Shiprock Rotation

The Shiprock rotation is a mix of outpatient and inpatient medicine on the Navajo Nation—in a rural, underserved setting with the special twist of managing inpatients while working a busy outpatient clinic schedule.

This is unpublished

The Shiprock rotation takes place at the Northern Navajo Medical Center (NNMC), an Indian Health Service hospital in rural northwestern New Mexico on the Navajo Nation reservation. 

Shiprock Rotation Site

Clinical Immersion

Shiprock is a chance to see a mix of outpatient and inpatient medicine in the "traditional" style, where outpatient internal medicine physicians admit and manage their patients in the hospital while maintaining an active clinic schedule.  It is also a chance to see what practice is like in a hospital without a full tertiary care center roster of services.

Diverse experiences

The Shiprock rotation allows exposure to a variety of clinical experience including:

  • Outpatient clinic and inpatient care
  • For outpatient, you will see specialty clinics like tuberculosis, ID/HIV, uranium, neurology, and rheumatology as well as primary care clinic
  • Low volume ICU
  • Providing consults at UNM, good practice for anyone thinking of hospitalist medicine
  • Procedures, particularly outpatient, including paracentesis (there is a lot of cirrhosis in the Navajo Nation), trigger point injections, central and arterial lines (for ICU admissions, not as common), joint injections, abscess I&D, and Botox injections (through neurology).