The PNWU Health Blog offers insight and first-hand accounts of life here at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences.
It includes contributions from current and former PNWU medical students, physicians and various members of an ever-expanding community aimed at highlighting care for the rural and underserved. If you have any questions, comments, concerns or ideas, or if you’d like to pitch a blog idea of your own, please contact us at publicity@pnwu.edu.
When second-year PNWU student Ryan Erdwins lost his mother during his sophomore year of college, a piece of his world was ripped away. From that loss, however, he learned one of the biggest lessons of his medical career. Read how one medical student is turning a heartbreaking experience into a gift that he can share with those he will one day treat.
Read MoreWhat you enjoy, what rejuvenates you, and gives you life, is essential to who you are. As a future physician, PNWU second-year student and SGA Executive Vice President Josh Stanfield examines how we defines ourselves, and beautifully illustrates what can happen when we lose our purpose.
Read MoreI’ve known that I want to be a doctor since I was four years old. However, the years in between that decision and now have taught me one thing over and over again: when confronted with the reality of a situation or experience you’d been anticipating all your life (like medical school or marriage), the reality is seldom what you expected.
Read MoreI live with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
My disorder, along with many other mental health disorders, is a hot topic of discussion in the world of medicine these days, and while I’m inspired by the progress that has been made, I know firsthand that there is still much work to be done in order to “normalize” the stress and anxiety of living with a mental health disorder in the modern world.
Read MoreGracias a Dios, “Thank God,”- uttered in gratitude and uttered in desperation.
Read More“One minute remaining.”
Never have these three words brought me such relief.
It was our third SIM lab as first-year osteopathic medical students at Pacific Northwest University, and my first SIM lab as lead. After what felt like a few brief seconds we’d stabilized Apollo, our patient, and, to that point, done what we could to diagnose and treat him. Then, the beeping started to slow.
Read MoreAs I entered into my third-year rotations, I was worried that I did not have enough to offer. I had not memorized every word in the books I was assigned to read. I didn’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of everything in first aid. I didn’t know if I could come up with the right answers when I needed to. In other words, I walked into my third-year rotations like most everyone else.
Read MoreI watched as the young woman waited patiently for her initial obstetrics visit. For the sake of this story, we’ll call her Andy. Sitting upright with her hands clasped on her lap, Andy gazed around the room; the nervous tapping of her foot seemed to hoist the corners of her mouth as a bright smile overtook her face. Her big brown eyes glistened with tears under the florescent waiting room lights. She’d been waiting for this moment for years.
Read MoreBelow, you’ll find a poem I recently wrote about my dog. Probably not what you were expecting when you came to the PNWU Health Blog, huh? Well, I’m happy to report that “health” – and especially self-care – exists in a variety of forms.
Read MorePNWU student Aaron Not had no plans of attending college. In fact, he barely graduated from high school. With his sights set on a career in the military, he had a daughter and, soon, his world changed forever.
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