loan repayment

[music]primary care is incredibly rewarding because you see not just how something affectsone person, but how it affects their whole familyand their community. my name is ellen piernotand i am a family practice practitioner. and i am currentlyserving as the medical director for primary care and healthinformation with presbyterian medical services in new mexico.there�s a good mix of native american, hispanic and white-anglo throughout the state.there's a lot of diversity, scenery, and people. grants is a small community. it�s about10,000 very, very nice people. national health

service corps fitin very well with that because i knew i wanted to be ina place that was less served. i didn�t want to be in the middleof an urban area - that wasn�t how i envisioned family practice. you definitely take careof the whole person out here. you are called uponto help people find the right path emotionally as well asphysically. you�re definitely play a significant rolein the community which i think is one of the advantagesof being in a smaller community - everyone knows you, and trusts youand will tell you things they may not tell

theirbest friends. personally i am never satisfied with, �just good enough,� and believethat our patients, even though they may not have a lot of financialresources, still deserve the same level of care as everyoneelse. when i came out here with national health service corps, i thought iwould be here for two years and then go on and do the rest ofmy life. it�s seven years later. national healthservice corps brought me to a place that i may not have even considered.but, the strength of the organization, the strength of the communityand

the love of the patients kept me here. andi have been able to progress in ways that i didn�t anticipate. if youhad asked me in medical school or residency if i thought i would bein clinical informatics in a medical director role, idon�t think i would have said "yes." but i found that was an niche thatneeded to be filled and i was good at it. i think if you�re considering primarycare than national health service corps is a great option. if you really think aboutit a commitment of two years is such a small priceto pay for having all of your loans removed or having them helppay for school. you work in places you may

not haveever imagined you�d live, but it doesn�t mean that there isn�ta multitude of options that can extend from that primary location. i definitely feel thatthe national health service corps has set me up to winprofessionally. from there the organization i work with,presbyterian medical services, has given me options to exploreprofessionally in ways that i didn�t necessarily envision. and the weather�s beautiful. [music]