When Miguel Abascal, MPH, was young, he lived in Costa Rica for three years with his family while they worked with neglected communities. During this time, he developed a dream of serving others through health care. He thought, if he could just get into medical school, he could help so many people as a doctor and provide necessary care for underserved communities.
Miguel still thinks of himself as the kid living in Costa Rica. His dream hasn’t changed. In his first year of medical school at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, he took advantage of every opportunity to meet faculty, build friendships, and gain early clinical experience so he can become an exceptional physician.
Before attending the UK College of Medicine, Miguel earned his Master of Public Health at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif., intending to make change through policy and community interventions.
Miguel is enrolled in the UK College of Medicine’s Rural Physician Leadership Program, which is designed to develop specialized skills and knowledge for providing care in rural, underserved populations.
In his first year, he trained and attended classes at the Lexington Campus. He will continue that into his second year. Then it’s off to Morehead, Ky., for his third and fourth year to be immersed in a rural community hospital setting at UK St. Claire HealthCare.
Miguel’s white coat ceremony in July 2023 was his official initiation into the medical career path.
Miguel has a heart for service. He knows that he can’t fulfill his dream to its fullest without taking advantage of the UK College of Medicine’s resources. In his first year, you could almost always find him in the classroom, studying in the student lounge, training in the UK HealthCare Simulation Center, or working with standardized patients.
“I might go back to a place where I might be the only doctor,” he says. “I need to know all the things. I’m kind of on the clock for four years to figure it out.”
Miguel is continuously engaged in his medical school classes. He really enjoyed his Introduction to Clinical Medicine course, which was precepted by Dr. Beth Griffith, a well-regarded pediatrician in Clark County, Ky.
Miguel’s first-year uniform was his blue UK scrubs. In addition to class work and studying for exams, he shadowed more than 10 UK physicians in his first year, with many days in the emergency department watching doctors care for the most urgent health care needs. Miguel watched in awe as UK physicians triaged patients, completed X-rays and CT scans, and referred patients to further treatment.
“Every time I go shadow, I feel like, what an honor to be with these people, and I feel like they are happy to have me there,” he says.
He has found interest in many specialties including pediatrics, emergency medicine, med-peds, ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology, and surgery.
Miguel’s initiative led him to a life-changing opportunity.
He is the second oldest of nine in his family, but he had never seen a baby being born. That was, until December, when he was invited to shadow obstetrics and gynecology care at St. Claire HealthCare.
On-site at the hospital in Morehead, Ky., Miguel was pulled aside by Rebecca Todd, MD, the associate dean of the Rural Physician Leadership Program and OB/GYN. She asked him if he wanted to watch a C-section being performed.
Miguel couldn’t pass it up – and thanks to that chance, it’s a training experience he will never forget.
He is incredibly grateful.
Another first Miguel experienced this year – his first snowfall.
Being from California, he does not get to see snow very often. He had actually never seen it fall from the sky, in person, until January 2024.
It was an exciting part of his first year training in Kentucky.
“All my classmates had been waiting for the first snow, and when it started snowing that night, I had five or six people text me about it,” he says with a chuckle.
Miguel spent this year as policy chair of the University of Kentucky’s chapter of the American Medical Association (AMA). In November 2023, Miguel conducted an informative session to medical students about resolution writing, an important part of helping make policy changes.
He also joined student efforts at the Salvation Army Clinic, which was founded in 1986 to provide free care for underserved populations in Lexington. He always felt that with medicine, if he knew how to provide the right care, why wouldn’t he help those who needed it most? “I love it there,” he says of the SA Clinic.
Later in the school year, his passion for public health led to the chance to lobby for increased funding for medical education at the state capitol in Frankfort, Ky.
Dr. Todd has been impressed by Miguel’s above-and-beyond attitude, especially so early into his medical school journey.
“Over the holiday break, while most students were relaxing and refreshing, Miguel was busy exploring career options. Even though he was in Morehead to learn about surgery, he jumped at the opportunity to join me in a C-section – and we may have a future OB-GYN recruit! Most recently Miguel took a break from his daily studies to meet me in Frankfort and advocate for rural health at the 2024 legislative session.
If this past year is a sample of his normal work ethic, I think we will see great things from Miguel by spring of 2028.”
When Miguel graduates from medical school, he wants to take all he has learned in Kentucky and use it to make a global impact on health care.
Miguel attended the Global Missions Health Conference in Louisville to learn more about those opportunities. During the event, he met Steve Saint, a popular figure within the global missions community. The movie and book, “End of the Spear,” are about Steve’s life and his parents’ ministry.
Miguel says he feels fortunate to have become so embedded in the UK College of Medicine community so quickly, and the opportunities that have arisen. He feels close to many classmates, particularly the other RPLP students in his class who will join him in Morehead during his third year.
The UK College of Medicine’s “house system” has been vital in building some of those peer connections. Named after types of horses, learning communities, or “houses,” bring first-year medical students into small groups where they can connect more easily with peers, mentors, and upperclassmen.
With a productive first year behind him, Miguel wants to show other prospective students what they can achieve through an education at the UK College of Medicine. He was named an “admissions ambassador,” which means he provides tours, joins recruitment events as a student representative, and helps prospective students pursue their dream of service at UK.
Miguel says RPLP students normally interview in Morehead during the admissions process, so he enjoyed getting to show them what is offered at the Lexington Campus, too.
“On tours, they see the UK HealthCare Simulation Center we have available, and they always go, ‘Whoa! This is so cool,’” he says.
Miguel still has his second year ahead of him, which will mean more training in Lexington. But Morehead has already prepared him for those third and fourth years. He completed a scavenger hunt with his fellow classmates to get to know the community before he trains there.
The road ahead will encompass a lot more studying, and a lot more work, but overall he says it has just been “fun to figure things out” during his first run at medical school.
“I’ve learned so much in my first year, that I’m really excited to get into the swing of things,” Miguel says.
For Miguel, the possibilities ahead are endless.
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