Hometown: Harlan, Iowa
Matched: Family medicine, Genesis Health System, Davenport, Iowa
Growing up in Harlan, Iowa, Kara Rueschenberg often looked up to community members who made a difference by serving on the school board, public health board, coaching, or in other important roles. She noticed a common theme — many of those community leaders also happened to be family medicine doctors.
“Seeing how important and integrated family medicine doctors were within the community really resonated with me,” Rueschenberg says. “People looked up to them and trusted them with not only their health but also in other aspects of their life.”
Working in a long-term care facility in Harlan as a certified nursing assistant exposed her to the ins and outs of patient care and solidified her decision to pursue medicine. After a Bachelor of Science in biology with a minor in Spanish from Iowa State University, she came to the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine to start her medicine journey in earnest.
Cross-campus leadership
Rueschenberg joined the Carver College of Medicine Rural Iowa Scholars Program (CRISP), connecting with the program’s mission of addressing physician shortages in rural areas of the state. She also held multiple positions in the Family Medicine Interest Group, including co-president, while also serving as secretary for the Jennie McCowen Learning Community and participating in the Medical Students Ambassadors Program.
These roles gave her opportunities to gain leadership skills, connect with future medical students, and make real contributions on campus. One of the programs Rueschenberg implemented during her time as co-president made a lasting impact.
“We hosted representatives from family medicine residency programs from across the state. They came to Iowa City and had dinner with medical students who were interested in family medicine,” Rueschenberg says. “It helped them get early exposure to the residency programs, the directors, and current residents within those programs to get a real sense for what their future may look like.”
The dinner is now an annual event hosted by the group, building bridges between future physicians and the Iowa hospitals where they hope to train and practice someday.
Rueschenberg also volunteered at the Iowa City Free Mental Health Clinic as a patient interviewer, an experience that helped her stay connected to her “why.”
“One memorable experience was when a patient asked me how much she owed us, and I was able to tell her that it's a free service and she can come back any time. Seeing how thankful she felt was a great reminder of why I started in the first place,” Rueschenberg says.
"Hopefully I can care for generations of families — grandparents, parents, kids, grandkids — and be a place of comfort and support for all of them."
— Kara Rueschenberg
Closing the distance in rural health care
As a part of the Hawkeye Hometown Visits program, Rueschenberg returned to Harlan and taught sixth-grade science classes about the basic organ systems. She brought plastinated organs from the University of Iowa Health Care STEM Education program along with her. (Plastinated organs are made from human organs, where the fat and water are replaced by plastics, which preserve the organs and allow them to be touched and seen up close.) It was the first time most students had explored human anatomy
“I talked to them about my journey in medicine so far and really enjoyed seeing how interested they were in anatomy and medicine,” Rueschenberg says. “My hope with this project is to inspire one of those students by showing them that someone from a small town can go on and become a doctor.”
Rueschenberg is working on a CRISP capstone project focused on access to mental health resources in Iowa. During a family medicine rotation, she learned about seven mental health “access centers” that offer immediate, short-term crisis care for vulnerable patients with mental health and substance use disorders across the state.
“I am studying mental health outcomes in relation to geographic distance from access centers. I wanted to get a sense of what the baseline mental health and substance use burden looks like in different regions of Iowa,” Rueschenberg said. “Access centers are a very important resource because they give people who are struggling a safe place to go in times of crisis, instead of returning to busy emergency departments or ending up in jail.”
Rueschenberg’s research so far suggests that rural patients have worse mental health and substance use disorder outcomes than those who live in more highly populated counties. The data suggests that living closer to access centers, in more populated counties, offers greater availability of mental health providers and is associated with fewer deaths via suicide or drug overdose. If more resources become available from the state, she hopes this research will help determine where new access centers can be placed to be most impactful.
The next chapter
Rueschenberg matched in family medicine at Genesis Health System in Davenport, where she looks forward to building long-term relationships with patients and gaining a deeper understanding of their lives to better understand their health.
One thing she wants to carry throughout her whole career is making medicine more welcoming and inclusive.
“It can be scary to go to the doctor. Being sick is a vulnerable position to be in,” Rueschenberg says. “Hopefully I can care for generations of families — grandparents, parents, kids, grandkids — and be a place of comfort and support for all of them.”