I spent December and a portion of January in Jackson, Wyoming working with Dennis Butcher. It was an incredible experience. The clinic staff were warm and welcoming. We saw a range of patients, including my first horse wreck. The hospital is small, but friendly. The strength of this site is the preceptors and the patients. It’s a glimpse into real primary care. The town of Jackson itself is fun and full of activities. I skied, did some ice-climbing and learned how to two-step. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Jackson was a very interesting place. I mostly did outpatient medicine and all of the providers that I worked with were very nice. I think in one day I saw both a former Olympian and Nobel Laureate in physics so it is a pretty different population than the Adult Medicine Clinic at Harborview (Jackson is rural only in geography, not demographics). I also spent a little bit of time doing urgent care for a couple days, which was an experience I hadn’t had yet in residency. Inpatient work is limited as their hospital (at least when I was there in the fall) was quite empty, but I did do a couple of admissions and help out the hospitalist there.
In the fall, when I was there, there wasn’t any snow yet and the place was very empty of tourists. If you sky or snowboard (which I don’t) you would want to go later than October. I did go on some amazing hikes. Definitely not one of the most clinically challenging months I’ve had but it was nice to see a different style of medicine.