(soft music)
- The NHSC is big enough to be impressively impactful,
but small enough to be nimble.
- For me, there is this great excitement
about being able to impact a community.
- You'd be amazed, the satisfaction,
the gratification you get
by treating some of these patients
because a lot of them,
they don't have another option, you know.
- We provide a service to our people
that would otherwise not be available.
- A lot of my family are underserved.
They're from rural or very urban inner city communities
where the access to healthcare is not good.
- Being able to come back to my hometown,
I felt that by understanding the cultural barriers,
I could help many, many people
to not be as afraid of the dentist.
- It just seemed natural to me
that I would try to provide primary care to people
who don't have the means to be able to afford other clinics.
(soft music)
- The National Service Corps started in 1972.
And the big idea was to have clinicians go
into rural, underserved tribal areas
to provide much needed services
ranging from primary care to family medicine,
OB-GYN services, et cetera,
the full range of clinical services to those communities.
Many of us are drawn to medicine originally
for that calling, that desire to help others, right?
Fundamentally, the National Service Corps
hasn't lost sight of that.
That is the purpose of the program.
It is yes, we give loan repayment or we give scholarships,
but really the intent is to afford clinicians an opportunity
to live that aspect of healthcare
that called to them originally.
(soft music)
- The healthcare system wasn't working quite very well.
Why not have some of the doctors and dentists and so on
working in the Public Health Service
work in communities where there was a need?
When I then found this manpower report that provided data
on the maldistribution problem of health personnel,
I spent the next two weeks writing a proposal
using the data
and explaining the justification
and how easy it would be.
- [Narrator] Those ideas became a reality
when Congress passed the Emergency Health Personnel Act
of 1970.
And in 1972, Dr. Hubert McDonald Rimple
was appointed as the first Director of the NHSC.
Within six months of its initial operation,
181 clinicians had been placed in more than 100 communities.
By the end of the decade,
it had grown to over 1800 providers
and the budget had increased tenfold.
- I felt as though we were doing something
very, very important.
On the phone with physicians hour after hour after hour,
talking with them about prospective locations,
what we thought the experience was going to be like.
But much of it was a sense of passion
for the opportunity to provide healthcare
where it was otherwise not available.
I learned very quickly in NHSC
what that maldistribution resulted in,
communities with practically no access.
(soft music)
- [Reporter] Practice in the back woods of Maine
has been a revelation for Joe Viglotti.
(soft music)
Here, he lives among the people he cares for.
He's the first of 600 medical personnel
being assigned to 120 communities
throughout the United States
in the new National Health Service Corps.
When they applied to Washington to send a doctor,
the people of Jackman
would've settled for any qualified doctor.
But Monique and Joe Viglotti,
they got a team who served the community
with high professional competence and dedication.
(soft music)
- [Narrator] To expand on its inaugural scholarship program,
in 1987, the NHSC established the Loan Repayment Program
which provides awards to healthcare professionals
committed to service in health professional shortage areas.
The program became a recruitment and retention tool
for NHSC approved sites,
attracting eligible providers
to areas they might not have considered.
The state Loan Repayment Program is also added
to support clinicians
working in their own underserved communities.
The NHSC Revitalization Act of 1990
expanded the Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs
and reauthorized the NHSC for an unprecedented 10 years.
- Our goal was to have a workforce in America
that were serving underserved communities
that reflected the communities
that we were privileged to serve.
The National Health Service Corps
continued to look for ways to meet the needs in urban, rural
and frontier underserved areas with interprofessional teams.
So we expanded the number of disciplines that were covered.
The other thing that we've worked closely to do
was to look at retention with a broad scope
- [Narrator] By the beginning of the millennium,
the NHSC prepared to face new challenges
and added mental health to the Loan Repayment Program
as a new much needed discipline.
2002 marked the first 30 years of the NHSC.
During this decade, the NHSC doubled in size
with nearly 14,000 health professionals
practicing all over the US,
including in more than 1900 rural counties.
The NHSC received permanent reauthorization
through the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act of 2010
and expanded its Students to Service Loan Repayment Program,
adding more dentists to the health workforce.
Additionally, telehealth's inclusion
as a service credit option
increased rural access to quality care.
Then in 2015,
the NHSC responded to a new public health epidemic,
the Zika virus.
During the Zika epidemic,
the Corps was able
to quickly expand its Loan Repayment Program
to help communities desperate for healthcare support
for an unprecedented crisis.
In 2018, to combat the nation's emerging opioid crisis,
the NHSC launched two new programs
to recruit clinicians trained in behavioral health
and medication assisted treatment protocols
and added substance use disorder treatment facilities
to its list of eligible site types.
- A lot of our clients are dealing with their homelessness
by using substances.
In the past two years, we've seen an influx of clients
that are coming in with an opioid use disorder.
- When there have been national emergencies,
NHSC has changed
and allowed funds to get appropriated,
to be responsive to the crisis of the day
while still maintaining
the backbone of the Corps
that has existed since its inception.
- [Narrator] 2020 brought new health challenges
to the entire world
with the first global pandemic in more than 100 years.
And NHSC clinicians were right there
helping on the front lines with testing,
and when they became available, vaccinations.
And today, as in decades past,
the NHSC's health professionals
are addressing the lack of maternity care access in rural
and other areas with high OB-GYN provider shortages.
With recent reports indicating an increase
in maternal death rates
especially among minority and rural populations,
the NHSC is again expanding its Loan Repayment Program
to further support the distribution
of NHSC maternal healthcare professionals
to communities where they're needed most.
Our providers make a difference in the lives of mothers
and their babies
and gain invaluable healthcare experience
wherever they serve.
In 2021,
the NHSC grew to a record nearly 20,000 members
serving at more than 10,000
community health centers nationwide
where patients are seen regardless of their ability to pay.
NHSC providers treat almost 21 million patients annually
and a third serve in rural communities
where healthcare access may be limited
or require patients to travel long distances
to receive treatment.
- Primary care is kind of the lost art
especially in rural healthcare.
So I'm glad that I can help fill that need
in the rural healthcare area.
- [Narrator] The NHSC continues
to be the nation's top program
to support qualified health professionals
while connecting them with underserved communities,
communities that welcome and need them.
- I have the most impact on the people that need the most.
They need me here
and, you know, as much as they need me,
I actually have felt like it's a,
it's a two way street here.
I felt like they have enriched my experience,
not only as a physician,
but also as a member of the community.
- I was very fortunate
to have that experience
and connection to the Yapese community.
They adopted me when I was there
and was given a Yapese name, (speaks in foreign language)
which means our gift.
- Last 50 years, over 66,000 graduates in the program,
going to a wide array of sites, clinical environments,
rural underserved, tribal,
prisons has also been an environment.
In that time,
you've had scholars who have gone on
and completed their obligation
and held very high positions in government and industry,
been leaders of hospitals,
been assistant secretaries of health,
now leading efforts in the CDC.
So what you see is not only clinicians
who have graduated from the program alumni,
but have gone on and contributed
and really furthered their career
in the blending of public health,
the delivery of care, primary care,
and in other areas.
(soft music)
- [Narrator] With changing public health issues
and the need to continue
strengthening our national health workforce,
the National Advisory Council
on the National Health Service Corps
continues its work making policy and program recommendations
and identifying program priorities.
- The opportunity to serve on the council is advocacy
at one of the highest levels
because of your ability to use your scope of influence
and your expertise to really contribute
to the greater work of the National Health Service Corps.
(soft music)
- [Narrator] 50 years strong and growing,
the NHSC story continues its focus on recruiting
and retaining the next generation of primary care providers,
health professionals
who will impact the nation's healthcare landscape
leaving as large or greater a footprint
as those NHSC members before them.
- I mean it was life-changing.
I think that if there had not been an NHSC,
I think there was a good chance
I wouldn't have been able to complete medical school.
- You may not be able to change the world,
but you can change the world of every person
that you interact with.
And as an NHSC clinician and a provider,
you can absolutely do that.
(soft music)
- [Narrator] To learn more about the NHSC
and join in the celebration,
visit nhsc.hrsa.gov/anniversary.
(soft music)