For many, including Dr. Teresa Wurst, medicine is about giving back to the people in the community who need it the most.
Wurst knew from a very young age that she wanted to practice medicine. Though she once had aspirations to become a veterinarian, she was inspired to change course by her grandmother.
“My grandmother was a nurse in the late 1930s and early 1940s,” says Wurst. “She used to tell me stories about being a nurse in those days, which really interested me.”
Wurst is a teaching faculty member in the Family Medicine Program at Aultman Hospital in Canton and has been for nearly 20 years. After completing her residency at Aultman in 1996, she became an active staff member while also working for private practice.
“I joined Dr. Kevin Dieter and Dr. Robert Brophy at Waynesburg Family Practice,” says Wurst. “After two years in private practice, we all joined the Aultman Family Medicine Residency program in 1998 as teaching faculty, while still maintaining our practice in Waynesburg.”
In addition to teaching in the residency program and running a private practice, Wurst is also the medical director of the Hartville Migrant Ministry Medical Clinic. The clinic, the oldest standing free clinic in Ohio, works to meet the health care needs of migrant and seasonal farm workers in Hartville.
When the previous director accepted another position, Wurst volunteered to take over the walk-in clinic.
“They needed another faculty to take this over and I volunteered … since I spoke a little Spanish,” says Wurst. “At that time, we had nurse practitioners from Kent State, nursing students from Malone University and several other volunteers. We wanted to use this site for a community medicine experience for our residents.”
Wurst has worked with other clinic volunteers to recruit more collaborative organizations, including Walsh University, Stark County Health Department, North Canton Medical Foundation and Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED). Thanks to these partnerships and collaborations the clinic is able to provide services to a variety of patients.
“We see the full scope of primary care, from sick visits to rashes, diabetic management, hypertension, depression, musculoskeletal complaints, latent tuberculosis and many others,” says Wurst. “We provide adult vaccines including flu shots, pneumonia shots and vouchers for shingles vaccines.”
The clinic is open two evenings a week with volunteer physicians: one afternoon a week with a family physician who performs obstetrics, and one to two afternoons a month for well-child clinics with immunizations and a women’s clinic for well-woman care. In addition, Walsh offers free physical therapy one evening a week.
Working at the clinic reminds Wurst why she got into medicine: to make a difference in the lives of others.
“I am proud of how a collaboration between many individuals, churches, universities, hospitals and many others have worked toward a common goal to make Hartville Migrant Ministries a growing thriving organization, which has made such a difference in the lives of migrant farm workers." - Dr. Teresa Wurst
Having worked with Aultman for so long, Wurst considers her co-workers a part of her family. This year, she was inducted into the Aultman Hospital Hippocrates Honor Society and awarded a lifetime achievement award. Created by Aultman staff, the award recognizes physicians who exemplify excellence, compassion, integrity and leadership.
“I still find it hard to believe I was chosen for this award, knowing all of the other incredible physicians who have been chosen this past year and all of the years before,” says Wurst.
The Aultman staff created a video detailing the work that Wurst contributes to the hospital and to the clinic, including personal testimonies from her staff, colleagues, patients and family.
“I was so choked up by the end of the video it was hard to speak,” Wurst says. “I always hope that what I do at the Hartville Migrant Clinic will inspire others to volunteer. In fact, at the end of the evening, a nurse came up to me and said she wanted to come to the Migrant Clinic to volunteer.”
Her colleagues aren’t the only people that appreciate Wurst’s efforts. Her patients at the clinic take every opportunity they get to thank her for taking care of their families. One of the patients even cooks her a traditional Mexican lunch every week out of gratitude.
“The patients are so grateful for what we do and treat me like a member of their family. Since many of them don’t speak English, and most have no health insurance, there is a desperate need for basic medical care,” says Wurst. “The residents who come out (of the clinic) say, ‘I finally feel like a real doctor’ after working there.”
Wurst is happy to be a part of such a supportive community and to be able to help so many others.
“Working with Aultman has been a blessing in my life because of the continued support they have given me and my colleagues in working at the Hartville Migrant Clinic,” says Wurst. “The patients constantly remind me of what is important in life: first God, then family, then work. Their work ethic is incredible and is something that inspires me when I think I’ve had a hard day. Try kneeling in a hot field all day cutting vegetables; they never complain.”
Jenny Wise is a contributing writer. Feedback is welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
Dr. Teresa Wurst
Dr. Teresa Wurst graduated from NEOMED and then completed her residency in family medicine at Aultman. She joined Aultman’s medical staff in 1996 and became a mainstay on the family medicine teaching faculty – a position she has held since 1998. She also demonstrates her leadership at the Hartville Migrant Ministry Medical Center. She has been the medical director of the Migrant Clinic since 2001.
