Dr. Byron Nielsen Named USD Sanford School of Medicine Pillar 3 Director
Sanford School of Medicine students follow a three-pillar schedule that includes foundational courses, longitudinal integrated clerkship and physician scholar segments. Pillar 3 is the final 17 months of medical education and includes surgery sub-specialties, sub-internships, emergency medicine and rural family medicine.
Medical education has always been a component of Dr. Nielsen’s practice. He previously served at the SSOM Yankton Campus working with Pillar 2 and 3 students. His position as Pillar 3 director will allow him to work at a different level with students to enhance their training asnd help prepare them to become outstanding residents. Dr. Nielsen will begin his duties on Sept. 1.
“I am privileged to have this opportunity to work directly with the Pillar 3 medical students to help them develop their skills and style and to guide them through their final year of medical school,” said Dr. Nielsen. “The USD School of Medicine has a long history of training excellent physicians and to be a part of that is humbling.”
After graduating from the USD Sanford School of Medicine in 2005, Dr. Nielsen completed his internal medicine residency, chief residency and nephrology fellowship at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
“We in the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine are enthusiastically looking at the future of Pillar 3 and the leadership that Dr. Nielsen will bring to this phase of our curriculum,” explained Dr. Mark Beard, dean of Medical Student Education. “With his outstanding teaching skills, his fervor of helping fellow faculty succeed, his ability to help students identify strengths and weaknesses, and his outstanding leadership skills, we look forward to all that he will accomplish in this new role with the medical school.”
With his wife, Stacey, and their two children, Dr. Nielsen joined the Yankton Medical Clinic, P.C. as a nephrologist in 2011. Since that time, Dr. Nielsen has enjoyed a busy practice serving Yankton and surrounding communities. He has also served on the Yankton Medical Clinic, P.C. board of directors for the past nine years, with the last seven as president.
