{"id":2793,"date":"2018-07-09T07:00:02","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/extra\/?p=2793"},"modified":"2025-08-25T10:32:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:32:01","slug":"wsu-medical-students-first-last-summer-break-busy-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/student-features\/wsu-medical-students-first-last-summer-break-busy-one\/","title":{"rendered":"WSU medical students\u2019 first \u2013 and last \u2013 summer break is busy one"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Three<\/a><\/p>\n

By Linda Weiford, WSU News <\/strong><\/p>\n

Nick Randall, Ashlyn Jimenez and Erik Stiles recently wrapped up their first year at WSU\u2019s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine<\/a>. With the most academically rigorous year of a lifetime behind them, they\u2019re starting the only real summer break they\u2019ll get during medical school.<\/p>\n

Even so, they won\u2019t be turning off their brains, watching Netflix or vegging at the beach — nor will their 57 colleagues, all of whom make up the medical school\u2019s inaugural class of students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students\u2019 first year? I\u2019d say it was tough, amazing and gratifying,\u201d said Daniel Teraguchi, associate dean for student affairs. \u201cCompleting it is a first big milestone on their road to becoming doctors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Summer break traditionally takes place between the first and second year of medical school. After that, coursework and labs, and eventually full-time clinical training go on pretty much year-round, he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost students are taking a short breather \u2013 two have weddings planned \u2013 before launching into health care-related projects, research or volunteer work,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Medicine on wheels, new baby and summer camp<\/h3>\n

Ashlyn Jimenez likened her first year of medical school to taking sips from a firehose of information without drowning. Nonetheless, \u201cI\u2019ve never been happier,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jimenez is spending the summer assisting with the creation of the university\u2019s mobile health clinic, expected to start running this fall. Medical students will work with health care specialists to aid underserved populations in Spokane County.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first priority is completing a needs assessment that will allow us to understand what the people of Spokane feel their gaps in care are,” she said. “We are working with nonprofits, schools, government employees and health care institutions to identify the needs that a mobile clinic could address.”<\/p>\n

\u201cA blur,\u201d is how Nick Randall described his first year of medical school. \u201cWhile it was very difficult and busy, it was also a very good time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Heavy coursework aside, he faced another, yet joyful challenge when his wife gave birth to their first child in early March.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotten pretty good at studying with a baby on my chest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This summer, Randall, who is fluent in Spanish, is working with the Tri-Cities campus to develop a medical Spanish curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis course will help all health care providers learn conversational and medical Spanish so that they can more effectively connect with their Hispanic patients,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

A good thing, too, since Franklin County\u2019s population is more than 50 percent Hispanic, according to the most recent U.S. Census bureau data.<\/p>\n

Erik Stiles graduated from WSU\u2019s College of Nursing<\/a> and worked as a nurse for more than four years before entering medical school last August.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis last year, we burned the candle at both ends, but I don\u2019t know that I would take it any other way,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has been fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stiles is spending part of his summer working at Camp STIX<\/a>, a medically-supervised sports camp for children and teens with diabetes. This will be his ninth season at the camp, located along the Pend Oreille River.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only is participating in camp an excellent way to learn about diabetes, but it\u2019s an empowering experience for the kids,” he said. “At camp in particular, they are able to take charge of their diabetes, and show staff just how resilient they are as they teach us what it\u2019s like to live with a chronic disease.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Linda Weiford, WSU News Nick Randall, Ashlyn Jimenez and Erik Stiles recently wrapped up their first year at WSU\u2019s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. With the most academically […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[],"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[989],"tags":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2797,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions\/2797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}