GREAT FALLS — Benefis Health System launched its first-ever three-year internal medicine residency clinic in July.
Students who have graduated from medical school then become resident physicians at Benefis.
The program pairs resident physicians with attending physicians who supervise them.
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Resident physician Khushal Khan said the mentorship has been invaluable: "I'm enjoying it a lot. The attendings are super, super nice. Super, willing to give out all the information and intelligence that they have. And in order to train us to become the complete physicians that we're supposed to be."
"I work here in the outpatient clinic where I directly supervise residents. I see the patients with them. Every patient. I review the records with them and go over treatment plans for them," attending physician Brad Nieset said.
"We're one-to-one with the attendings, a senior. So they're giving us golden guidance on how to proceed, and their tips and advice. I think it's been really helpful in regards to that," Khan said.
A typical day involves thorough preparation before seeing patients, Khan explained.
"We look at everything about the patient before we go see them. We pre-chart them, then we go talk to the patients, talk to them about the plan for the day, tell them what's going on with them, how to treat them, how we're going to manage them," Khan said.
Resident physicians can serve as primary care doctors for patients, according to Nieset.
"They are doctors. They are able to take over as the primary care in long-term management of patients' problems here in our office," Nieset said.
Patients receive the same quality of care from resident physicians as they would from established primary care doctors as another option, according to Nieset.
"There is no sacrifice and patients care that come here to our clinic. In fact, you can argue that they get a more thorough they definitely get more time and they have more access to care by being a patient here in this clinic," Nieset said.
After completing the three-year program, resident physicians can either start their own practice or pursue additional training to become medical specialists.
