DAWSON MEDICAL CLINIC AND NURSING STATION:
Dawson medical practice encompasses the challenges and rewards of truly comprehensive medicine with reliance on clinical skills over technology. We have an excellent rapport with our patients who are well-educated about their health and appreciative of the care provided. Our practice style allows adequate time to be spent with our patients, including time to devote to preventative health concerns.

Currently the clinic volume supports two physicians working full-time in the winter and two to three physicians for the busier summer months. The medical clinic is housed in the same building as the nursing station and we have an good working relationship with the 4 to 5 nurse practitioners, 1 public health nurse and 1 home care nurse. The nurses do homecare visits, well baby clinics, immunizations, lab and x-ray, and much of the travel, dietary and diabetic counseling. After hours the nurse practitioners are on first call.

 

Locally we have a well equipped treatment room for emergencies complete with defibrillator and resuscitation gear, cardiac monitor, slit lamp, Schiotz tonometre, chest tubes (Salinger technique), interosseous needles, LP kits, fiberglass and plaster casting. We are able to do rigid sigmoidoscopy locally. We have an x-ray machine, but no x-ray tech, so the physician is often required to assist with the set-up for x-rays beyond chests and limbs. Our local lab capabilities include manual white blood counts, hemoglobin, glucometre, INR, electrolytes, ESR, blood gases and bedside cardiac enzymes. All other blood tests are sent to Whitehorse for processing. Because of limited local diagnostic tests, physicians must be comfortable relying on their clinical skills over technology and must be comfortable interpreting x-rays. (The closest radiologist is in Vancouver!)
 

 

Dawson is located about 550 km from Whitehorse which is our referral center. (This translates to a 6-hour drive or a medivac which originates in Whitehorse and therefore is a 3 hr turn-around time.) Whitehorse has a GP-run hospital with a surgeon, an obstetrician/gynecologist, a psychiatrist and a GP-paediatrician. Because we are so far from Whitehorse, and most patients prefer to remain in Dawson, there is opportunity to do many procedures locally, dependent on your enthusiasm and comfort level. For example, we start tpa locally (prior to transfer) for MI's; we reduce Colles fractures.

There are specialists from Vancouver who hold clinics in Whitehorse several times per year such as orthopedics, ophthalmology, ENT, neurology, dermatology, oncology and internal medicine. We also have an excellent telephone consultation relationship with several specialists in Vancouver and are therefore often able to avoid unnecessary long-distance travel for our patients.

Several medical students and Family Practice Residents choose to do their rural elective experience in Dawson every year.