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A Clark Fork Valley Hospital doctor was recently presented a prestigious honor from the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana Program.

Dr. Jessica Valentine received the 2023 Outstanding Rural Attending Award for her work as a preceptor with family medicine residents at Clark Fork Valley Hospital, which hosts several residents each year. "During their time here they work each day with a preceptor who supervises their work and offers learning opportunities. This is a model similar to apprenticeships that occur in other trades," said Valentine, who has been with CFVH since 2015. She said that CFVH is a rural training site for medical students, osteopathic medical students, physician assistant students, nurse practitioner students, and family medicine resident physicians. Valentine has been the coordinator for these rotations since 2016.

"I was very honored to have been nominated for this award. There are many outstanding preceptors that teach family medicine residents, so being selected is a huge honor," said the 40-yearold Valentine. Dr. Barbara Steward, a Plains High School graduate, presented the award to Valentine at the graduation ceremony in Missoula last month.

Valentine is board certified in family medicine, but spends the majority of her time at CFVH in the emergency department and with the hospital's inpatients. She also works with prenatal care patients and delivers babies. Valentine is one of two full time doctors and three physician assistants in the emergency room, though the ER gets help from three providers from the clinic.

Valentine, raised on Vashon Island, near Seattle, received her medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine in 2010. She did her internship in 2010-2011 and graduated from the Swedish First Hill Family Medicine Residency Program in Seattle in 2013. She also completed a fellowship in Integrative Medicine from the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.

According to Valentine, most family physicians in the United States do three additional years of residency training in their specialty, which includes the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana Program. "Physicians who train in this program complete some of their training at rural sites. Clark Fork Valley Hospital is one of the rural sites where physicians from this program have the option to train. We have several resident physicians come to train each year, doing rural medicine rotations and rural surgery rotations," said Valentine.

Valentine was first interested in medicine at 16 years old when she joined a fire department as an Explorer. She later completed her firefighter and first responder training.

EMTs, paramedics, and family physicians in her community helped sway her to go into the

medical profession. "I was fortunate to be able to be included in EMT training at a young age. I really enjoyed the personal connection with people and I liked trying to figure out

the puzzle of a medical diagnosis," she said.

"During that process I found that I really enjoyed the medical portion of things and was inspired to pursue further medical training," said Valentine. "I was also fortunate to grow up in a community with several family medicine physicians who inspired me to pursue family

medicine," she added.

Valentine enjoys working at CFVH and having the residents there. She said the residents work alongside the hospital staff, providing an extra set of hands for procedures. She added that they often serve as great advocates for patients. "They contribute so much to my growth and learning as a physician and challenge me to really keep current on things. They often are able to contribute a fresh set of eyes and have great suggestions and new ideas for challenging cases," said Valentine, who added that the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana residents have been outstanding and fortunate that CFVH has been supportive of hosting rural medicine rotations. "One of the things that inspired me to work in a rural environment was the training I had in medical school," she said.

The doctor likes the variety the job offers, the challenge of the job, the teamwork at CFVH, and she likes the idea of practicing medicine in a rural setting. "It really takes a highly functional team to deliver good medical care and I feel very thankful for the team that I work with," she said. Some of her training was done in Conrad and Billings. "This exposure to medicine in Montana is what inspired me to practice in Montana. My hope is that by offering a medical rotation site for both students and resident physicians, more physician trainees will get to experience rural medicine in a positive way, and choose to practice in rural, medically underserved settings," said Valentine. In addition, she said that residents

who train in rural settings are more likely to end up practicing in rural settings. "My hope is that by offering some exposure to rural medicine at Clark Fork Valley Hospital, some of the residents we work with will go on to be of service in rural Montana communities."