VCOM View Vol 10 No 1

Mission-Focused Medical Education VCOM is known for a central Mission, which supports all College endeavors, from curriculum to research, from student engagement to the close-knit culture created by faculty and staff. The Mission to prepare globally- minded, community-focused physicians to meet the needs of rural and medically underserved populations draws students who are characterized by their pronounced personal drive to serve communities most in need – even while in medical school! During her years at VCOM, Chelsea exemplified this, balancing the rigorous academic demands with extensive service activities. “I put pictures from mission trips up in my study room,” she remembered. “I had faces of people I met along the way, to encourage me and remind me of why I’m doing what I’m doing, why I am studying all these long hours.” As a VCOM student, Chelsea initiated a “Share the Warmth” clothing drive to support a soup kitchen and homeless shelter in the Spartanburg, South Carolina area. She volunteered at the Miracle Hill Homeless shelter, assisting with dinner services. She also volunteered at Spartanburg Regional’s Hospice Home, visiting inpatients and their families in their last days of life, supporting their comfort and dignity. “She has a selfless attitude and strong initiative,” remarked Matthew Cannon, DO, VCOM-Carolinas Dean. “She believes fully in the philosophy of addressing one’s needs of health and well-being by incorporating the relationship of mind, body and spirit.” international outreach program, and Chelsea was no exception. In June of 2013 she served on an international mission to El Salvador. During this inspiring week-long trip, VCOM students provided medical attention for patients in local villages, community clinics, orphanages and schools. For Chelsea, the trip deepened her concern for the hardships endured by populations in impoverished and underserved regions and further solidified her desire to care for vulnerable communities. VCOM International Outreach Many students are drawn by VCOM’s robust

If left untreated, fistulas can lead to chronic medical issues including ulcerations, kidney disease, and nerve damage in the legs, as well as psychosocial and emotional health problems. Obstetric fistulas lead to incontinence, a constant and humiliating condition. Women are viewed as outcasts and as “unclean” individuals, often divorced by their husbands and shunned from their families and villages. Fistulas are treatable, but that treatment requires the expertise of a doctor, one of the rarest commodities in the world’s medically underserved communities. Called to a Mission Before coming to VCOM, Chelsea’s life was already on a path that embodied the College’s Mission to serve communities most in need. In 2007, she traveled to remote areas in Rwanda and toured a suffering hospital, which had only one doctor providing care. “The head nurse described their struggles and the need for doctors,” said Dr. Porter in a recent interview. “It was the first time I had seen human suffering of that magnitude.” In Rwanda and on subsequent overseas trips, as Chelsea spent time nurturing people, demonstrating herself to be genuinely interested in the well-being and dignity of those most in need, one persistent challenge was apparent to her: the scarcity of medications available. With this in mind, Chelsea pursued an education in osteopathic medicine. “I knew that having the ability to use osteopathic manipulative medicine would be an extra tool to help serve people where resources are so limited,” she explained, continuing, “VCOM was my first choice after seeing its heart for the underserved and the ability I would have to go overseas as a medical student.” During the medical school application process, Chelsea served on a mission trip in Haiti following the earthquake in 2010. While coordinating a program for malnourished children at the Canaan Clinic and Orphanage, met Ryan Porter. At the time, Porter was a first-year medical student at the University of Arkansas, and is now her husband and mission partner in West Africa.

summer/fall 2020 | VCOM V iew M agazine 17