Newsletter article by Education Chair Marbree
When my husband, Mat, started medical school in 2003, we were pretty sure that he wanted to pursue OMM/Family Practice or Psychiatry either at Kirksville or Grand Rapids, MI. By the time the clerkship match came around, we were open to other ideas because his interests had expanded. In the fall, Mat and a classmate visited the hospitals in Rolla, MO, and Cape Girardeau, MO. We ended up ranking #1 – Rolla, #2 - KVille, #3 – Cape, #4 – Genesys in Grand Blanc, MI, etc.
We really liked Genesys and would have enjoyed a short-term move away from home. But we also knew that many of our friends wanted those spots much more than us, so we probably wouldn’t get to join them (Arizona and Genesys were the hot spots for our class). We are both from Missouri and part of our school funding was through the state primary care recruitment program (PRIMO) so we planned to eventually practice in MO. Mat liked the Missouri programs we ranked because they were all three hands-on. In addition, we liked that neither Rolla nor Cape had house staff so he wouldn’t have any other people to compete with for procedures and learning. He also really liked that they were preceptor-based programs, expecting it to make him push himself to learn more than he would in a strict didactics system. The clincher for Mat was that when he toured the two other programs, even though they both impressed him, it was at Rolla where he felt most connected and welcomed – both by the hospital and Dr. Hugh Schuetz, the DME.
We were matched with Cape Girardeau in the December match, and even though we were in no way traumatized, we just didn’t feel as much “at peace” about it as we expected, so we requested to be moved to another site, preferably Rolla. We didn’t think we’d have much chance since we did match to one of our top 3 and others were trying to scramble out of 5th & 6th slots or non-matches. I think Rolla had 5 slots that year. We petitioned for them to open a 6th slot, which is at the discretion of the host hospital (and their budget). Springfield, MO was still waiting for approval as a clerkship site, so once it was, two students left Rolla to train in Springfield. A third student ended up staying in Kirksville for a research fellowship. We were easily moved into the newly-vacated spot in Rolla, although it wasn’t until almost February that the reassignment was official.
I was satisfied with our program match for Mat’s sake but was still a little nervous about our community match for myself. My only images of Rolla were from passing through the rundown industrial side of town along the interstate and always on dreary, overcast days. And I had a less than positive expectation of weirdo engineering majors at the University of MO-Rolla. So I was apprehensive. However, when we went and visited together to search for housing, I was really impressed with the town which seemed like a combination of my favorite parts of Kirksville and my home area of Springfield, MO.
As it turned out we found a great neighborhood and people weren’t any weirder than anywhere else I’ve ever lived. I got a job with great people in a pharmacy through a KCOM alumni connection. We discovered a former classmate from Truman was going to the same church we attended and found some new really great friends. Dr. Schuetz and some of the other preceptors became mentors and friends who invited the students and their significant others to BBQ or to hit the local pizza joint. We loved the hospital and the community so much that Mat has already signed his contract to join the hospital’s internal medicine clinic (which, you may have noticed, was not on his list when we started this process in 2003) next July when he graduates residency. And we are both thrilled. So a rotation site that left me a little dubious of what my life would be like has turned out to be the place that I am very eager to get to call home for good.
