Red Rocks student accepted into Primary Care Leadership Program

Red Rocks Community College Physician Assistant student Amanda Smithers

Also awarded $5,000 scholarship by GE Foundation

Red Rocks Community College Physician Assistant student Amanda Smithers has been accepted into the 2012 GE-National Medical Fellowships Primary Care Leadership Program (PCLP).  In addition to her acceptance, Smithers has been awarded a $5,000 scholarship that will aid her during the program.

The GE-NMF Primary Care Leadership Program awards eight physician assistant, or nursing graduates, and 30 medical students the opportunity to practice primary care in a unique community health center in the U.S.  The summer 2012 externship is a 200-hour, 5–7 week program that will give each individual the opportunity to better hone leadership and networking skills vital to becoming successful in the medical profession.  Smithers will complete her program requirements in Jackson, Mississippi this summer.

In addition to the PCLP award, Smithers was also awarded the William Conrad Rural Primary Care Scholarship (HRSA grant scholarship) in June 2011. The scholarship awarded $44,000, over two years, to aid Smithers in her PA education at Red Rocks.

Smithers believes that embarking on this experience will positively influence the way she practices as a PA.  “I have been given an opportunity to directly impact and reshape the perspective of patients whose voices go widely unheard,” she said. “I hope to empower this community to educate themselves on maintaining and improving their health, and to help shape a community’s movement into active participation in their own health care.”

Red Rocks was one of 28 PA programs awarded funds under the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Expansion of Physician Assistants Training (EPAT) Grant.  The HRSA EPAT Grant was implemented to better assist medically underserved rural areas by increasing the number of primary care physician assistants.  With a mission to train clinically competent and compassionate physician assistants to provide primary care to the medically underserved, RRCC was a prime candidate for the grant.  The Physician Assistant program targets applicants who are likely to accept primary care positions in rural Colorado or Wyoming.

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