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Building Better Access: Primary Care in Rural Nevada

with Dr. Emily Shipley

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Stories to Solutions

Interview Recorded On: January 16, 2026
Dr. Emily Shipley finished her residency seven months ago and landed in Carson City, Nevada, where she's learning just how rural "rural" can be. Patients drive 45 minutes from towns with populations under 2,000 just to see her. Need a psychiatrist? That's eight hours away. She went into med-peds partly because of what she'd seen doing mission work in Haiti—people showing up with blood pressures through the roof, no ER within reach, and you just had to figure it out with what you had. Now she's doing Nevada's TNT Primary Care Fellowship, getting trained to handle depression and anxiety alongside the usual diabetes and high blood pressure. She's not trying to become a psychiatrist. She's simply trying to be there for patients who don't have another option.
Interview Recorded on: August 9th, 2025

Dr. Emily Shipley finished her residency seven months ago and landed in Carson City, Nevada, where she's learning just how rural "rural" can be. Patients drive 45 minutes from towns with populations under 2,000 just to see her. Need a psychiatrist? That's eight hours away. She went into med-peds partly because of what she'd seen doing mission work in Haiti—people showing up with blood pressures through the roof, no ER within reach, and you just had to figure it out with what you had. Now she's doing Nevada's TNT Primary Care Fellowship, getting trained to handle depression and anxiety alongside the usual diabetes and high blood pressure. She's not trying to become a psychiatrist. She's simply trying to be there for patients who don't have another option.
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Geography dictates care
In rural Nevada, patients travel 45 minutes to see Dr Shipley and the nearest psychiatrist is 8 hours away—making primary care the only realistic option for mental health treatment.
Primary care can fill the gap:
When providers get comfortable diagnosing and treating common mental health conditions, patients avoid extra appointments, additional copays, and time away from work or school that create impossible barriers.
Comfort equals access:
Through TNT training, Emily is building the same level of comfort treating mental health conditions as she has with physical health problems—because another specialist appointment means another copay, more time off work, and barriers her patients can't afford.
Meet Our Guest
Dr. Emily
Dr. Emily Shipley is a board-certified internal medicine and pediatrics physician at Nevada Health Centers in Carson City, Nevada. She graduated from the University of South Florida College of Medicine in 2021 and completed her residency before joining Nevada Health Centers in September 2024. Dr. Shipley works at the FQHC serving underserved and uninsured populations across rural Nevada, where she provides primary care to patients of all ages—from newborns to seniors. She is currently a fellow in the UC Irvine TNT (Train New Trainers) Primary Care Fellowship program, supported by a scholarship from the Nevada Primary Care Association, building expertise in mental health treatment to address the critical psychiatric care gap in rural Nevada.
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Connect to  Dr. Emily
Website:  https://www.nevadahealthcenters.org
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Instagram: @nvhealthcenters
Twitter/X: @NVHC1977
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nevada-health-centers