Students paired with rural doctors

Butte medical student Joe Murphy spent the past month working with local doctors as part of an outreach program through the University of
Washington Medical School.

By the Standard Staff

Murphy, 25, is in his sec ond year of medical school in Seattle, and took part in the school’s voluntary Rural and Underserved Opportunities
Program. Medical students are paired with doctors in rural or underserved areas to get hands-on experience while also helping the facili ties with
basic medical assis tance.

The program is admin istered by the UW Department of Family Medicine, Area Health Education Centers of Washington,
Montana and Wyoming and WWAMI, the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho medical education cooperative.
Murphy worked with Dr. Brett Kronenberger of the Mercury Street Medical Clinic, and also shadowed several other physicians in town.

“ You get a lot of hands-on experience and talk a lot to patients,” he said.
“ And it was great because you don’t get a lot of time with patients in your first years in med school,” Murphy said. “ So it was a good experience,
and the best was to see how the doctors handled each situation and dealt with patients.”
Murphy graduated from Butte High School in 1995 and received his bachelor’s degree from Montana State University before starting medical
school. He expects to graduate in 2005.

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