EXCERPT: “Dr. Alison Raffman had only arrived in Bemidji two days earlier, with three boxes of stuff and two cats, and already she was hustling around the emergency department at Sanford Bemidji Medical Center. The medical resident was treating dizziness in a newly diagnosed cancer patient, an infection in a nervous pregnant woman, and an irregular heartbeat in a elderly man struggling amid hearing loss and dementia to describe his symptoms. And then there was Sandy Helberg in room 16, a 75-year-old who couldn’t stop her nosebleed. Raffman used her mobile phone’s flashlight to look up Helberg’s right nostril and throat. ‘We’ll get a plan set in place to see what we can do to stop that bleeding, OK?’ she assured her patient. Raffman rotated to Sanford Bemidji for one month as part of a new effort by Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis to broaden the training of its residents — doctors fresh out of medical school who practice under supervision for three to four years before they can treat patients independently. The approach could be catching on nationally as hospitals try to solve the looming shortage of rural physicians.” FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/4k5QiJI
