Caden Crooks

Caden Crooks wouldn’t be alive today without the quick thinking of a physician who, he said, saved the life of his mother two years before he was born. 

She had gone in for a surgery to remove her gallbladder and, Crooks said, when doctors didn’t cauterize a second artery that was connected to the gallbladder, it caused internal bleeding. His father called Dr. Mike Jensen, a trusted family friend from Utah, who diagnosed the problem, which was relayed to the local doctors who were able to stop the bleeding. 

It’s that story, retold by his father in the years afterward, that drove him to health care and, eventually, to the long track he’s now on to become a physician. 

“Hearing my dad’s stories about Mike Jensen … and getting to know him really played a big role in my decision to become a physician,” Crooks said. “Just because he was such a stellar physician. He really cared about his patients. He would really listen, and his diagnostic ability was just off the charts.”

Now, the Cody High School and Northwest College grad, preparing for his second year of medical school in the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Wyoming WWAMI program, is learning the ins and outs of rural primary care at Powell Valley Healthcare as part of the school’s Rural Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP). 

Every summer, rising second-year students interested in rural and underserved medicine participate in this four-week program. These aspiring physicians are placed in rural primary care clinics throughout Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho — collectively known as the WWAMI region — where they engage directly with communities that often face significant health care access issues.

Crooks has dived in. He was set to be part of a C-section operation late last week and said he was excited to see the whole process and the care for the baby and mother afterward. 

“I just get excited about everything, like even health wellness checks, yearly updates,” he said. “I still get excited to see those.”

He said his exposure to so many doctors in Powell — including Dr. Mike Bohlman who Crooks spent the day with just before talking with the Tribune — should help him narrow his interest to the particular field he wants to pursue in future years. 

“The physicians in Powell are awesome,” he said. “They’re giving me a lot of really, really, really good experiences, and all of them are just absolutely stellar, top grade, not what you would expect in a rural community like Powell, but just absolutely stellar.”

So far he’s gotten to see family practice, and has lined up times to see pediatrics, general surgery and emergency medicine.

It’s a busy schedule for Crooks, a married father of two young kids who dove into college at Northwest after a two-year mission to Houston with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

“When I returned, I started going to Northwest, and I just made the decision. I was like, ‘you know, I’m just gonna do really, really well in college. I’m just gonna get straight A’s, and I think I want to go and be a doctor,’” he recalled. “I always knew I wanted to help people, and I want to be in some sort of capacity in health care. I wasn’t sure whether it was going to be as a nurse or as a PA or a pharmacist … then once I started investigating more and started getting shadowing experience with different physicians, that’s when I really knew that I wanted to be a physician to where I could help build plans with patients, and that’s what I love to do, is I love to communicate with patients and to help build health care plans with them.”

Crooks is one of 91 UWSOM students who signed up for RUOP rotations. According to the school, the RUOP program influences students toward a primary care career. In the 2025 residency match, 54% of students participating in RUOP chose a residency in general internal medicine, family medicine or pediatrics.

This four-week program will not be his only time spent in Powell. He’ll return to school for a few months to finish up this in class portion, culminating in a licensing exam, then he’ll be able to return to Powell for a five month rotation. 

“You spend a lot of time there to really get to know the community, to get to know how rural medicine operates and how it works,” he said. 

Crooks is dedicated to rural Wyoming medicine, hence his being a part of a program in WWAMI that aims to return young doctors to their home state to work in the industry. 

“It’s how you bring doctors back to Wyoming,” he said, adding, “So with this program you’re able to hopefully bring back doctors who, you know, they love Wyoming because they grew up here … and then they want to stay here because they want to raise their families here.”

Crooks is right on track.