Medication for all of Minnesota • Discovery

Lila Lohmiller has at all times felt at residence in a small city. 

“I love knowing my neighbors, saying hi to friends in public,” she says. “It’s the best.” 

A 3rd-year scholar on the University of Minnesota Medical School, Lohmiller had a sense her love of small-town dwelling would result in a profession in rural medication. That’s why she enrolled within the Medical School’s Rural Physician Associate Program, or RPAP. 

Created in 1971, RPAP trains the following era of major care physicians who will observe in cities throughout rural Minnesota. Today, this system has greater than 1,600 alumni and is a big contributor to the Medical School having skilled 70% of the state’s physicians. 

RPAP permits college students like Lohmiller and Jake Schimek to expertise the whole spectrum of neighborhood healthcare — from emergency medication and surgical procedure to pediatrics, girls’s well being, orthopedics and extra — over a nine-month interval. Every day is completely different, Lohmiller says, however having the ability to see the identical sufferers over the course of weeks and months is a uniquely gratifying expertise. 

“I truly feel like I’m a part of our patients’ team,” she says. “These relationships are  so special.”

PHOTOS  BY SUSIE ROSTAD PHOTOGRAPHY