(NMHC) A third-year medical student is back in Havre and back at Northern Montana Hospital, completing the first of his clinical rotations required to finish his medical degree.
Spencer Obresley, a 2014 graduate of Havre High School, is a third-year student at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Great Falls. He said he is excited to complete his elective clinical rotation back in Havre, at the hospital where he was born, and is learning a lot while working with Dr. Cameron Scranton during the rotation.
“That’s the best thing about following Dr. Scranton around, getting to see what it’s like here in Havre,” he said. “Every day is a little bit different.”
Obresley said he is planning to go into family medicine and obstetrics.
Dr. Scranton said that once a medical student reaches their third year, they begin clinical rotations, which are graded components of their formal education. Students go to hospitals and spend several weeks working with doctors, learning how to apply what they have learned so far in medical school.
Obresley said that during his first week at NMHC, he stayed in the clinic, the Family Medical Center, doing checkups, well-child visits and other similar appointments. The following week, Dr. Scranton was the hospitalist, so they were on the floor at Northern Montana Hospital, seeing patients and working there, “which is really fun.”
Obresley said his rotation also includes time in the operating room and the labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum areas of the hospital. He has observed cesarean sections, participated in procedures, and been called in to participate in deliveries.
“And no day is exactly the same as the others, which is part of the allure,” he said. “But mostly, my days are just trying to keep up.”
Scranton said working at NMHC means providing full-spectrum family medicine, which is becoming more and more rare, with specialists taking care of many procedures at most hospitals. In many hospitals, a family medicine doctor might handle pregnancy and postpartum care but probably would never perform a delivery or C-section and would likely never work as a hospitalist at the hospital. At NMHC, doctors handle a much wider range of responsibilities.
Obresley has worked at NMHC before, as a CNA at Northern Montana Care Center and as a scrub tech at the hospital.
He attended Montana State University in Bozeman, earning his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. But by his senior year, he realized he really didn’t want to pursue chemical engineering.
He said one of his biggest influences was his family doctor growing up, Dr. Michael Nolan, MD.
“He was a really fun guy to go visit, really welcoming and warming, and I was like, I want to be like that guy,” Obresley said.
That helped him decide to change fields, he said.
Obresley said it took a few years to get into medical school, but now he is in his third year, “and I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
He said he chose NMHC for his elective clinical rotation, which is a four-week rotation. His following, longer rotations will be at Benefis Health Care in Great Falls.
He said one thing that has been great has been working with the people at NMHC.
“I’d like to say thank you to the nurses and the Family Medical Center staff here, because they have been extremely helpful and patient with me,” Obresley said.
Another thing he likes about doing the rotation in Havre is seeing people he knows or people who know his family.
And once he finishes medical school and his residency, he wants to come back to the Havre hospital again.
“I really like it here,” Obresley said. “It’s a great place to live.”
