Back to Where It Began
A Vermont pediatrician returns to care for her community.
At age 3, Megan Prue, MD, told her parents she wanted to be a doctor.
Now, after completing her pediatric residency at Golisano Children’s Hospital at University of Vermont Health, Dr. Prue has returned to Vermont’s rural Northeast Kingdom — to the same clinic where she was once a patient.
Her path shows how hard work, academic medicine and community support can help address a health care provider shortage that affects rural communities nationwide.
“This was my dream, but I never thought it would be possible — at least, not right away,” Dr. Prue says of her new role at North Country Pediatrics in Newport, Vermont.
Rural Health Challenges
Rural communities have been hit hard by the shortfall in health care workers. Though 20% of Americans live in rural areas, only 10% of the nation’s physicians practice there, and just 1% of graduate medical training programs are rural.
For many medical students, the professional and financial pull toward specialized medicine in urban centers is strong.
“I always wanted to live in a small town in Vermont and practice medicine, but there’s been precious little in the way of role-modeling for that,” says Thomas “Mike” Moseley, MD, who for decades ran the Newport pediatric practice where Dr. Prue now works.
Dr. Moseley and others provided that example for Dr. Prue.
Along with her interest in health care, she loved science and wanted to work closely with kids. “I wanted to do something to help other people, and to feel like I was actually serving,” she says.
A summer program called MedQuest, run by the Vermont Area Health Education Centers (AHEC), nurtured that spark by introducing her to health care settings as a teen.
She also shadowed at Moseley’s practice and later worked there part-time.
“Everybody joked, ‘You’re going to come back someday,” Dr. Prue says with a laugh.
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‘Something About This Place’
After college, Dr. Prue considered training in a more urban area. But she chose University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at Golisano Children’s Hospital.
“There’s something about this place that really just draws you in,” she says. “Everyone is so nice and down to earth. I got a lot of one-on-one teaching that is unheard of at bigger centers.”
That sense of community helped steer her toward staying local. She also benefited from an AHEC program that provides tuition relief for those who choose to work in Vermont.
The biggest difference may have been a new “rural concentration” within her residency. She was the first to complete that program, gaining experience in rural primary care, delivery and newborn care, community hospital medicine and common procedures.
Seeing rural care in action — and knowing that academic medical expertise is still a phone call away — showed her that rural medicine is attainable, and not as intimidating as it seems.
Supporting Rural Health Training
It’s that kind of experience that Dr. Moseley, who retired in 2019, and his wife, the Rev. Christine Moseley, RN, want to support for years to come.
The Moseley's donated $250,000 to University of Vermont Health - UVM Medical Center to establish The Moseley Family Pediatric Rural Health Endowment, which promotes careers in rural pediatric primary care and helps residents cover travel and housing during rural rotations.
“I would be thrilled if more people like Megan chose to locate in these communities because of a connection between UVM and rural practices,” Dr. Moseley says.
‘Special Thing to Help a Child'
Dr. Prue says the choice to stay local put her on the right path, both personally and professionally. She’s now caring for children in the place where she grew up dreaming of becoming a doctor.
“Within medicine, it’s a special thing to help a child,” Dr. Prue says. Plus, she adds with a smile, “Other people don’t get to listen to stuffed bears’ hearts."
