![]() ![]() A full pediatric residency was unrealistic in the state because pediatricians in training need exposure to more specialty care patients than a small city like Anchorage can offer. “There’s the concept where doctors tend to stay where they train, well nobody was training in Alaska.”Ĭurrently, there is only one residency program in Alaska, for family practice doctors. John Tappel was part of those early conversations: A group of doctors in Anchorage started working to make the idea a reality about five years ago as a way to increase the number of pediatricians in the state. So you have to rely more on your clinical judgment and develop more of your clinical skills to deal with the problems as you can and where you are.”įoote is part of the “Alaska Track” at the University of Washington’s pediatric residency. “It’s not the same as being in a big city like Seattle where the specialists are in the same building and you can call them up and they can come see your patient the same day if you really need them to. Foote says cases like that one force pediatricians to work more independently in a place like Bethel: The boy ended up having pneumonia and recovered after an extended stay in the hospital. He experienced just how remote the rural villages are when he helped Medevac a toddler who was having trouble breathing from a Yukon river community to Bethel. To listen to a report by Annie Feidt, APRN – Anchorage įoote may not have loved the cold in Bethel, but he did love the medicine. “I was cross country skiing to work and one day it was 20 below… and the snow on my face froze.” But when he spent two months in Bethel this spring, he decided to try a form of transportation more fitting for the snowy tundra: The program is designed to help recruit more pediatricians to stay in the state after they graduate.Īs a resident at the University of Washington in Seattle, Dr. It’s part of a new partnership based at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital to create an unusual type of medical residency where doctors will spend one third of their three year training in Alaska. (Annie Feidt / APRN – Anchorage)įour pediatric residents got their first taste of Alaskan style medicine this spring. Eric Foote meets with a family at LaTouche Pediatrics in Anchorage. ![]()
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