For Drew Miller, M.D., volunteering to teach medical students is an admission that he’s not in it alone.

“If you practice long enough, you understand you can’t do it on your own,” Miller said. “The best way not to be on your own is to teach other people.”

Miller, who was named Kansas Family Physician of the Year in 2021, practices in Lakin, a western Kansas town with a population of 2,205.

KU School of Medicine-Wichita student Rebekah McAdam chose a clerkship with Miller in part because of the opportunities rural family medicine presents.

“I know a lot of people who have done rural rotations, and they got to do a lot of things, from the clinic to the hospital,” she said.

Students can get more hands-on experience during rotations in a small rural community, Miller agrees. McAdam performed tasks that include catching the baby during delivery, assisting with caesarean sections, steering the camera during a colonoscopy and performing joint injections.

“Rebekah was great at jumping in on all those opportunities,” he said.

McAdam appreciated the opportunity to perform procedures and present patient plans, which the two would then discuss.

“He helped me feel like a doctor,” she said. “He did a good job of developing my confidence in everything from patient encounters to procedures.”

McAdam also observed Miller’s leadership role at the local hospital and accompanied him to meetings at the health department.

“She was excited to learn the broad scope of medicine we practice,” Miller said. She really got to see the full picture of the impact you can have on community health and also the challenges in community health.”

Teaching medical students the scope of rural medicine, and its advantages and challenges, is important to Miller.

“The great thing about practicing in rural America is the relationships you get to build,” he said.

As a rural family medicine specialist, Miller has had the experience of delivering a baby and then caring for that child through adulthood. At the same time, he’s seeing the mother, caring for her parents as they are aging, and shepherding her grandparents through end-of-life care.

“Sometimes you wind up coaching those kids you deliver on the soccer team,” he said. He sees his patients when he visits schools, attends church and shops for his groceries.

“You get to build relationships and trust inside and outside the clinical setting,” he said. The downside of that is that he’s never quite off the clock.

McAdam “grasped the profound nature of the relationship you get to build with patients,” Miller said. He praised the student for going out of her way to visit a patient outside of the clinic, an investment of time and care that meant a lot to someone struggling with an end-stage disease.

“I call family medicine a heavy privilege: We get to walk beside patients throughout their lives,” he said. “It’s not always easy, but there are great rewards in it.”