Rural Roads

Cover story
Tales of a country doc
Physician and professor uses storytelling to engage students in rural family medicine
Story by J. Trout Lowen, Photograph by Sara Rubins
Direct link:

Therese Zink, who grew up on a farm, cares for a horse, a miniature donkey, chickens, cats and a dog.

A full moon floods the southeastern Minnesota landscape in a pale, wintry light as Therese Zink, MD, pulls away from her small farm and bounces down the gravel road past fields of broken cornstalks. She turns onto Highway 52 and then down a dark, empty road that crosses the middle fork of the Zumbro River before emptying onto Pine Island's main street. Zink parks her Prius in front of the butcher shop, slantwise, the way it's done in small towns, and heads for the Rainbow Cafe.
The hybrid car is just the first indication that Zink is not the stereotypical country doctor who resides in the collective American imagination: the kindly white-haired gentleman practitioner with a worn leather medical bag and comforting smile. A family physician at the nearby Fairview Zumbrota Clinic and associate director of the University of Minnesota Medical School's Rural Physician Associate Program (RPAP), Zink knows firsthand how the role of the country doctor has changed over the past three decades.

[Full Story]

Spring 2013

Contents

Tales of a country doc
Physician and professor uses storytelling to engage students in rural family medicine

Focus on rural mental health: Telepsychiatry
Telepsychiatry connects communities to care

Focus on rural mental health: Curriculum
Mental Health First Aid offers new rural-focused curriculum

Rural pastors learn to help veterans

Telehealth experts explore benefits and barriers

Rural hospitals play vital role when tragedy hits

Beginnings: Cristina Miller
Seeking and sharing the truth about rural health

Passages: Susan Kunz
Working myself out of a job

Side Trip: A Windy City Welcome
From NRHA member Pat Schou

Members on the move: Ty Borders
Journal of Rural Health editor accepts new positions

Members on the move: Kris Sparks
Former NRHA president retires

Members on the move: Van Driel
NRHA member leads Kansas CAH

NRHA news: Rural training track
NRHA leads third annual rural training track event

NRHA news: New fellows
NRHA welcomes new fellows

NRHA news: Graduating fellows
NRHA congratulates Rural Health Fellows graduates

NRHA news: Speak up, present
Speak up: Present at NRHA conferences

NRHA news: Group changes name
Constituency group changes name, not focus

NRHA news: Congressional champions
NRHA recognizes congressional rural health champions

Accelerating advocacy: Divided Congress
Make sure divided Congress remembers rural needs

Archived issues of Rural Roads

Rural Roads is a quarterly publication of the National Rural Health Association, a non-profit association with 20,000 members who share a common interest in the advancement of rural health. Domestic Rural Roads subscriptions are $20 per year. To subscribe, e-mail or send a check to Rural Roads editor, NRHA, 521 E. 63rd St., Kansas City, Mo. 64110. For information on advertising in NRHA publications, e-mail or call 913-269-1199.