A doctor’s goal for Idaho talent

MOSCOW — Gritman Medical Center physician Dr. Bryn Parker is responsible for recruiting and training medical students in Moscow.

It’s a role she takes seriously because rural Idaho is significantly lacking in health care providers.

Parker said she is seeing a “max exodus” of patients from rural Idaho towns coming to Gritman seeking its services. This has left many of her colleagues “fully saturated” with patients, she said.

“There becomes a critical point where you can’t take on new patients because then you can’t get your other patients in for the care that they need,” Parker said.

Idaho ranks at the bottom nationally for the number of doctors per capita. This problem was heightened when Idaho started losing OB-GYNs following the state’s new abortion restrictions. Parker said this has left a “large void” in maternity care.

That is why she is intent on training the next generation of providers who want to work in Idaho.

“If I could hire every student I work with to come back here, that would be my dream,” she said.

This summer, she is working with medical student Mattie Hagestad, who would like to return to Idaho in the future.

Hagestad is a 2021 University of Idaho graduate who is now in medical school at the University of Washington thanks to the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) Medical Education Program.

She grew up in rural Lenore and hopes to end up as an Idaho primary care physician.

“I love Idaho,” she said. “It’s really important to me to serve rural Idaho someday and so I really felt this was a good track to apply for.”

Because Parker fills several different roles at Gritman, Hagestad has been around a variety of patients, including those at the outpatient clinic and those in the maternity ward. Hagestad witnessed two births in 48 hours.

“For a critical access hospital, we have a heck of a lot of things to offer that most rural places don’t have,” Parker said.

Hagestad remembers how nerve-wracking it was to talk to her first patient, but said her confidence has increased since she first started working with Parker last summer.

“It’s crazy to see how much I’ve grown in a year,” she said.

As Parker and her colleagues deal with what Parker called a “ballooning” of patient volumes, she hopes the public will support medical education in Idaho. She said it is important Idaho recruits people who love the state and love taking care of patients.

Hagestad, who grew up in a family of health care professionals in the small town of Lenore, said she was always drawn to this role.

“I just always knew this is what I was going to do,” she said.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.