FNP-BCGeorgia 
To never assume that I know what is coming next. The best way to remain ready and open to what is next is to assume that I don’t already know the answers.
Kalli DempseyMichigan 
Previous
Next
We created a reliance among each other to support each other. We began to really see a transition towards self-less passion for success...It is this seamless transition to an internal support mechanism where we lift each other up and we watch for these cues that are occurring when people are struggling, and we surround them like we would a family or a community.
We frame that in terms of nimbleness. We try and be as nimble as possible. So that we can respond to what is happening now, but also so that we can predict what might be happening so that we can stay in front of it.
I am sure that no one has been anticipated something this bad, and long, and hard. We just focused on ‘let’s do the next right thing.’
We do feel ready. We might be tired, and it might be hard at times, but we do stand ready... It is very important that we are nimble, and that we pivot when we can. I don’t think we are ever not ready.
This pandemic has brought us a renewed commitment to readiness. You pivot very quickly, you switch gears. We have surge plans in place now that will serve us for whatever may come.
Lesley J. Ogden, MD, MBAOregon
Every day is different, but what has really gotten me through and ready is understanding how this is a long game, not a short game. What we are doing is celebrating small wins, and hoping that they lead to big wins down the line.
Robert PalazzoPennsylvania 
We are blessed with a team that is doing the work because they love the work. The readiness in moving forward is also that we allow everyone’s ideas to be heard, and we are pulling from all of these brilliant minds.
Treatment Associates, Inc.Vermont 
I am not afraid to learn a lesson. I believe that whatever lesson you learn will be applicable some other time and will give you knowledge to handle another situation. So, if you are willing to learn, willing to be a little uncomfortable when you are put into a situation, you will be ready.
Bryan E. PriceVirginia 
“When you are resilient, you have got to be willing to push forward, when others are not pushing forward. When you fail, you’ve got to learn from it. You’ve got to get back up and you’ve got to try again. I think that is a really good word for rural.”
