Clinical Experience

During their second year at MEDEX – the clinical year – MEDEX students travel throughout the Northwest, Alaskan and Hawaiian service regions to work with clinicians and experienced preceptors – MDs, DOs, NPs and PAs – in family medicine and six specialty areas, including emergency medicine, general surgery, behavioral medicine, inpatient wards, underserved and an elective. Here are some stories from this essential component of the MEDEX educational journey.

You Can’t Train Character
April 2, 2019

Matt Grisso of MEDEX Spokane Class 21 has overcome some significant challenges on his way to PA school, including a physical injury. But this has only fortified him in his personal mission to help others, including a special focus on the veterans population with traumatic brain injury. [...]

Breaking Down Barriers and Establishing Trust
February 26, 2019

The first in his family to graduate college, Eric Svendsen worked in construction but found his passion for medicine. It was his years as an EMT in Tennessee that exposed him to poverty and poor health outcomes. Working on a mobile medical van in Coeur D’Alene during his clinical year [...]

Professional Carers, Lifelong Sharers
January 22, 2019

Jessica and Eric Anderies are a rarity—a married couple that has entered the MEDEX physician assistant program at the same time. Now a part of MEDEX Spokane Class 21, the two support one another both in and outside the classroom, studying together, quizzing one another on their path to becoming [...]

Flourishing in Family Practice
August 15, 2018

Destined to follow her family into business, Nicole Bazar discovered a capacity for service and science. She started on the educational path to behavioral neuroscience, which eventually gave way to the physician assistant profession. Now on the cusp of graduating from MEDEX Northwest, Nicole envisions a long career as a [...]

On Becoming A Rural PA Provider
June 11, 2018

His commitment to the rural underserved has been a continuous thread throughout his adult life. Now, one year out of the MEDEX Spokane program, Dustin Hurter, PA-C takes on his biggest role as a physician assistant provider in the rural community of Moses Lake, WA, population 22,000. [...]

Healthcare Through A Social Justice Lens
May 15, 2018

Diana Trinh came to Seattle MEDEX Class 50 with a Public Health degree, allowing her to view healthcare through a social justice lens. She’s also acutely aware of her family’s immigrant past, and the unique role that she can play as a woman of color in a leadership role in [...]

The Cross Connections Are Never Ending
April 4, 2018

An arts degree prepared Joshua Koopman with a unique set of skills for PA school. As a painter, print-maker and musician, he was accustomed to applying critical thinking, listening and discipline to his work. Now on the precipice of becoming a medical provider, he’ll bring these qualities to bear as [...]

It’s Really About Practicing People
March 13, 2018

Aparna Lakshman has definite ideas about her role as a future physician assistant. Influenced by a childhood healthcare experience in Oman, she sees close patient interaction as central to her mission. All evidence suggests a strong career ahead in family medicine. [...]

From Corpsman to Private Sector PA
February 20, 2018

Five years as a Navy corpsman at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center afforded Mercedes Somich cutting edge medical training that would be the envy of any residency. But with considerations of balancing future deployments and the needs of a young family, she decided to pursue the private sector PA [...]

You Have To Do Something Extraordinary
January 30, 2018

A native of Russia, Olga Pavlova-Rios went through six years of medical education at a prestigious medical academy in St. Petersburg before moving to the US for love. This meant starting over in a new country, with the MEDEX Northwest physician assistant training program as the entry point for an [...]