Nathan Gray ’20 — This summer, I have been able to continue my exposure to rural healthcare through my internship with the Indiana Rural Health Association (IRHA). As one might guess, the IRHA is focused on aiding the access and quality of healthcare available to rural communities in Indiana. During this internship, the IRHA staff have exposed me to a variety of their different initiatives and have brought me in on tasks and projects that developed specific skills I had identified an interest in cultivating.

Primarily, my work has been on their Crossroads: Partnership for Telehealth grant which is done in conjunction with the Richard Lugar Center for Rural Health. This grant helps provide a telehealth platform that rural clinical sites can use to expand access to behavioral healthcare services to their rural communities. On this grant, I’ve helped with roll out and implementation of the equipment and program at partner sites as well as promotion of the program with potential partners. Additionally, Abraham Kiesel and I will be helping with Community Health Needs Assessments in a number of counties around the state later this summer. These assessments provide important information for provider systems and hospitals about the pressing healthcare needs of their communities. I’ve also been lucky enough to have some exposure to data analysis and grant writing.

My experiences with the IRHA this summer require me to employ an interdisciplinary set of skills and knowledge about health systems that I have gained through my time at Wabash and during other GHI-sponsored internships. In addition to honing and adding to my healthcare professional skillset, I expanded my professional network tremendously through my participation in the IRHA annual conference and partner meetings across the state. I would like to thank the Global Health internship for this opportunity.