The View from the ER

The healthcare crisis and shortage that we face in Humboldt are in many ways reflective of broader social and economic struggles in the area, and it will be difficult to effectively solve the issues affecting health care without addressing those broader issues as a community.

Doctors who work here want to feel that they live and practice in a place that protects its most vulnerable citizens, because every day we see ways that inequities lead to worse health outcomes in ways that feel needless and tragic. These inequities raise the risk of acute and chronic illness, amplify their effects and can lead people to make decisions that sacrifice their own personal health because of economic insecurity, housing instability or untreated mental health issues or substance use.

These barriers to health, which can’t effectively be addressed by individual clinicians or even by the local healthcare system, make physician burnout more likely by making the job of providing quality care ever more Sisyphean.

I do believe that these issues are part of what makes physician retention in the area more difficult. In this way, any attempt to recruit and retain physicians will not only have to highlight and leverage the incomparable natural beauty of the Humboldt area and its unique and creative culture, but also must address, through political and community efforts, affordable housing; resources for substance use, addiction and mental health; and promote economic growth that will lead to more stable employment at a living wage.

I would also add that I think the efforts to start and expand the family medicine residency program, the incorporation of rotating medical students from the Idaho College of Medicine throughout the Humboldt Providence health system, and the Cal Poly Humboldt pre-health professional program, which allows college students to shadow physicians over the summer, are huge steps in the creation of a future local physician workforce.

Due to the extended nature of medical training, it may be years or even decades to see a huge change in Humboldt health care from these efforts. But I think that anything we can do to support people from Humboldt in becoming medical professionals and to expose doctors-in-training to the experience of practicing medicine here will eventually pay off, with physicians choosing to stay in the area after graduation or to return here to practice after experiencing life in Humboldt during training.

To this end, I have welcomed students of all levels to work with me and shadow me in the St. Joseph Emergency Department, and encourage all Humboldt physicians to do the same in their practices as a small part of a long-term strategy to support the next generation of Humboldt medical providers.

Dr. Sean Hickey is an ER physician at Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. He and his wife, Jen Haberman, a ceramic artist, moved to Eureka from Portland in 2021 drawn by Humboldt’s natural beauty, thriving arts scene and welcoming community. They also like living in a 1902 house they can renovate, and living close enough for Sean to bike to work.