PNWU is great news

Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences (PNWU) agrees with the opinion piece published March 9 stating Eastern Washington and Idaho are full of good medical news.

Additionally, we want Olympian readers to be aware that PNWU has been educating medical students for the area in Yakima since 2008. Currently, 100 third-year and 57 fourth-year students are serving in eight clinical rotation sites in Washington and two more in Idaho, preparing to become doctors in the rural and medically-underserved communities throughout Washington and the northwest.

The majority (52 percent) of PNWU first-year students come from rural areas and 77 percent come from the five-state catchment area that includes Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Also, 38 percent of the first graduating class went into family medicine, compared with the national average of 17 percent, providing valuable service to their local communities while fulfilling the PNWU mission.

The University is grateful for the many wonderful partnerships with health care practitioners across all five states, making it possible for PNWU to continue preparing the next generation of doctors for the northwest. The University is always looking for more partners where students can be mentored and serve their residencies because many students return to practice where they trained and that would mean more doctors in Washington and Idaho in the near future. PNWU is part of the great medical news for eastern Washington and Idaho because next month 72 new doctors will graduate, bringing the total number to 356, and soon that number will be 135 annually.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 3:17 PM with the headline "PNWU is great news."