A legacy of rural medicine leads to the establishment of the Robert and Valerie DeLuca Rural Health Scholarship Endowment
When you hear Robert and Valerie DeLuca talk about why they love rural medicine, it’s
not just the practice, the profession, or even the people; it’s all of it -- it’s
the way of life. For more than five decades combined, the husband-and-wife physicians
and proud graduates of UNT Health Fort Worth’s Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine
have cared for generations of patients in Eastland, Texas. They have built a practice
around relationships, community and a simple belief: people living in rural communities
deserve the same quality of care as anyone else.
Now, they want to help ensure that future physicians have the opportunity to experience
that same calling.
The DeLucas have established the Valerie K. DeLuca, DO and Robert C. DeLuca, DO Rural
Health Scholarship Endowment at TCOM. The scholarship will support TCOM students participating
in the school’s Rural Osteopathic Medical Education program who demonstrate a commitment
to practicing medicine in rural communities.
For Valerie, TCOM and the rural program are deeply intertwined with the life she and
Robert have built.
“TCOM means so much to us and the rural program means so much to us, not because it
brought us together, but it made us who we are,” Valerie said. “I wouldn’t have become
a doctor if I wasn’t a rural physician.”
Valerie graduated from TCOM in 2011, while Robert graduated in 1984. Together, they
have dedicated their careers to serving the Eastland community and have spent more
than three decades training students as preceptors. Their work reflects the values
they hope to pass on through the scholarship: service, compassion, independence, and
a commitment to patients.
One of the greatest rewards of rural medicine is the opportunity to know the people
they serve truly.
In a rural practice, patients are not simply names on a schedule. They are neighbors,
friends and generations of families. The DeLucas have treated patients whose parents
and grandparents they also cared for.
“We went into medicine because of the relationships you get to have with your patients,”
Valerie said. “We treated patients that were the grandchild of people they treated.”
That continuity is one of the things that makes rural medicine so meaningful to her.
Robert sees the same value in the personal relationships that develop between rural
physicians and their patients.
“You get to know everybody,” he said. “We want to sit and chat with our patients.”
That time can make a profound difference. While patients may sometimes complain about
the brief encounters they have with specialists, Robert said rural physicians often
have the opportunity to spend much more time listening, talking and understanding
the people who come through their doors.
“We might spend the evening finishing out notes, but we gave them that attention,”
he said.
It is a model of medicine that Robert and Valerie fear could become increasingly difficult
for young physicians to pursue. Medical education has changed, the economics of medicine
have changed, and the cost of becoming a physician has risen dramatically.
Robert remembers leaving TCOM with approximately $25,000 in student loans. Today,
he sees students graduating with $300,000 to $400,000 in debt.
“That’s the biggest issue that’s changed for the students,” he said.
The financial realities of medicine can make rural and primary care careers harder
to choose, particularly for students who may feel pressure to pursue higher-paying
specialties or employment models that offer greater financial security.
That is one reason the DeLucas believe scholarships can make a difference.
“I want it to be someone who says, ‘I want to be a rural physician,’” Valerie said.
The scholarship will be awarded to an OMS II, OMS III, or OMS IV TCOM student who
is actively participating in the ROME program. Preference will be given to students
who graduated from a rural Texas high school, and applicants will be asked to describe
their interest in practicing in a rural setting, including connections to rural communities
or life-changing experiences that shaped their commitment.
The DeLucas hope the recipient will be someone who already understands the value of
rural life or someone willing to discover it.
“I want them to know how much we loved this, and that’s what we want to share,” Valerie
said. “You don’t know how fulfilling this is until you are doing it.”
That fulfillment extends far beyond the practice of medicine.
For Valerie, rural life offers a sense of connection and purpose that she never expected.
She describes herself as something of a “unicorn,” as she did not grow up in a small
community and does not fit many traditional stereotypes associated with rural life.
Yet she loves it.
“It’s a wonderful life, with all of this space,” she said.
For Robert, the closeness of rural communities has created some of the most meaningful
moments of his career. He recalls responding when a neighbor called to say her husband
was not breathing. Robert and Valerie hoped in their car immediately and arrived within minutes to begin CPR.
Another neighbor also experienced a medical emergency, and again, being nearby made
a difference.
Those moments illustrate what Robert believes is special about rural medicine: physicians
are not simply professionals who drive into a community for the workday. They are
part of the community itself, and why neither one of them is ready to stop practicing
osteopathic medicine.
“Just when you think you are ready to hang up your spurs, some little lady comes in
and says, ‘Don’t retire until I die,’” Robert said with a laugh. “That’s what we want
the students to know.”
That sense of belonging is at the heart of why the DeLucas want their scholarship
to create more than financial assistance. They want it to tell a story.
Robert has long believed that stories are among the most powerful ways physicians
can influence the next generation.
“I’ve said for a long time that stories make the difference between MDs and DOs,”
he said. “Letting the students tell those stories, and those who have been in rural
practices and independent practices, those are the enduring legacies, not the money.
It’s keeping the kids excited.”
For the DeLucas, the scholarship is therefore about legacy, but not legacy in the
traditional sense.
It is about allowing students to imagine a different kind of medical career. A career
where physicians know their patients. Where a doctor's name and phone number may be
known throughout town. Where medicine is not simply a profession, but a relationship
with a community.
TCOM has played an important role in preparing physicians for that kind of service.
The DeLucas hope their scholarship will help continue that tradition by encouraging
students who see their future in rural Texas.
“We have to have physicians in rural areas,” Robert said. “Whatever it takes to put
them in the area is important.”
Ultimately, the DeLucas want the scholarship recipient to understand what they discovered
themselves: rural medicine can provide a life that is professionally, emotionally
and spiritually fulfilling.
“I think the realization of the scholarship is there because we are fulfilled professionally,
emotionally and spiritually by the practice of rural medicine of where we are,” Robert
said. “I think that’s the key. The scholarship is saying, listen, this is how much
we enjoyed what we did.”
And after more than 50 years of combined service, the DeLucas have plenty of stories
to tell.
They are stories about patients whose lives were saved, neighbors who became friends,
students who discovered their calling and communities that welcomed two physicians
who chose to stay.
Now, through their scholarship, they hope those stories will continue with the next generation of TCOM physicians.