Students give patients double treatment: A few of the patients at Graham Hospital have been receiving double-good treatment. They’re getting doublechecked not because they’re millionaires or because they have some extremely rare disease, but because simply by chance they happen to be a patient of a doctor accompanied by a medical student in a special program to encourage medical students to eventually go into private practice. Miss Patricia Dicks and Edward Stullkon, who are medical students at the U. of I., Chicago campus, are engaged in a preceptorship program where they work under the supervision of local doctors to get the type of experience they say is not received in the academic portion of their medical training. The preceptors accompany the doctors on rounds and do the same type of route that doctors do. The said that often the patient goes through a double check because of the student’s extra questioning.
Designed to give the students better insight into private practice, the program allows the student to accompany doctors on hospital rounds, assist in their offices and aid in house calls. The student assists at the operating table, helps with obstetric deliveries, goes to medical meetings and accompanies the doctor at community affairs such as school physicals and lectures. “Graham Hospital is one of the few small community hospitals involved in the preceptor program,” said Dr. Jack Gibbs of Canton. “As far as Canton is concerned, we hope that through the program the medical students will receive exposure to the small community type medical practice. In the future we hope that it will increase the recruitment of physicians to small communities. Dr. Gibbs is chairman of the State Medical Society’s Council on State Medical Education and Manpower. He said the preceptor program is a combined effort of the society and the Student American Medical Association.
He explained, “The program is an attempt to expose students to other types of health care delivery other than the type found in the university hospital setting. The program also exposes them to clinical practice of medicine. In the university hospital setting, the students don’t get any experience in continuity of practice. They see patients for a short period of time.” Gibbs said that when he takes his rounds with one of the medical students, he introduces the student and the student’s purpose. He reported that patients are usually very receptive to the added questioning and examining. Miss Dicks explained. “We’re not assigned to a particular doctor. We are welcome to go on rounds with any doctor. As far as the patients are concerned, I’m a doctor. I guess we’re really doctors and not students in the classical sense except that we’re not doctors yet.”
When asked what modifications if any might make the program better, Stullkon said, “If I were to improve the preceptor program, I’d make the program longer. Instead of 10 weeks I’d make it 16 weeks long. Other than that comment, I don’t have any complaints. As far as the facilities at Graham Hospital go, I feel they are excellent. I don’t think either of the students regrets coming here.” Dr. Gibbs said, “Another benefit to the program is that the medical students are exposed to small community living. For example, we are going to take the students to the Fulton County Playhouse to show that the area has some cultural outlets. The doctors have taken them into their homes in order to show how the rural doctor lives and to show the caliber of education that the children receive. These are all considerations a beginning physician has to deal with. We think the students will like what they see here and perhaps they’ll settle in a small community.” He also commented that the program is flexible enough to allow the student to pursue his interest. The students get to work shoulder to shoulder with physicians. They don’t get this type of experience during the rest of their university experience.
Miss Dicks said, “Graham Hospital made a real effort to tailor our program to our particular interests.” She is interested in pediatrics and Stullkon is interested in general surgery. Stullkon, who says many members of his family are surgeons, said that he became interested in surgery because some of his better teachers in medical school were surgeons and because of the influence on him by his family members. A desire to deal with children motivated Miss Dicks to be interested in pediatrics. “I can usually get children to do what I want them to do. I also don’t like to see a child hurt. A child doesn’t know what’s causing the pain and he must be helped. An adult can usually figure out that he must get aid to stop pain, but a child is helpless.” Both students agreed that the major benefit of the program was that they learned how to deal with people better. One of the students said that through the type of experience gained in the preceptor program they recognized the necessity for a small town doctor to be able to get along with a patient for 10 years instead of 10 days as would a ward doctor in an urban area.
“They are exposed to a more personal doctor-patient relationship. They will learn to identify with the patient and his family. The students complained that the university training had depersonalizing effects but the experience of this type of program tends to balance this out,” Dr. Gibbs said. The students said they felt it was gratifying to get to deal with people after dealing with books and classrooms for so long. One said, “Up to this time we have studied normal anatomy and physiology. We now see the abnormal mechanisms. We now get the chance to use the information we learned in class.” Miss Dicks said the doctors have been very patient with the students and have pointed out techniques that one might not acquire in 20 years. She said they are extremely willing to share their wisdom.
“Some of the people at the University of Illinois said that the medicine practiced at Canton hospital would be 20 years behind, but I’ve found the opposite to be true,” Stullkon said. “I’ve been extremely impressed with the medicine and practice at Graham Hospital. The quality of care give to the patient is an inspiration to me. I was expecting backward conditions but to me it is a motivation to see the doctors practice medicine the way they do here,” Miss Dicks explained.
“The purpose of the program is to give the students experience in a small town general hospital. The kind of medicine in a small town hospital is very different from a ward hospital: The type that is not available in the large hospitals.”
Caption: Involved in a program designed to introduce medical students to private medical practice, Miss Patricia Dicks and Edward Stullkon, who are both from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago, are working with physicians on rounds, office calls, and other medical duties. Through the program they receive experience in the hospital laboratories and operating rooms.
