March 23, 2026 · Health and Human Services · 1,252 words · 2 speakers · 4 segments
's going to be in french. Just for you, steve. Welcome to the health and human services Committee.
I'm Senator brian hardin from district 48 and I serve as chair of the Committee. The Committee will go through an appointment today in the order posted one in a row. So this public hearing today is your opportunity to be a part of the legislative process. Express your position. And then if you're planning to testify, which you won't, because we don't have anyone here. And if you do not wish to testify, that part doesn't matter either, barb. So we're just going to keep rolling through this. We will go through and listen to doctor brockhouse as she shares with us from her background about this public hearing today. And I'm going to have the Committee members who are here introduce themselves, starting with my far right. And Senator quick. All right, dan, quick, district 35, grant island. Glen meyer, district 17, dakota thurston wayne in the southern part of dickson county. John fredrickson district 20. Marvelous. And with that, we would love to hear from doctor michaela brockhouse. How are you? Hi. I'm doing good. Nice to meet you all. Great. Where are you coming to us today from doctor brockhouse. Today I am from in omaha at the university of Nebraska medical center. I'm on a rotation here currently, so I'm in a patient room right now utilizing that. To speak with you all today. Wonderful. This is about the rural health advisory Committee to which you are appointed. And we're just going to kind of listen to your story, if you don't mind, share with us about your desire to be and serve on that Committee. And then we'll follow up with some questions after you've done that. Does that sound okay? Sounds great. Awesome. Take it. So I'm from creighton, Nebraska, which is a small town up in northeast Nebraska. Born and raised there. And ever since I was younger, I knew I wanted to make an impact and help out rural communities, whether that be creighton or not, and decided I found a passion in healthcare. So I actually applied for the rural health opportunities program, the program through wayne state college, and was fortunate to get accepted to that. So I went to undergrad there and was automatically accepted into the university of Nebraska medical center for medical school. Kept my options open during medical school, but ultimately fell in love with the idea of serving rural communities and especially with family medicine, all stages of life. So then I fortunately got accepted into the what we call the advanced family medicine program here at unmc, for which I started my residency a year early with commitment to go back to rural Nebraska to practice as a family physician and that subspecialty. I'm going to have my two years final, two years of training be in kearney, Nebraska.
So I get a good mix of academic and then also rural medicine before I ultimately will graduate in 2028 and be able to actually go back to creighton, Nebraska to practice as a family medicine physician. So then full circle, and I'm very excited and I chose to be a part of this Committee. Doctor harrison, he's the dean here and he chatted with me about it because he knows my passions for rural medicine and how much rural communities deserve extraordinary care. And so I felt like this was a great opportunity for me to sit in and also make sure that like minded people are also thinking the same thing and be a part of the government hearings for it, to. Wonderful questions from the Committee before we before I jump in, and. I just have one question, doctor brockhouse. Brockhouse funeral homes in that area. Yeah, you talked about full circle. Is this a full service, full service facility? This this is this is. Yes, my dad is greg brockhouse and my uncle is joe brockhouse. And actually both of my brothers are both funeral directors as well. So I kind of took the different path in life. But yeah, that's quite we are quite a full circle family for sure. You are the other on the other end of the family business. I appreciate that. Thank you doctor. That's right, that's right. Yes. What do you see as the challenges for rural Nebraska as you look at being a part of this Committee, what kind of challenges would you like to bring to that Committee and say, look, we need to deal with blank. What goes in that blank? Yeah, I think especially, you know, I have the unique opportunity to be with physicians in training. And I think, you know, what I've always seen is that living in rural communities is not for everybody. You know, people have to live by a walmart, a target, things like that. So just really drawing in those people who are committed to not only living in rural communities, but serving them as well. So I think, you know, whether that be through incentives or also like people like myself, like sharing the, the benefit of serving rural communities and or having like community members also kind of share what rural medicine means to them. And having a physician. I know in creighton, like we didn't have an actual like practicing physician at the hospital for several years. And that impacted our rural community significantly. So it's always been a big passion of mine for sure. How many beds roughly are in that community hospital? Yeah, there's about six beds. And they're I think at least 2 or 3 of them are swings. So for like skilled nursing facility, like rehab, so about six beds, okay. When you are with students at the university setting, what do you share with them that they might find attractive?
I would agree with you. If you're from a rural area, you're much more likely to go back. What kind of things do you highlight that would make them go? You know what? I really should consider going back to a rural area and serving. What's that sound like for you? Yeah, I would say some benefits of going back to rural community is, you know, you get that widespread of just variety in general, which a lot of, I think students find appealing, but also just, I feel like there's so much respect by the community members because you are highly looked upon to serve them. And I feel like there's just the respect that rural community members have for not only physicians, but like lawyers and other people higher up in the community, is something that is really beautiful. And I feel like we're appreciated where sometimes in the us, in the bigger cities, you know, a physician here is just a kind of a tool and a number. And I feel like there's just more personal in the rural communities and people actually, you know, take time and listen to your recommendations. And I feel like your care then matters even more. Thank you. Other questions? Seeing none, we really appreciate your time, doctor brockhouse. Yes. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time. Wonderful. Thanks so much for the privilege. And this wraps up our hearing for the Nebraska rural health advisory commission with doctor michaela brockhouse. And this concludes our hearings for the day.