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I was curious if anyone had done a rotation with the Indian Health Service. Could you share a bit about your experiences? Was it useful to you? Would you recommend it to other students?
Indian Health Service rotations
- Thread starter allisonmb
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I did a rotation at the hospital in Sitka- it's no longer IHS but Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium and runs like the IHS, serves the same population. It was overall a good experience: I liked working in a tiny hospital, the patients were interesting (one sang "Blue Suede Shoes," in Tlingit), and most staff doctors would let us do as much or as little as we wanted with procedures and inpatient care decisions. I went with a classmate and we made the trip out there and up the coast into a vacation (much needed!) One caveat, though, is to ask questions and make sure you know what you're getting into! We assumed, wrongly, that since we had signed up for outpatient FP and since medical students can't really make anybody else's work load that much lighter and the staff would want to make the site attractive, that we would have a kinder and gentler schedule than third year blocks. Ouch. We served as extra staff in the urgent care clinic by day but took Q4 call the whole time and rounded on our patients before clinic every day. You also will want to look into the housing options before you commit; Sitka provided us with free housing and meals at the hospital if we wanted them but since the site is remote, either would have made for a pricey rotation if we'd had to pay.
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allisonmb said:
I just got back from "outpatient family practice" at Whiteriver IHS hospital in Whiteriver, AZ. Very interesting and sad community. The hospital was small. Outpatient FP was really that plus emergency plus inpatient peds/adults plus a clinic about 50 minutes away (you are taken by shuttle). 3rd years must do a week in all 4 of those while 4th years do whatever they want. Mine consisted of outpatient FP, orthopedic clinics occasionally, and emergency. People were very friendly. Many of the doctors LOVE to teach and will let you do tons (or nothing if you like). Housing was free and quite nice. Food was provided but not impressive, particularly for vegetarians 😀 . There was a full kitchen at the student housing though so not an issue. One thing is that it is very inaccessible of a place without a car. 3.5 hrs from Phoenix or 4 from Tucson. You can take a regional flight to Showlow from one of those. That will bring you within 45 mins or so where you can likely arrange a ride. Or, take to the student coordinator about getting the email of other students coming in. Two girls had done the same just before I got there.
Overall it was good but the illnesses you see are very sad. Good luck!
allisonmb said:
I did a rotation for OB/GYN at IHS at Phoenix Indian Health Center. It was one of my best rotations so far. There was a lot of variety in activity. I got to do deliverys with midwives-definitely the way to go. Also interesting to see how a microcosm of socialized medicine works.
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