Accepted into Idaho’s first pediatrics residency, Whitefish medical student looks to help children and families

Megan Marstaeller of Whitefish is very passionate about rural medicine. Never dreaming she would get her residency so close to home, she was recently accepted into Idaho’s first pediatric program.

It’s hard to get into a residency program, period, says Marstaeller.

After you get a four-year degree, go through medical school and take all of your necessary tests, that information gets sent to prospective residency programs. Once your application is sent out, programs will contact you for interviews.

There is no inclination where someone will end up, that is until match day, where across the United States medical students find out near simultaneously whether they matched into a program or not. If the students are lucky enough to match somewhere, they still have to wait until several days later to find out where they are going.

In the same manner as match day, medical students across the country find out where they are going to spend their residency at the same time — and it doesn’t matter if they were chosen by their sixth or seventh choice, once you are matched it is a legally binding contract.

So, given that this process is more competitive than getting into medical school, Marstaeller is feeling pretty good about where she landed. This is also because she aligns so much with the mission of the Pediatric Residency of Idaho in Boise at Full Circle Health. Medical students rank all of their prospective residency programs and Full Circle Health was Marstaeller’s No. 1 pick.

She did two elective rotations as a medical student in Boise where she met program director Dr. Perry Brown. Already familiar with Full Circle Health, she said the program was created out of a necessity for pediatricians in the region.

“There is just such a need for pediatricians, and typically, people stay where they train … the person who is a big part of this is the director, Dr. Perry Brown, he is a pediatrician and he's always had a passion for teaching good physicians,” Marstaeller said.

She said when someone takes part in a residency program they learn a lot about inpatient medicine. But, Brown teaches how to “practice rural,” preparing doctors for outpatient clinics.

“He wanted to start a residency where physicians would feel comfortable going into outpatient care and rural care for this region specifically. So, that's kind of the big idea behind it.” Marstaeller said.

There aren’t any pediatric residency programs in Montana. Marstaeller said there are two family medicine residencies in Billings and Missoula, but beyond that, finding a residency in her area would have required her to go to Portland, Seattle or Salt Lake City before the creation of her current program.

When thinking about health care and pediatrics in Montana, she’s concerned about a couple of things. She said there aren’t enough pediatricians or family medicine doctors, and in general, there’s a stigma about going to the doctor so people wait until they have a big issue.

In an age where information about health is so readily available on the internet, but not vetted, she wants parents to have a trusted source to run by all of their concerns.

“My passion is really for advocating for kids, but also just being able to educate and have good relationships with their parents. So I can be a resource for them when questions come up about things like immunizations or knowing what to expect developmentally, even in adolescence,” Marstaeller said.

She did a rotation in Red Lodge, which grew her passion for rural medicine, and then came back home for a family medicine rotation in Whitefish.

“It was like, such a bizarre, full circle experience. You get to see people that you grew up with and it's just very awesome to have that connection with the community. So, that was also a huge growing factor, because I loved being able to know everybody on a personal level. They're not just another diagnosis, they’re family,” Marstaeller said.

She’s committed to making sure kids who walk into her practice feel comfortable and cared for, particularly since she has experienced illness first-hand.

She had cancer around the age of 4 and got a lot of experience being in hospitals. After she recovered, she still spent a lot of time playing doctor.

“My parents were like, ‘Yeah, she's going to be a doctor someday’ and that just carried through. I knew in high school I was working towards that. So yeah, I pretty much just put my mind to it and then never looked back. Even through college, ‘I was like, this is what I want to do,’” Marstaeller said.

Listening to her parents' experience with her bout of cancer as a preschooler has informed how she speaks with patients about diagnosis.

“Hearing my parents perspective growing up of how scary it was for them and then just feeling so lucky to have a kid that survived it, that helped me understand kind of how parents felt. Because my parents were always like, ‘yeah, that was the scariest moment of our lives, we didn't sleep a whole lot, we were so worried,’ and so being able to really understand that helps me when I'm talking with parents about potential diagnoses that are scary, even when it's something not as scary as cancer,” Marstaeller said.

She’s part of a program put on by the University of Washington School of Medicine called WWAMI –— which stands for Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. It’s a partnership that promises students can complete their first 18 months in their home states and get in-state tuition. As part of her WWAMI agreement, she has promised to come back to Montana to practice after her residency has ended.

“(WWAMI) allows first generation people like me to go into medicine, it makes it attainable both by location, finances and guaranteed Montana spots. Because of the partnership, 30 Montana residents are selected for the program each year which is a huge advantage for our state,” Marstaeller said.

Marstaeller said it’s hard to say where she will end up practicing after her three-year residency is up, due to job availability and cost of living. But, it’s guaranteed she will be working to serve children and their families.

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4433 or by emailing tinman@dailyinterlake.com