A ‘Small-Town America’ PA
A recent story in American Profile magazine highlights the importance of health care providers in rural areas. The author uses a PA to illustrate:
Patrick Armstrong, 52, is a perfect example. Since graduating at age 35 from the University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine, he has worked as a physician assistant in rural Montana, beginning at Phillips County Hospital in Malta (pop. 2,120). "We wanted to raise our family in a small town," says Armstrong of he and his wife, Kathy, who have three children.
Intermittently, he was the town's only medical provider, giving him broad experience and long days and weeks on the job. After nine years, Armstrong moved 90 miles west to Chinook (pop. 1,386), where he works with a pediatrician and physician assistant at Sweet Medical Center. Once a month, he travels 150 miles to Glasgow, Mont., to work a long weekend at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital.
"The rewards," Armstrong says, "are the gratitude of patients. They tell my children, 'Your father saved my life.'"
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