KansasCOM’s third-year students have fanned out across the state for their first experiences in clinical settings, and they are earning rave reviews.
After two years and hundreds of hours devoted to preparing for their medical careers in lectures, simulation labs, anatomy lessons, community service, and air ambulance ride-alongs, the first class at Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (KansasCOM) has begun their first rotations in hospitals and clinics.
Hands-on training in rural settings
Student doctor Sainamtha Palnati completed her first rotation with Manish
Dixit, MD, at Labette Health in Parsons, Kansas. “My rotation offered me a wonderful, unique experience to observe and participate in rural primary care,” Palnati says. “I loved learning from Dr. Dixit, who is a wonderful physician and teacher.”
Palnati says Dr. Dixit’s emphasis on comprehensive primary care provided valuable experience because the patient-centered approach is crucial in rural communities where primary care physicians are often the patient’s first point of entry into the health care system, and specialty care can be many miles away.
A timely diagnosis
During his surgery rotation in Wichita, student doctor Jacob Oleniak, observed a patient who presented with appendicitis-like symptoms. Preceptor Jace Hyder, MD, concurred with the diagnosis, and Oleniak assisted Dr. Hyder in the appendectomy later that day.
This experience was reflective of what Oleniak found to be Dr. Hyder’s dedication to providing students with hands-on learning opportunities. “His passion for helping his patients and for teaching students really shined,” Oleniak says.
A full day at the clinic
Student doctor Lisa Brambert found her first rotation in pediatrics at Labette Health with Gretchen Garland, MD, to be one of her most memorable experiences in medical school. As preceptor, Dr. Garland’s goal for Brambert was to provide a complete vision of the pediatric patient experience. Brambert observed the anesthesia team one morning as they performed tympanostomy tube placements, tonsillectomies, and adenoidectomies. She returned to the clinic in the afternoon to discuss follow-up care.
Brambert says her rotation showed her firsthand that patient care extends
beyond the office doors and requires constant teamwork, communication, coordination, and cooperation, adding that Labette Health “provided a phenomenal pediatrics rotation, and I’m incredibly fortunate to have experienced it as my first formal clinical experience in medical school.”
Setting a high bar
For their part, the preceptors and the staff at the institutions where the student doctors performed their rotations have been impressed with the student doctors’ level of preparation. A preceptor at Mission Health Community said KansasCOM student doctor Rachel Boots was “quite possibly the best medical student to have rotated with us.” Student doctor Jessica Mitchell preceptors Ascension say “Jessica has set the bar extremely high for third-year students” and expressed, “ I wish she was my doctor with just the great mindset and personality she has.”
“I am incredibly proud of these early successes and the impactful stories emerging from their clinical experiences,” says Dasa Gangadhar, MD, assistant dean for clinical education at KHSU-KansasCOM. “It is inspiring to witness our students stepping into clinical rotations, particularly in rural communities, many of which are welcoming medical students for the first time. Seeing our students integrate into these communities and witnessing the warm, mutual embrace between them is the culmination of years of dedicated work.”