“Of course, I think chiropractic is the best — that’s why I went to Palmer,” says Dr. Hargrove, who was the first-ever chiropractic student to rotate at the Little Rock VA. “But when you get into a setting like this, seeing people who’ve had significant injuries or been in pain for 20 years, you realize you’re simply not always going to be the be-all and end-all. Working together with those other practitioners and understanding their point of view was eye-opening.” The compliment goes both ways, according to Dr.
Medlej. “Students who talk to me about this program want to know if chiropractors are respected in the VA,” he says. “I tell them I think chiropractors have absolutely earned the esteem of other providers.” Dr. Hibl recalls a pivotal moment during his student rotation, working alongside a medical student intern on a patient with shoulder pain. “I realized that our knowledge and skills in that situation were right on par with each other,” he says. “And that intern saw what a broad knowledge chiropractors can have.” “Palmer gives us a great background in all-around patient care,” adds Dr. Hargrove, who spent six months in the Palmer clinic before her rotation. “Taking patient histories, doing exams, adjusting — even though the patient base was different and more complex in the VA setting, my framework stayed the same. I did what Palmer taught me.” What she could only truly learn through the
rotation, though, was how to care not for patients but for people.
“I had patients who would say, ‘I’m sorry if I get a little irritated. It’s just because I’m in pain,’” Dr. Hargrove says. “Everyone was so friendly and open. I really learned communication skills and how to deal with conflict. I feel like I came out a more well- rounded person.” Busy sorting out her license and applying for jobs
at VA centers around the southeast, Dr. Hargrove is carried by the relationships she forged on her rotation. “The people are what made me want to stay in the VA,” she says, referring to the care teams she worked with, the attendings who mentored her and the patients she’d come to know. Dr. Hargrove recalls the emotional goodbyes she
exchanged with those patients in the final days of her rotation. “‘Are you sure you have to leave?’ they kept asking me. ‘You don’t want to stay?’ To see that I really did make a difference for these people who sacrificed for our country — it was so fulfilling to be able to say I helped them get better.”
INTERDISCIPLINARY CARE Mariah Hargrove, D.C. learned how important it is to work with an array of knowledgeable providers from multiple disciplines in order to do what’s best for the patient.
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