Class began Monday for Washington State University students, including its 80 medical students.
It’s the largest of the three WSU medical school classes. The legislature allowed the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine to add 20 to its class this year.
There’s something else new as well.
Like at most medical schools, WSU medical students spend their first two years in classrooms and labs, learning the basics about human anatomy and physiology. Most of that work is done in Spokane.
But since its inception, the medical school has also assigned students to one of four WSU campuses around the state: Spokane, Richland, Vancouver and Everett. Students in their first two years supplement their academic study with at least two weeks working with doctors and clinics close to their regional campuses.
The third year of medical school is generally a shift in focus for medical students as they take what they’ve learned in class and apply it in their clinical settings.
“They’re having the experience of their life working directly, one on one, with those physicians, taking care of patients, doing everything from helping to deliver babies to helping perform surgeries," said WSU medical school dean John Tomkowiak.
Since WSU received permission in 2015 to create a medical school, its administrators have courted hospitals and clinics near the regional campuses to accept students. Now those campuses will finally have a class of students in residence.
“There was definitely infrastructure that we had to build at each of the campuses, not only physical spaces, but also personnel, to make sure to oversee these students and make sure we’re supporting them to the best of our abilities. So we’ve done that," Tomkowiak said. "But more importantly, we’ve recruited over 150 clinicians at each of those sites.”
Those clinicians serve as teachers and mentors to the medical students. WSU hopes those students will stay and practice in and around the communities in which they learn.
