The Match: We're going to Washington!

Here are our BIG NEWS in Lincoln's own words:

I've matched to the Colville Rural Training Track (RTT) of the University of Washington-affiliated Spokane Family Medicine Residency!!! I feel honored to have been granted this competitive position (17 interviewees vied for it), and we are excited to move out to the beautiful West and be closer to my side of the family! And hopefully my parents will finally make it out of hot Las Vegas and move closer to their only four grandkids. :) We'll be moving to gorgeous Spokane at the end of May (a 24-hour drive from Kirksville!), and I start my orientation June 16.

I will complete my first year of training (R1) in Spokane (pop. 200,000) mostly at the two huge hospitals in town (Sacred Heart & Deaconess) as a part of a class of 10 interns (plus 20 upper-level FP residents and some Internal Medicine & Psychiatry & Radiology residents and Traditional Rotating Interns). Then I will complete years R2 & R3 1.5 hours north of Spokane in the mountain-nestled town of Colville (pop. 5000; pronounced "Call-ville"). The Mt. Carmel Hospital in Colville is small (30 acute care beds, 8 ICU beds, 2 ORs), but it serves a broad referral base of ~35,000 people. As one of only two total residents in town at a time I will be surrounded by procedural opportunities and quality teaching from the 28+ doctors of various specialties in the group I'll be a part of there. The rural-oriented training there is very hands-on and conducive to developing independence.

The training in the Colville RTT is literally ideal preparation for my plans to practice full-scope family medicine (including preventive medicine, inpatient care, ER call, endoscopy, obstetrics including C-sections, and osteopathic manipulation [OMT]) in a rural underserved area out West that will qualify as payback for my four-year NHSC Scholarship. The Colville RTT is actually the first specifically rural FP training track created (in 1986), which will be a nice extension to attending KCOM, the original osteopathic medical school (est. 1892). :)

Athough the program is not yet AOA-accredited, I will still be practicing and using OMT and learning more of it from an excellent core faculty member who is a DO as well as from other DOs in the community. Colville is also home to an integrative medicine clinic where I may be able to further pursue my interest in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Another really cool opportunity I will have in Spokane and Colville is to use my Russian and work with the many Russian & Ukrainian immigrants there! And of course Spokane and Colville are surrounded by beautiful nature and will offer a nice lifestyle for the family.

Now we just have to find (pre)schools for the kids and a house to rent! Please stay in touch - we would love to have you visit anytime! :)