Welcome to “Paying it Forward,” a monthly interview series made possible by Piedmont Health. In this series, we hear from the folks at Piedmont about the importance of community health centers – and why they chose a career in community health.
This month, Aaron welcomes pediatrician Lauren Krenek. Originally from Houston, she arrived in North Carolina just six months ago – but she has a long background in health care.
“Both my mom and stepdad are family medicine physicians,” she says. “Growing up, I really loved hearing their stories of having long-term relationships with their patients, and that’s what got me into a career in primary care – but once I started doing my training, I was really drawn to working with little kids.”
Today, you can find Dr. Krenek working at Piedmont’s Chapel Hill Community Health Center.
“Part of what I really like about pediatrics is the focus on prevention,” she says. “If you can intervene early and get kids on the right pathway, they can be successful in school (and) they can be healthy in their adult life. It’s (about) focusing on preventing problems rather than trying to respond after things have happened.”
Those prevention efforts include vaccines, which remain safe, effective and important for pediatric health. Of course they can also create apprehension among young patients who naturally don’t like shots – so Krenek says building trust is also a critical part of the job.
“Kids are much smarter than we sometimes give them credit for, and they can definitely build a memory of negative experiences at the doctor’s office – so I think it helps to just be honest,” she says. “Rather than saying ‘this doesn’t hurt,’ say ‘this is really important for you and it’s going to protect you even though it may hurt a little bit temporarily.’ And it’s just important to walk through everything that you’re going to be doing – that’s good advice for any patient, to teach them instead of just prescribing things.”
As for the job itself, Krenek says she’s excited to be working at Piedmont Health Services – not just because it enables more people to have access to high-quality health care, but also because it’s a one-stop shop for all kinds of care at once.
“Piedmont is a place where patients can have all of their needs met…(and) I like that whole team-based approach,” she says. “It’s easy for patients to access their mental health services (and) their nutrition services while they’re in the office with me.”
97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news and local voices in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck chats with government officials, UNC scholars, business and nonprofit leaders, area musicians, and others in our community as they share their thoughts, their experience, and their expertise on the central issues of today. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s conversations – and tune in to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” at 7:30 a.m. on 97.9 The Hill to hear those conversations live.
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