COMP-Northwest (OR): Student, Faculty & Alumni Spotlight

 College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific-Northwest

“Crystal joined Curriculum Committee as the new OMS1 Lebanon curriculum rep starting in November. Her professional awareness, kindness, and ability to represent her class was seen clearly during the first meeting. She will serve her class well!” -Anonymous

Alumni Spotlight: Long Nguyen, DO – COMP-Northwest ’16

You often hear phrases like “live with an open heart” or “keep an open mind.” For Long Nguyen, DO ’16, these are more than phrases, they are practices. For being “open,” he was rewarded with opportunity, personally and professionally.
“My time at WesternU Oregon was a great opportunity to see a new area of the country but also meet many awesome classmates,” said Nguyen, a Chicago native. “I learned so many new things about myself during my time there but more so, I really figured out my true goals and aspirations on life.”
Open to change, Nguyen moved from the West to the East Coast for third-year clinical rotations. “I was allowed to find my own rotations so I chose unique areas up and down the coast that not only gave me a unique perspective in different communities, but also chose areas that had family medicine residencies,“ Nguyen said. “I was able to see how family medicine physicians could really adapt to anything they wanted. These experiences really opened my eyes to the broadness of the specialty.”
As Nguyen reflected on his journey, he provided advice to medical students.
“Explore all areas of medicine, even the most scary and daunting ones,” he said. “You never know which one you will fall in love with or if you will fall in love with all of them. I purposefully chose a residency with a very strong and rigorous inpatient presence. I learned so much and learned to love hospital medicine.”
Nguyen began his career in rural medicine thanks to his experience at WesternU Oregon. It allowed him to grow and hone his skills and to gain confidence. As the only physician in the clinic, he provided medical education to the community, taught patients to advocate for themselves, and motivated many patients to work on lifestyle changes. Now a father and family man, Nguyen opened his heart to a new endeavor. “As a family medicine doctor, I can see peds, teens, adults, male, female, all types of patients,” Nguyen said. “One can pivot from clinic to hospital to urgent care to hospice to admin. Family medicine is a specialty that truly keeps many doors open for long term prospects and goals.
“It is a humbling field as you do have to know so much, about so many things. It’s amazing to figure out that zebra diagnosis. Family medicine can be as exciting and rambunctious as you want it to be,” he added.
He is thankful to WesternU Oregon and his time in the Pacific Northwest.
“I made lifelong friends that helped me through tough times, we graduated and celebrated together and to this day, we still check in, meet up, and update each other on how life is going on,” Nguyen said. “This sort of social and family-oriented
environment is exactly why I went into family medicine and the sort of practice I like to cultivate.”