- A lot of people are surprised by mine being really low.

- [Evan] Growing up in a small-knit community, Trish Gilley has always taken care of her neighbors.

- Everybody deserves healthcare, no matter what walk of life, where you're from, what you're experiencing.

Do you have a doctor now that you go to?

- No.

- Gilley's part of the Congregational and Community Nurse Program of Cone Health.

They operate of fleet of vehicles that bring screening and acute care services to remote sites across Rockingham County, including here, near downtown Mayodan.

- And a lot of people just don't know where to turn.

They don't know, they've gone place to place to tell their story, but they don't ever feel really listened to.

- [Patient] They're a digital.

- [Evan] The four county program helps fill gaps in rural communities that lack access to healthcare.

- We had seen for many years, in the communities that we serve, significant social determinants of health.

And these barriers have created situations where the patients do not have access to the right care, they don't even know they have conditions.

- [Evan] And often in these rural communities, the nurses represent a needed friend of those who may not know where to go.

- I had nothing, I had nothing but the two feet that I walked on, and I needed healthcare, and I needed somebody in my life that could help me take care and show me that love and compassion which I today pass on because of this.

- Well, yeah, a lot of your blood supply is going to your.

- [Evan] After 25 years in a hospital setting, Gilley is glad she's now out on the road with a mobile program.

She says she does it to give back to the very families she grew up with years ago.

- Is your doctor in Lawsonville, also?

Just sitting down and just listening to that person and walking alongside of them through whatever journey they're going through, help connecting them to any kind of resources that they need.

- [Evan] Cone Health officials say having local churches as partners strengthens trust in the community, and that forms a backbone of the program, a relationship they believe will only get stronger.

For ncIMPACT, I'm Evan Howell.