Medical student, Gabe Sexton, gains experience in Redfield

By Shiloh Appel

University of South Dakota medical student, Gabe Sexton, finished up his three week experience of family medicine in Redfield on March 2nd with greater insight into the field and an appreciation for CMH staff.

"This experience has been really eye-opening in terms of what family medicine looks like, so it has been really helpful and I learned a lot here," said Sexton."I think I was surprised by everybody being super nice to me… maybe more-so than I would have expected, initially, being a new student and everything."

Undoubtedly, Sexton is familiar with the continual experience of meeting new people in new places. Born in Florida, Sexton and his family moved to Iowa, Oregon and Maine before settling in South Dakota. With an agronomist father who has a PhD in crop physiology, the family moved with his jobs.

"He has worked for the University of Iowa, the University of Oregon, the University of Maine and South Dakota State," said Sexton.

Sexton's high school years were split in half with his  freshman and sophomore year spent in Maine and his junior and senior year spent in Brookings, South Dakota. A graduate from Brookings High School in 2011, Sexton seems to hint that he is done with traveling.

"I am glad that I got to see a lot of the country, although I don't think I will move around as much. Maybe in South Dakota, but not to different states," said Sexton.

However, the diverse experiences of his childhood played an important role in his career choice, ultimately leading him down the path to where he finds himself today.

"So, my parents had this first aide book because they were agricultural aide workers in Bangladesh for a little while when I was a toddler. They had a first-aide book because there wasn't a whole lot of medical care available, and so I liked to just look at the pictures when I was a kid… I thought that was cool stuff," said Sexton."Then I kind of got into human anatomy in high school through a class — an anatomy class, and I really liked that. Then I took more biology and chemistry stuff and I started to see how all of that kind of fit together with physiology and it got really interesting."

Sexton said that he was a microbiology major after high school, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to do lab work for the rest of his life after helping a professor at SDSU with a research project.

"It was really fun and interesting and I learned a lot doing it, but I didn't really think that is what I wanted to do," said Sexton. "I was like what can I do, basically, that I will feel good about doing— or hopefully feel good about doing — when I am done with work [at the end of the day]."

Currently, Sexton has just started his third year of medical school. He has his full third year and fourth year ahead of him before applying for residency (which will be another three or four years). Meanwhile, in Redfield, Sexton completed the "pillar 2 curriculum family medicine mini-block." Sexton explained what the schedule looks like.

"They have us do three weeks of family medicine and then we rotate through one week of specialties like surgery, neurology, pediatrics, and internal medicine. Then, after that, we switch into longitudinal integrated clerkships which are four week repeating blocks of all those specialties, but spread out over a single week. So it is kind of a complicated schedule, but, yeah, this is the first of that," said Sexton.

As for his learning experiences in Redfield, Sexton said a night time ambulance ride was a first for him.

"I rode on an ambulance to Aberdeen with a patient who Doctor Owens thought would need surgery. I had never ridden in an ambulance before, so that was pretty cool. There were two EMT's or EMT intermediates and one of the nurses… rode with me and the nurse took vitals and she was the one talking and doing the calming down," said Sexton. "Then the EMT's are driving and are ready if something goes wrong.…I was just kind of sitting there, kind of seeing how it was done, I guess. I did help with the transfer of the patient from bed to bed."

Sexton said that he was also able to interview and do physical exams with patients for the first time as well.

"I think I learned a lot more about radiology. I have seen chest X-Rays here and have kind of gone over them with Ron or Dr. Owens. I've been picking up little things here and there and then some bigger stuff in-between," said Sexton.

As for whether he would like to ultimately settle down and begin his medical career in a rural area or a larger city, Sexton said he is still deciding.

"I think there is advantages to each. That is probably a decision I will have to make later on in my life when I have decided what I want to do as far as a medical specialty," he said. "I do like getting outside a lot, so I don't want to live somewhere that is so big that I have to drive half an hour just to get outside of city limits or something like that."

When he wasn't at the hospital or doing homework online, Sexton used his free time in Redfield to take photos of landscapes, a hobby he enjoys. He said he took his camera out to Fisher's Grove State Park and the wildlife refuge west of town.

Although Sexton has since returned to Rapid City where he will finish his rotations, he has left a piece of advice for students interested in joining the medical field.

"Don't give up. It may seem like you need to be an A plus-plus-plus student to get in. I certainly wasn't, and I know plenty of people who weren't, either. So, really, just think about it. If it is something you are interested in and something you are willing to work for, then work for it and you will get there," said Sexton.