By: Nia Taylor

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — America’s Health Ranking has ranked Arkansas as 49th  in the nation for healthcare, highlighting rural communities and the challenges they face.

Many students come to the University of Arkansas from rural areas of the state where access to healthcare is limited. Students like Miranda Nelson say the difference from home is a total 180 because these parts of Arkansas are not as equipped with staff , or facilities.

Miranda Nelson is a student from Dewitt, Arkansas , a rural town that has seen how the ranking reflects those challenges firsthand says “I have to drive an hour and 30 minutes just to see my pediatrician.”

Nelson said that her mom also faced difficulties  with rural health care, that could have been sever. Nelson said “not me but my mom experienced a challenge where she was misdiagnosed with paracentesis for a month before she was able to get the real treatment that she needed from a larger hospital in Little Rock for stage four of pancreatic cancer.”

This is one reason why health care is ranked so low in the state. Though rural Arkansas has its health care struggles, Northwest Arkansas is home to the top-ranked hospital in Arkansas, Washington Regional. There are many facilities on the university campus and around the community catered to making healthcare more accessible for students and the community.

Pat Walker Health Center allows student to use their parents’ insurance to allow them access to healthcare at no direct cost to their student account right on campus.  Additional resources include the wellness center that opens students up to multiple outlets to get the help they need.

Sarah Werner a representative of the wellness center said that they are striving to bring the healthcare community to campus.

“We also try to promote community resources so , we have brought the community clinic on campus in the past but we have also brought hope cancer resources and lots of other community organizations just to promote the vast array of what is available in Northwest Arkansas,” Werner said.

Working in healthcare isn’t easy, says Werner, she says that she focuses on making sure that the effort she puts in sparks a new outlook on this problem. Werner says “be the change you want to see in the world , which is obviously a famous quote but we can’t wait for someone else some other time to be the change we want to see.”

Despite this ranking , if you are wanting to get involved, America Health Ranking has created a database where users can search by state and explore ways to improve the ranking.

To find out ways to get involved in your community go to Adjust My Ranking.