NRHA shows doctor-to-be real scope of rural practice

The job at NRHA was a stepping stone for Dustin Summers. And we’re OK with that. He worked in NRHA’s Washington, D.C., office for two years, during which he met hundreds of rural health’s finest and decided he could better serve rural America as a rural doc. In Rural Roads magazine, Dustin describes his memorable-but-not-necessarily-in-a-good-way interview at the National Rural Health Association and recalls receiving 41 rejection letters from med schools before another memorable interview at Lincoln Memorial University in small-town Harrogate, Tenn. "I never planned to begin medical school at 28. My envisioned path was straight and short, but my route would have never been as rich, as meaningful, and quite frankly, as fun as it has otherwise turned out," he writes. "My time at NRHA, while brief, was what ultimately made it all possible."