What does a day in your career look like?
I am a general pediatrician, and I work at Group Health Cooperative. I'm an outpatient pediatrician, which means that I see patients in a clinic setting. I am lucky enough to still have some hospital newborn care, so once every two months, for a week at a time, I get to see newborn babies. I love my clinic days because I am seeing anywhere from 2 to 3 day old newborns all the way up to young adults who have finished high school. My days are never the same. Every patient and family situation is different, and that’s what makes my job so exciting. It’s really neat to just connect with the patients, and either treat them or offer preventative care. In addition to seeing patients face to face, I get to do a lot of behind the scenes work with my nursing staff by answering messages that come through the electronic healthcare record.. So I'm responding directly to patients who have questions from afar.
In terms of what I do besides seeing patients and newborns, because GHC is a multi clinic organization, I don't have another general pediatrician at my clinic, so I get to collaborate with my other pediatric providers. We have meetings. I am a part of a peer review committee, so I get to review certain cases that I've encountered. I also maintain my pediatric board certification and my Wisconsin medical license by doing continuing medical education which usually involves conferences or virtual readings. I did my residency in 2013 to 2016, but countless different guidelines have come out since then, so it's super important to try to stay up to date.
How did you find your passion for medicine and what did your path to becoming a doctor look like?
I grew up in Minnesota, and both my parents are physicians. My dad is an allergist, and my mom is in internal medicine and specialized in geriatrics. And so I was always around these two hard working, smart, passionate people. In high school, I definitely excelled more in STEM. I always knew I wanted a career helping people, and since I was around medicine, I knew that could be a super cool career for me. I went to Boston College for my undergrad, where I was also a part of the swim team. I knew I wanted to be pre med, but didn't know what I wanted to specialize in. During college, I volunteered at a children's hospital, worked at Planned Parenthood, and just kept making sure I was in the right field. I studied hard for the MCAT, but I didn’t do amazing. I actually didn't get into med school, originally, and I was heartbroken.
After I graduated, I moved to Chicago, and I worked at the Northwestern Sleep Lab as a research assistant. I made connections with more physicians, and I actually restudied and retook my MCAT and then got into med school. I definitely had some backup ideas, but I knew I wanted to try to go to a medical school program. I went to University of Illinois med school, and then I got into residency here in Madison, Wisconsin. And then I met my partner, and now I have two beautiful kids and a job I love, and I am so thankful for how it worked out.
How did you find your passion for pediatrics as a specialty?
In medical school, you get to do all the rotations, and you get to experience all the different subspecialties. I really liked general surgery and I liked the fast pace of the emergency room. But OB/GYNs and Pediatrics really kind of had my interest. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take the extra steps for the other choice. The clinic setting felt better. I think obstetric and gynecology care is really interesting and beautiful, but schedules are kind of all over the place because women have babies at all times of the day. A pediatric life could be a little bit more predictable. As I was deciding, it also struck me that pediatrics is so beautiful, because you're dealing with vulnerable, tiny humans, but you're communicating with their parents.
What are some common misconceptions that people have about physicians or pediatricians?
In the last couple years, I’ve seen a lot more vaccine hesitant families who’ve seen too much information and media to the point that they’re doubtful. I spend a lot of time talking about safety and why I feel so strongly about all these varieties of vaccines, even though we don't really see these diseases as much anymore. They are important to keeping your kid healthy. Some families are open to hearing me out, and some families just refuse outright. I always have to decide how much information I want to share and how to give them some more education without offending them or really turning them off to kind of want to engage further.
What challenges do you see the medical field facing in the modern day?
I always worry about mental health in teenagers and how childhoods are changing with the amount of technology that's pervasive in our society. There's a lot of great, fun, educational tech, and then there’s also a lot of harm that comes from social media apps. Parents are, for the most part, doing their best to have limits and delay access. But I see a lot of mental health changes, and it’s tough for teens to accept screens as a cause of that. It comes down to making kids conscious of this and it gets better when you have people who are in the same vein of thought as you.
What are some soft skills that are important to be successful in your position?
Effective communication is vital. You need to be effectively communicating the diagnosis and treatment plan or treatment options to the family in a fast paced environment. Even communicating through MyChart, the online platform, is an important skill. Staying organized and managing my mental load is also important. I'm expected as an employee to be checking my email and keeping up with deadlines. I have to maintain all of my certifications and my Wisconsin license. You can be juggling a lot, so you have to know how to manage everything. Even maintaining my own well being, and thinking about my self care has been a really important part of finding the joy in my work and the balance.
What does being a leader mean to you?
Being a leader means recognizing the situation you are in and realizing that you have the ability to influence those around you, with your positivity and kindness. As a general pediatrician, I don't have a leadership role at GHC, but sometimes my colleague look to me as the pediatrician at the Sauk Trails Clinic. Even if you don’t have a formal leadership role, you should be able to speak for your position and carry yourself with professionalism. You can still be a leader among peers by carrying yourself in a positive and respectful way.
Who is a role model that’s shown you how to embody positive qualities in life?
My mom has been a fantastic role model for me as a physician and as a working mother. I also have a colleague at GHC, who sees my own children as their pediatrician. I feel like she took me under her wing, and I learned so much from her formally and informally. Having people in your life that inspire you, that you're able to aspire to be similar to is super important.
What is one last piece of advice you would give to young people looking to go into a professional field?
Try to connect with somebody in your field of interest. It can look a certain way from the outside, but having a real human connection to somebody who does it for a living is a really cool thing. If it’s medicine, you don’t need to have doctors in your own family. You can start by talking to your own doctor, or volunteering at a hospital or a clinic.