The Everett Herald highlighted a partnership between the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine and new clinical affiliate Compass Health, a nonprofit that provides comprehensive mental health services in several western Washington counties.
Washington faces a critical shortage of mental health care providers statewide. This shortage translates into a lack of training opportunities for students interested in psychiatry, exacerbating the problem, Everett Regional Dean Alison Haddock, MD, FACEP, told the newspaper.
The new affiliation agreement helps address that by enabling WSU medical students to get hands-on experience at Compass Health’s Mukilteo Evaluation and Treatment Facility in Snohomish County. To date, 14 Everett-based students have completed required rotations there.
“Historically, our medical education system has been based in big, inpatient hospitals,” Haddock says in the article. “Part of the reason why our curriculum isn’t like that, even though it’s atypical, is to reflect what the needs of the community are.”
The article also includes an interview with fourth-year medical student Amanda Gian, who is currently training at the facility. She cited the valuable psychiatric experience she’s gained through the program.
“Here I get to learn the tools to try and figure it out,” Gian told the Herald. “In psych, what’s really cool is that there’s so much art to the practice of medicine, and I really get to see it.”