Get to Know OB/GYN, Dr. Larissa Bennis, M.D. [Dr. Larissa Bennis]

Dr. Larissa Bennis is a skilled obstetrician and gynecologist with Avera Medical Group in Brookings, South Dakota. In this video, she shares her background, education, and why she loves practicing OB/GYN, providing insight for patients and aspiring medical professionals alike.

  • Comprehensive OB/GYN care: Dr. Bennis practices a full spectrum of women's health, including clinic visits, surgical procedures, and delivering babies.
  • Strong local roots: Born in Milbank, SD, she completed her education at Augustana College and USD before residency in Kansas.
  • Procedural expertise: She performs colposcopies, endometrial biopsies, LEEP procedures, hysterectomies, tubal ligations, and ablations.
  • Patient diversity: She treats patients of all ages, from young females to older women, combining clinic care with surgical expertise.
  • Guidance for future physicians: OB/GYN offers a balanced mix of clinic, OR, and obstetrics, helping medical students determine their interests.

Frequently Asked Questions

Dr. Larissa Bennis is an OB/GYN with Avera Medical Group in Brookings, SD. She completed her medical school at the University of South Dakota and her OB/GYN residency at KU School of Medicine in Wichita, Kansas.

She provides comprehensive obstetric and gynecologic care, including clinic visits, surgical procedures like hysterectomies, tubal ligations, ablations, colposcopies, endometrial biopsies, LEEP procedures, and delivering babies.

OB/GYN is ideal for physicians who want a balance of clinic care, surgical procedures, and obstetrics. It allows for a variety of experiences, including seeing patients of all ages and performing both routine and complex procedures.

She encourages medical students to explore OB/GYN to understand whether they enjoy a mix of clinic, surgery, and obstetrics. This can help them determine if they prefer more clinic-focused specialties, purely surgical careers, or pediatrics.

Dr. Bennis enjoys providing care for patients of all ages, combining procedural expertise with hands-on obstetrics. Her approach offers continuity of care from clinic visits to labor and delivery, ensuring personalized attention for each patient.

Video Transcript

My name is Larissa Bennis. I was born and raised in Milbank, South Dakota. After I graduated from high school there, I did my undergraduate at Augustana College in Sioux Falls. I then did my medical school education at USD in Vermilion. I did my OB/GYN residency down at KU School of Medicine in Wichita, Kansas, and I am now an obstetrician and gynecologist here with the Avera Medical Group in Brookings.

What Do You Enjoy About Obstetrics And Gynecology?

It's kind of got everything. It's a very nice mix of clinic. You get to see patients and clinic. You get to see young females. You get to see older patients. We do endometrial biopsies, we do colposcopies, we do leaps. We do all of the fun stuff in the ORs, we do hysterectomies, we do tubal ligations, we do ablations, we do all of this other stuff. We deliver babies. It's the best of all the worlds.

What Advice Would You Give Medical Students?

We always would kind of tell the medical students that OB is a good time to decide what you want to do, because if you really just like the clinic stuff, then you should probably just stick with internal medicine or family practice, or something like that. If you just wanna be in the OR all the time, then maybe you need to look at doing like surgery or something else where you get to do procedures. If, when you deliver the baby, you don't want to give it to the mom, and you want to play with the kid all the times, maybe you should go into pedes. It actually ends up, it's just a very nice mix of everything. 

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