Pub. 4 2020 Issue 2

Resident Spotlight Spencer Nielson, M.D. It All Started With Hay Fever (From Actual Hay) Dr. Spencer Nielson grew up in a small town, Leamington, Utah, which is located halfway between Nephi and Delta. Spencer grew up on and worked on an alfalfa farm. He spent a great deal of time cutting and bailing hay, and he also spent as much time as he possibly could in the river that ran through the town. Spencer’s interest in medi- cine developed early in life through firsthand experience as a frequent patient. As a rural kid working on a farm, Spencer suffered from severe allergies. He recalls one occasion when he went to see a cousin’s horse, and the interaction caused his face to swell up completely. As a result of those allergies and finding treatment that would keep them under control, he developed a good relation- ship with doctors from Delta. And he had plenty of time to get to know those doctors: he needed allergy shots up to three times a week through elementary school and even into his early teen years. “Family medicine is the only kind of medicine I was ever really exposed to,” Spencer says. “I saw the same doctor for almost everything. He saw me for my pediatric visits and treated me for any kind of emergency. When I was little and naïve, I didn’t think there was any other kind of doctor!” As a high school student in Delta, Spencer was able to shadow a family physician, Dr. Shamo, who took over for Spencer’s childhood family doctor after he retired. Spen- cer loved the experience and observed his first operating procedures and first deliveries through Dr. Shamo. Follow - ing high school, Spencer attended Southern Utah Univer- sity (SUU) in Cedar City, Utah. Spencer quickly got involved in Rural Health Scholars, a program at SUU that encour- ages students from rural communities to go into medi- cine and serve in a rural community once they become a doctor. While Spencer worked toward his bachelor’s in chemistry, he also took a medical trip through Rural Health Scholars to the Dominican Republic and helped under- served patients there. Spencer gained even more experi- ence with underserved patients closer to home when he worked with a clinic in Beaver, Utah, where students worked with a P.A. as they treated patients one day a week. All of this previous experience served him well as he moved on to medical school at the University of Utah. Choosing the Family Medicine Specialty As Spencer went into medical school, intending to re- turn to his home community to practice, family medicine seemed like the most logical fit from the very beginning. During med school, Spencer also enjoyed many surgical specialties such as O.B., surgery and anesthesiology. Still, he always felt drawn to family medicine, where he could enjoy the full spectrum of medicine. Spencer knew that returning to serve in a rural community as a family physi- cian meant that he would always be able to perform some aspects of those other areas of medicine that he enjoyed. While in med school, he was involved with the Utah Rural Outreach Program (UROP). He had the opportunity to travel throughout rural Utah to do presentations for high school students. His goal was to inspire students to go into medicine and ultimately return to their home communities and fill the need for physicians there. Choosing McKay Dee Family Medicine Residency Spencer always had his eye on McKay Dee in Ogden, Utah, for his residency because both of his mentors in Delta completed their residencies at McKay Dee. Spencer says that McKay Dee has historically been remarkably adept at preparing doctors for a rural medicine practice by giving them a plethora of different experiences. The residents at Resident Spotlight | Continued on page 14 13 |