LINCOLN, Maine — Growing up in a home with a doctor’s office in the basement and a country doctor for a father, Noah Nesin was sure of one thing: No way was he going to practice medicine.
Dr. Bourcard Nesin worked 16-hour days at least five days a week. Emergency rooms weren’t prevalent in Maine in the 1960s, so when Nesin wasn’t doing house calls, his patients filled the basement staircase waiting to see him, sometimes until midnight.
“I think I resisted medicine as a boy because everybody asked me all the time if I was going to grow up and be a doctor. I think I just got tired of the question,” Nesin said. “I think as an adolescent, in the ways that you rebel against your parents, I just rebelled against the idea of being exactly what my dad had been.”
Things reversed entirely, Nesin said, when his father approached him during Noah’s junior year in college as the younger Nesin fretted over his decision to study physics.
“He said, ‘You know, you’d make a good doctor,’” Noah Nesin recalled. “That’s the only thing he ever said to me about it, but it must have been powerful, because I began applying to medical school after that.”
Twenty-six years and perhaps 10,000 patients later, Nesin has decided to change careers. He plans in March to leave Health Access Network to take a job in Bangor that he says will allow him to help reshape the way medicine is practiced.
Nesin’s departure marks the end of a medical practice that began with his father in 1953. Nesin’s brother, Joseph, continues as a veterinarian in Chester and their brother Peter is an optician in Belfast.
Several colleagues at HAN said they regret his decision. They describe Nesin as an excellent medical director and unpretentious physician whose expertise, support and gently sarcastic humor will be missed.
“He and Dr. [Stratton] Shannon were the quintessential family doctors in a rural area,” said Christopher Mannari, a physician’s assistant at Health Access. “He is, as is Shannon, the ideal country doctor.”
Nesin “used to deliver babies, he did vasectomies, gynecology, house calls. He still does [house calls] for some of his patients as far as I know,” Mannari added. “Now, people just refer you to a specialist, but for years, these guys [Shannon and Nesin] did everything they possibly could for their patients.”
George Michaud is one of those patients. The 76-year-old Passadumkeag resident was among Bourcard Nesin’s first patients when he began his practice in Howland, delivering Michaud’s son Daniel in 1960 for $27.
“That paid for the hospital and him. Can you imagine that? They were making quite a sacrifice with the job that they do,” Michaud said of the Nesins. “They were both very dedicated.”
Nesin said his new job will allow him to shape the delivery of medical care now to conform with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Nesin said he strongly supports. The job will, he said, hopefully change what is the bane of modern American health care — a turnstile medical system that prizes the number of patients seen more than the quality of care delivered.
American medical care, Nesin said, generally flourishes in its treatment of chronic or severe conditions but the 15-minute doctors’ appointment that most facilities shoot for cramps effective care.
Nesin looks forward to tackling that problem, he said, but regrets leaving patients.
“I’ve always said that after 26 years, the people who continue to see me [do so] because they like me or they are satisfied with the care that I provide,” Nesin said. “That’s a wonderful position to be in as a primary care provider, where you really enjoy seeing all of your patients. I will miss that tremendously.”
“Secondly, I will miss the people that I work with here,” he added, calling them “a remarkable group of people to work with.”
I’m not for or against Obama Care-I don’t know enough to have an educated opinion on the program. Unfortunately the pressures of serving millions of newly insured patients will fall upon a dwindling supply of great doctors like Dr Nesin. Some surveys show a nation wide shortage of primary care physicians of around 90,000 not to far down the road. Attracting talented docs to Maine is hard. With the oldest population in the country the percentage of Medicare patients is very high here. Paying back thousands in student loans is difficult in a poor state like Maine.
“I’m not for or against Obama Care-I don’t know enough to have an educated opinion on the program”…………… At least your honest about it …………………. those that voted it in didn’t (and probably still don’t) have any idea of what’s in it ………………. remember Pelosi’s famous words ………………….. lets’ vote it in so we can see what’s in it (or something like that).
A tired old fable. Pelosi was speaking before a group that did NOT include legislators. They were trying to discuss the provisions of the bill when the bill itself had not been finalized–it was still being constructed. She explained to them that it was by no means certain–yet–what would be in the bill. The time to discuss its provisions would be after the bill had been revised. It would then be debated, and finally voted upon. Republican leaders chose to take her words out of context, as though she had been telling legislators to pass the bill without reading it–a lie.
Liz, Many tea party conservatives of the Fox News type get all wound up when face to face with an intelligent woman. They prefer females of the Palin sort who haven’t much to say. Therefore, they concoct myths about both types.
Jeez. That’s a sweeping statement. What about tea party conservatives of the non-Fox News type? Devil’s spawn?
I take it you equate being a “tea party conservative of the Fox News type” with being ignorant. As a conservative member of the Tea Party, I am offended by your comment. Yours is a typical reaction of somebody who doesn’t have even a rudimentary understanding of what I, as an intelligent woman, believe. I read Pelosi’s full comments and what she said about needing to “see what’s in it” only after it was passed was accurate. This legislation was passed in the dark of night, only after sweetheart deals to Ben Nelson and others. This, from the Obama-promised “most transparent” and Pelosi-promised “most ethecal Congress” legislation in history. Furthermore, you really ought to read the entire bill because what Sarah Palin said was essentially correct- medical decisions will be made by a board comprised of bureaucrats and non-medical people, properly labeled “death panels”.
Uhhhh…If I understand you correctly, you’re using the words “intelligent woman” with regard to Nancy Pelosi.
Really….
I dont blame him, too many sue happy folks that want something for nothing, quit while you are ahead buddy.
I know personally 5 docs who are quitting because of computerization and endless government requirements. it’ll get worse under Obamacare.
One more down……not too many more to go.
I guess the local Vet will be picking up the slack.
I remember growing up and on occasion I would travel with my dad
to make ” house calls”.
Dad was old school , I guess.
We might be in town in the morning and later on end up on a farm or two
looking at some ailment or other.
Dad was always warmly welcomed and well received.
I never saw an insurance card or money change hands.
The folks Dad visited with would always have a big box or two
of what they had to share.
Fresh meat , bags of potatoes, jars and jars of jellies,homemade
beverages. We never bought firewood.
It was always dumped in the dooryard, waiting for me to stack.
I remember when he left his private practice and joined a group clinic.
I asked him why and he said the Govt has stuck their nose too far
into the taking care of people aspect of it all , and ruined it.
That was 30 years ago.
Mr. Sambides, you have written a very nice story of two great doctors who served the Howland-Lincoln area well. Dr. Bourcard Nesin arrived in Maine in 1953 and was loved by the many for whom he cared. Dr. Noah Nesin continues the tradition of compassionate care. In Dr. Noah Nesin’s new job, he will have the opportunity to ensure that compassionate care is the first class ride that every patient receives. Very proud of our home town docs.
So sad to see another good doctor burn out in the 10-15 minute appointment, bane of modern American healthcare, clinical setting. I wish I could believe in the healthcare act as much as he does, but it is the law and wish him well. There are so many healthcare dollars going to non-providers that it severely dilutes the doctor-patient time for a quality experience. The majority of the American public makes unhealthy choices. Therefore, we all need to take a financial hit commensurate with our income as an incentive for better health decisions. We should simplify healthcare rather than complicate it to the degree we are taking good doctors out of the patient care system to try to make sense of an unbelievably convoluted law. And while we are simplifying, lets tackle tax reform and election reform, but I digress. Good luck to you Dr Nesin in your new, hopefully lawsuit free and stress free, environment. The rest of us? I guess time will tell.
LIncoln’s loss is Bangor’s gain. Thanks for a good article.