Kyle Butler ‘16

Kyle Butler“Field Work Term afforded me the time to explore a couple areas of my interests in medicine that I might not have been able to otherwise.

“For the first two weeks I shadowed a neuro-hospitalist—a neurologist who specifically deals with inpatient conditions on a hospital’s staff—at The Hospital of Central Connecticut. A good portion of Dr. Timothy Parsons’ daily work included the diagnosis of acute stroke and other acute and subacute neurological problems. I particularly enjoyed how the days were a dynamic mix of reading radiological reports and discussing neuroanatomy, as well as going to the ER and ICU to do hands-on neurological exams on patients. Until then, I had only spent a significant amount of time shadowing a local family physician, so this experience showed me what it is like to work in a hospital setting in constant contact with teams of other physicians.

“In my last few weeks of FWT, I returned to Bennington to do research on patient retention rates at the Hawthorne Recovery Center, which offers an opioid treatment program. At a time when addiction treatment programs are starting to receive national political attention, it is interesting and edifying to see how a community is responding to the problem, and rallying to overcome common obstacles such as underfunding and legislative restriction of medication-assisted therapy.

“And, of course, the extra time gave me a foothold to start studying for the MCAT.”