When Michael Doster graduated from St. Edmond High School 16 years ago, he wasn’t planning on a career in medicine.

He went off to college with other plans in mind. But once he got interested in caring for people he knew exactly where he wanted to do that — back home in Fort Dodge.

After a stint working in hospital medicine at UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center, the advanced registered nurse practitioner is now settling into a family medicine practice.

“I like just being able to connect with people and have them feel that we’re caring about them,” he said.

Doster grew up on a farm near Barnum. He graduated from St. Edmond in 2010. He then went to Iowa State University in Ames to study sports science and kinesiology.

In the process, he said, he “got interested in caring for people.”

After earning his Bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University, he enrolled in Des Moines University. There, he trained as an advanced registered nurse practitioner.

He initially worked at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines.

In 2022, he returned to Fort Dodge to work at the local hospital.

He said he worked in hospital medicine, which is a kind of general inpatient practice aimed at getting people well enough to go home. Doster worked with adult patients; pediatrics is a separate specialty.

He worked in hospital medicine for four years. He said he moved to family medicine because he wanted to have more of a relationship with his patients.

“I loved the hospital, but I wanted to see these people again,” he said.

About two months ago, he moved into the UnityPoint Health — Family Medicine office at Second Avenue North and 15th Street. Since then he’s seen a steadily growing number of patients.

He and his wife, Alayna, have a 4-year-old daughter, Reese, and a 1-year-old son, Liam. They are expecting a third child to be born in April.

They live in a rural area near Barnum, not too far from the farm on which Doster grew up. He occasionally helps with the farm work by driving trucks loaded with grain to elevators or ethanol plants.