Hallie Vonk, who will graduate from the University of Iowa with a master’s degree in health administration this month, can’t help but think of her grandmother living in Hospers, Iowa, and having to drive a significant distance to receive care.

“There are definitely people that live in more rural areas that have to drive 30, 45 minutes to an hour to receive any sort of care. That’s a big disparity there,” said Vonk, who obtained her bachelor’s degree in health and human physiology from the university in 2022. 

Last year, Vonk co-founded the Student Association for Rural Health, an organization that provides real work learning opportunities for University of Iowa students, while also raising awareness about the health and health care needs of rural communities.

The organization launched within the College of Public Health, but Vonk said its membership has grown “vastly” to around 90 people and now includes students in the Carver College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy. Vonk said the organization hopes to expand into the College of Dentistry and the College of Nursing in the future. 

“There are many assets with rural health care, so not just looking at administrators, but also our providers and our policymakers and getting all of the different stakeholders to the table. We’re really trying to start that within the education, so that when people graduate and go into the workforce, they know what key stakeholders to involve,” she said. 

Vonk, who grew up in Hinton, Iowa, and attended Hinton High School, recalled special days when students drove their tractors to school. She said fellow University of Iowa students who grew up in Chicago’s suburbs found that story “absolutely absurd,” but she said it’s an example of the unique culture that small towns have. 

“All of us were from rural areas,” Vonk said of the students who founded the Student Association of Rural Health. “But we didn’t understand that our experience was different than a lot of our classmates until we moved to a larger city to go to a large university and started to learn about some health disparities.”

Individuals living in rural areas have higher rates of chronic disease, higher mortality rates and lower life expectancy than those who live in urban areas, according to Vonk. By sharing their stories about rural health and shining a light on the disparities, Vonk said the Student Association for Rural Health’s members hope to give their peers “an understanding and appreciation for some of the nuances that occur for rural health care.”

Vonk said the Student Association for Rural Health hosts panel events with rural health care providers and administrators and also does some advocacy work. She said they’ve traveled to the state capitol in Des Moines to speak with legislators about polices that impact rural health care. 

“Health care policies aimed at leveraging non-physician providers, expansion of telehealth services, and providing home-based services for older adults are a few ways to decrease barriers to care and improve outcomes,” Vonk said. “Telehealth, specifically, can be used in creative ways, including primary care and mental health care as a way to supplement, not supplant, existing rural health services. Additionally, ensuring the financial viability of rural hospitals and investing in the health care workforce should be a top priority for policymakers.”

With rural hospitals around the country closing their doors, Vonk said rural health care is oftentimes associated with a scarcity of resources or finances, but she said something that doesn’t get talked about enough is rural health care’s greatest asset — its people.

“The providers on the panel talk a lot about how they’re able to be in a community that invests in them as much as they are investing in the community. It’s a great place to raise a family and to get involved in so many other ways,” she said. “When I’m talking to my classmates trying to inspire them to go into rural health care, it’s really all about relationship building. If you’re a provider, you’re not just treating a patient, you’re treating your neighbor or your family member. I think there’s something really special that comes with that. If you’re a health care administrator, some of the changes that you can make at a hospital aren’t impacting people that you don’t know. It has a great impact on some of your closest friends.”

Since one-third of Iowa’s population lives in a rural area, Vonk said many of the University of Iowa’s students are from rural communities. 

“I think one of the things that we’re trying to do is just remind students where they came from and what they love about their own experience growing up,” she said. “So rather than staying in an urban area post graduation, they might have a passion to then go back to their own community to serve their friends and neighbors, as well.”

Regardless of whether students want to live in a small town or an urban area, Vonk said the Student Association for Rural Health is trying to “spread awareness about rural health care.” 

“Larger hospital systems are acquiring smaller hospitals at a rate that we’ve never seen before. We’re trying to teach future health care administrators or providers about some of the complexities for rural health care, so that if they ever come into a situation where they’re having an impact, maybe indirectly on rural, they understand some of the uniqueness and nuances,” she said. “There’s a common saying that if you’ve seen one small town, you’ve seen one small town. Each town has kind of its own culture and its own sense of belonging. What we’re really trying to do is spread awareness about rural health care, so individuals at any level can have a seat at the table and share some of their understanding about what rural is.” 

After graduation, Vonk said she will be an administrative fellow for HealthPartners. She will primarily be based in Hudson, Wisconsin. 

“My fellowship experience is actually at four of their critical access hospitals within the system. So, I have a passion for rural health, and I’m staying in rural health by working in those four rural hospitals,” she said.