Meet Patients Where They Are - Dr David Sandweiss and Abel Chavez

About this episode

This episode discusses the TRU program's impact on medical students and the importance of meeting patients in their communities.

The Tribal Rural and Underserved or TRU program was created to help students see that value of being immersed in the tribal and rural space both from a standpoint of future physicians who will practice there, but also seeing a different view of what is possible in medicine regardless of where you practice. In this episode, I interview third year medical student Abel Chavez who grew up in a rural community and TRU program director David Sandweiss who trained in tribal and rural areas. What I immediately noticed is that the TRU program teaches you to meet the patient literally where they are, to be a part of the community, and that small changes can make an impact. All three of these things can be scaled up in non-rural settings too. Most of all, I learned from this conversation that there are opportunities in medicine we could be more open to and that we can carve out a unique space to practice medicine in more ways than we think we can.

People in this episode

Guests: David Sandweiss, Abel Chavez

Topics covered

• rural medicine
• tribal health
• medical education

Keywords

• TRU program
• community health
• medical practice

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