|
| At
the West River Regional Medical Center in
Hettinger, UND medical student Rachel Aufforth
and Dr. Robert Beattie check out the injured
shoulder of Kenny Huber as his mother, Toni,
looks on. A native of the small community
of Bowbells, Aufforth is well-acquainted with
the needs and challenges of health care in
western North Dakota. |
|
Each
year, medical students from the School of Medicine and
Health Sciences spend most of their third year of medical
school learning about rural health care firsthand through
the Rural Opportunities in Medical Education (ROME)
program.
ROME is a seven-month, interdisciplinary experience
in a rural primary care setting, open to third-year
medical students who wish to live and train in non-metropolitan
communities throughout North Dakota under the supervision
of physician-educators.
The ROME program has been based in Hettinger,
Williston, Devils Lake, and Jamestown for the past seven
years.
Students, who must apply and be accepted to the
ROME program, learn about problems commonly encountered
in primary care in rural areas, from routine health
maintenance to medical emergencies and unusual diagnoses.
Each primary physician-instructor is board-certified
in family medicine, but students also work with board-certified
surgeons, internists, pediatricians, and other available
specialists in the community.
“ROME is a unique program,” said
its director, Roger Schauer, M.D., associate professor
of family medicine. “It requires a lot of self-directed
learning and a lot of confidence in one’s own
ability.”
“ROME is an exceptional educational opportunity
for the highly motivated student who wants to experience
and learn the practice of medicine in a small-town setting,”
said Elizabeth Burns, M.D., professor of family medicine
and department chair. “It is a truly exciting
educational environment with more opportunities to learn
than there is time to take advantage of them. The students
value this experience and have a great time, too!”
Including this year’s participants, 37
students at the UND medical school have participated
in ROME since it was initiated in 1998.
“I think if you asked any of the students
who have completed the program, they would do it again,”
Schauer said. “They loved it.”
One of the many objectives of the ROME program
is to enable students to learn about patients in the
context of continuous care over a period of seven months,
which is proving to be a popular aspect among students.
“I thought that my learning style would
fit well in the continuity of care that ROME offers,”
said Krista Olsen, a fourth-year medical student who
participated in ROME in Williston last year. “Staying
with one system for seven months gives you time to get
into things.”
Sarah Schatz, a fourth-year medical student who
spent seven months in Hettinger last year along with
fellow student Farrah McSpadden, agrees.
“This program allows students to follow a patient
from start to finish,” she said.
“It makes you think along broader lines.”
Another positive aspect of staying with one organization
for seven months is becoming a member of the team.
“We had access to everything we wanted
to see,” explained Olsen.
...use
the link below to read the rest of the story...
|
