ER to Ecosystem 2

My first official patient encounter as a PA student was in a VA hospital near Tampa, Florida. It didn’t go as I’d hoped, but everyone starts somewhere.

A medical school professor had assigned each member of my class to different VA patients who  agreed to help us with our training. We were to obtain a comprehensive history from our patient, perform a physical exam, then share a succinct presentation to our classmates the next day. 

At that point in my training, I struggled to redirect the flow of conversation. It seemed like everything the patient had to say could be important, so I just let him talk and talk and talk. Gradually, I found ways to politely interject and keep us moving forward.

Two hours later, the visit was complete. I walked to the parking lot, frustrated and perplexed. All I could think was, “That was painful! Was this whole medical thing a mistake? How did I even get here?”

Well, how did I get into a medical career? Let’s rewind several years before that VA hospital visit.

During middle school and early high school, whenever someone asked what my major in college might be or what kind of career I wanted to pursue, my cheeky but honest response was “Anything but medicine!” 

You see, my father was a Family Medical physician, and my older brother followed exactly in Dad’s footsteps. I wanted to shake things up and be more original. 

As a child, the possibilities seemed infinite. But this was actually quite paralyzing. Despite having so many ideas for what to do, I didn’t have any sense of what I could actually do.

As a high school freshman, I dreamed of being an Air Force pilot or a guitarist in a rock band. Both seemed exciting and offered opportunities for learning and growth. I even imagined the superhero situation of “pilot by day, musician by night.” 

However, on a chilly, autumn day during my junior year, I found myself kneeling down in a field next to a railroad crossing. I picked up the hood ornament from the minivan my best friend was riding in when he was fatally struck by a train the previous morning. 

Helping carry Jared’s casket to the hearse was surreal and yet also one of the most real and profound moments in my life. The question about what to do with my life took on new weight. 

Jared and I shared the mindset of learning, growing, and giving. He was right there with me for so many of those moments as we explored opportunities, reaped their lessons, and sought ways to serve with what we learned. We often talked about ideas and plans for the future, the countless options we saw stretched before us. 

All of sudden, he was gone. Now he was just a name on a grave, a memory in my mind, but also a spark for something new.

All I could think about was how brief and precious and unpredictable this life is. And despite their good intentions, all of the people who had responded to my “Anything but medicine!” with a pithy “You’ve got plenty of time to decide” were now wrong. Life is brief. For me, it was precisely time to decide. Carpe Diem.

As I earnestly opened myself up to all of the possibilities--including medicine--my direction became ironically clear: I should train to be a Physician Assistant (PA). 

At the time of Jared’s death, Salesforce was just four years old. One wonders what I would have done had I known about careers in Salesforce back then. However, I can now see how my medical career helped me discover more about myself and how I especially thrive in certain environments, perfectly setting the path for me to ultimately pursue Salesforce. 

Fortunately for me, Medicine and Salesforce share a lot of commonalities, as I will expound on in Parts 3 and 4 of this series. When I chose the PA career, my experiences to that point had shown me that I perform best in these conditions:

• Problem-Solving: There are interesting problems to solve that require resourcefulness and innovation.

• Broad Inspiration: There is freedom and flexibility to draw from a variety of sources.

• Balanced Collaboration: There is a balanced combination of solo work and collaboration.

The more I learned about PAs, the more I saw how the PA career matched these conditions well.

PAs are excellent problem-solvers: PAs practice medicine very similarly to physicians (doctors). The practice of medicine involves eliciting and processing information about medical problems in order to find the best ways to approach diagnosis and treatment.

PAs are broadly inspired:  PAs have more flexibility than physicians, broadly trained so they are able to move between different specialties. This allows them to draw from their knowledge and experience from their previous roles while growing in their current role.

PAs work with balanced collaboration: While PAs are capable of practicing medicine with significant independence, they are integral to a medical team with a physician or team of physicians at the helm. Indeed, I think of a PA as the first mate of a ship, trusted with significant responsibilities while always having the captain to consult and ultimately take the lead. 

With all of the above in mind, PA school seemed like a great direction for me. It was then that I made the decision and focused my efforts on the goal of becoming a PA.

Pre-PA tracks were not as ubiquitous at that time, so I created my own. I shadowed PAs, read PA program websites, had phone conversations with faculty, and compiled the data into a comprehensive plan for success. 

In line with my learning/growing/giving mission, I had the opportunity to share my research with a couple dozen of my fellow Biology college mates who needed help deciding on a PA career or traditional medical school. My own advisor congratulated me on my strategy and these contributions, even acknowledging the expansion of his own understanding thanks to our meetings. 

A couple of months before the 6th anniversary of Jared’s death, I entered PA school. I got much better at redirecting the flow of patient conversations, along with many other skills, and I gratefully gave the Student Commencement Speech to my graduating class just over eight years after starting the journey to become a PA. 

I often ponder with solemn gratitude how the death of one of my best friends served as the catalyst for clear direction with my career.

The practice of medicine, especially Emergency Medicine, incorporates a whole host of skills (Part 3). Many of these skills are naturally transferable into the practice of a Salesforce professional (Part 4). In Part 5, I will explain what led to my choice to transition from one career to the other.