The Black Med Connect Podcast
Join host, Dr. Jasmine Weiss as she explores the inspiring stories of Black physicians and medical trainees at the intersection of medicine, culture, and innovation on the Black Med Connect (B-Med) podcast. Dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion in the physician workforce, this podcast addresses the unique challenges faced by Black doctors, medical students, residents, and fellows, while providing valuable career advice and insights.
From career advice and personal stories to discussions on health disparities and the latest innovations in medicine. Tune in and be a part of the growing community of Black medical professionals today!
The Black Med Connect Podcast
Why Community In Medicine Matters
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Embark on an extraordinary exploration of resilience and determination with four HBCU graduates who have carved their paths in the world of medicine. Dr. Jessica Young, Malik Mitchell, Dr. Endya Frye, and Dr. Brandon Keith Mills, our esteemed guests, will leave you awestruck as they unpack the sacrifices and triumphs that have defined their journeys. From the crucible of medical school to the demanding fields of clinical practice and academic research, they offer a beacon of inspiration for anyone aspiring to heal and help others.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the essential art of balance and self-care, with personal anecdotes that illustrate the vitality of maintaining hobbies and connections beyond healthcare. Our guests underscore the profound impact of robust support systems and the transformative power of mentorship. They bring to life the idea that being a physician isn't just about the science of medicine but also the heart of human interaction, with stories that reveal the intricacies of choosing a specialty, the nuances of patient care, and the juggling act of parenthood and professional life.
As the dialogue unfolds, we find ourselves in the throes of heartfelt discussions on the diverse careers within medicine. Each story, from an emergency physician's governance role to a pediatrician's venture into private practice, spotlights the importance of mentorship and the influence of community in the shaping of healthcare's future. Listen in for a rich tapestry of experiences that illuminate not just the careers of these medical professionals but also the indomitable spirit that drives them to push boundaries and redefine success in healthcare.
Preparing for Medical School Challenges
Speaker 1Are you wondering what it's like to go to an HBCU undergrad and become a physician? Well, today, on the Be Med podcast, I'm delighted to bring you the live recorded episode of the Be Med podcast directly from North Carolina A&T State University. We had four amazing panelists Dr Jessica Young, who is a clinical assistant professor of pediatrics and the associate program director for the preventive medicine residency program at UNC. We were also joined by Malik Mitchell, a first year medical student at UNC School of Medicine, with a passion for addressing health disparities. Our next panelist was Dr India Fry, who is an attending pediatrician at Greensboro Pediatricians and she also teaches as an adjunct clinical professor with the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine Medic Cell Program. And finally by Dr Brandon Keith Mills, an emergency medicine physician and partner at Mount Airy Emergency Physicians. He also serves as the chief of the medical staff at Northern Regional Hospital.
Speaker 1These amazing Aggie alumni shared their time with us on the first stop of the B-Med Amplified tour and shared all their tips and strategies on how to become a physician and ways to prepare as a pre-med. We had such a great time at A&T and they were such great hosts. So be sure to subscribe to the Black Men Connect podcast channel and like this video. Now let's jump right in to the episode. Each of you all talked about the family environment here, and I think that's such an unspoken thing that everyone else doesn't know in the world, but we know. And when you think about how you transitioned from your undergrad time to medical school and beyond, I'd like you to speak on how you made the transition, and I also want you to take a little bit of time to speak on any challenges you may have faced during your time at A&T and as you pursued medical school.
Speaker 2So, dr Weiss, this question has morphed in my head while I've been sitting here thinking about it, so if I don't answer, the question. Let me know this is something I'm passionate about, so I'm just going to kind of talk and cover a couple things.
Speaker 2So number one being at A&T, I think the one main theme that I can take out of it is tenacity. Right, that's something that you it's instilled into you. No one's saying, hey, I'm teaching you tenacity right now, but through the challenges and through the things that you face, the nuances through your everyday activities here at A&T is something you're gaining, whether you realize it or not.
Speaker 2So, whether it's you know, you're getting ready to start the semester and your scholarship hasn't come through and they're threatening to drop your classes and you're sitting here thinking what in the world am I gonna do?
Speaker 3but it works out in the end.
Speaker 2I mean, you're still here. No one dropped you, you know, dropped your classes. They didn't kick you out of school. You're here and you figured out how to make it work. And that is a life lesson, whether you realize it or not, and it's something that you're going to draw back on through your experiences here at A&T. And so a theme you've been hearing consistently from everyone is sacrifice. Right, everyone had to sacrifice something in order to get to where they are right now, to the place that they are currently, and so for me I think that's one of the biggest hurdles I had was having to sacrifice my social life. I felt like everybody else was going out and partying every Thursday, friday, saturday, and for me poor, pitiful me I had to pick one of those days to go out and party. You know what I mean. So you're making that sacrifice because you know what's greater, you know what you want to accomplish in the end, and so I think that's something that also is a theme that's going to manifest throughout the rest of your life. You're going to have to sacrifice when you get to medical school. You're going to have to sacrifice when you start a family. I mean, there's always going to be something that you're going to sacrifice your want for either your greater good or for something that you need or your family needs, and so I think that's something important to go ahead and learn early on.
Speaker 2When we talk about challenges, when I got to medical school I'm very transparent. When I got to medical school, as far as black males are concerned, we're a dying breed of medicine. You know, you look at the 1970s, and there were greater numbers of black males in medical school then than there are currently, and so when I got to medical school, it was a well-known fact that there was no black male in the recent history that had graduated medical school in four years. They had to repeat classes, they had to try things over again, some of them failed out completely, and so that was a daunting task. To begin with, that was before I even stepped foot and took my first class there, and so, again, as India said, I had to get out of my own head. I had to realize that my steps were already ordained.
Speaker 2I went to my source, I didn't go to my thoughts, I went to God, I went to prayer, and I think that's one of the important things that you can't forget. It's easy to forget that when you get there because you've got, you know they talk about medical school like it's drinking from a fire hydrant. No, it's like drinking from a waterfall. I mean, you're literally trying to take in a lot of information that's constantly coming at you. As soon as you think you have a break, you don't, you know you've got more information coming, and so I think it's important to remember, like I said, who your source is, number one.
Speaker 2Number two I like to think of our medical school as little A&T. I mean, I think in my class alone we might have had five or six people from A&T in my year, and so that was an important source to have to know that we had a shared, similar experience, we had a shared background and we also had a shared strength in that we've been through worse and we know we can make it through it. So if I make it, we're all going to make it, and so one of the programs that we had when I started medical school was the Big Buddy Little Buddy program, and so I think that was also something important to see that you had someone a year ahead of you that was helping to pull you along as they went, and then somebody below you that you're saying, no, I mean I've been there, you're going to do it. That imposter syndrome is real.
Speaker 2I mean I remember talking to my mom after I finished my last block of tests, my first year of medical school, and she says okay, do you think you belong there now? I mean you've been there a whole year, you've not filled out. I mean don't you think you belong now? I mean, I guess. I mean I'm.
Speaker 3I'm getting there. You know what I?
Speaker 2mean she's like well, you don't belong, I don't know, who does you know? And so that's the important thing is that that nothing is by accident. You are where you are because you earned it no one gave that to you. You made it through A&T, no one handed you your degree, and you're in medical school because you belong there, and so never forget that you're there because you're supposed to be there. You're ordained to be there, and walk that path confidently.
Speaker 1I love that. I love what you all said about tenacity and sacrifice. I think one of the things as an undergrad it's really frustrating, right. Like you said, I remember when my line assistant was going out four days a week and I had to wait until the weekend and I was devastated. It's like why am I here studying for the MCAT and everybody's out having a good time? But I want to ask, would you I won't even ask, I know you won't You'll say you won't, you wouldn't replace that time.
Speaker 1You had to sacrifice studying for the MCAT for your journey. Now would you Exactly so, as you guys are studying, I just want you to keep in mind that it may seem really difficult and daunting, but when you look back on the journey, all you'll remember is all the amazing parties you did get to go to and the fact that you passed MCAT and got into med school. So that's just something to keep in mind. And so you all have mentioned a lot about challenges and struggles and difficulty and the importance of family and community. I want to switch gears a little bit and ask what qualities do you think our students here should think about and what types of activities should they think about as they prepare for their journey to medical school or any health professional school that they choose to attend, for their journey to medical school or any health professional school that they choose to attend.
Speaker 2So, activity-wise, I think the most important thing I'll never forget when I was in residency medical school I don't remember, maybe it was later medical school someone asked me what are your hobbies? I was like hobbies.
Speaker 1I had a hobby since I was in high school, when I was on the basketball team or playing tennis or something like that.
Balance in Medical School
Speaker 2I hadn't had time for hobbies in my head, but you know, there's been this big push for being holistic and not, you know, just from like a holistic medicine standpoint, but being a well-rounded, real, whole person. You know, what is it that keeps you going?
Speaker 2What is it that keeps you happy, whether that's exercising happy, whether that's exercising, whether that's running, whether that's traveling, you know, whatever it is it's making sure that you encompass that, that you continue to bring that with you when you go to medical school, because you start to be a real person. Um, I keep talking about my mom because you know she's talking about the ledge many times when I was in med school.
Speaker 2But one of the things she said to me, um, when I was having a breakdown during you. You know one of our test blocks, you know she says get out of the house, get in your car and drive to Walmart, Walmart. Why am I going to Walmart? Just because there's real people there. You're not in your little circle, your bubble of people who are studying for medical school, who are just as crazy as you are.
Speaker 2You're around regular people who aren't thinking about studying. They're buying their groceries. They're buying, you know, food and clothes for their baby, like go be around regular people, and it gives you perspective, and that's the same thing that having these hobbies it gives you perspective. And so it's important to remember who you are outside of medicine, because that doesn't define you. You know everything that you do as a whole defines who you are, and so it's easy to lose sight of that, but I think that an important thing is to remember who you are, what your purpose is and the things that you enjoy doing throughout your entire journey in life.
Speaker 6Well, brandon took the words out of my mouth. But I agree, and you are doing those hobbies, because even me right now, like when you put it into the real world, me sitting in my office talking to my patients I'm a pediatrician, so not only am I talking to kids, from babies up until 18, but I'm talking to parents and so being able to communicate, so having good communication skills so that they can understand and communication is more than just talking, there's that non-verbal and things of that sort and so I think even with that, when you're communicating, that has been able to allow me to connect my patients a little bit more, because there's a few of my patients, their moms, they won't even say anything, but just looking at, looking at that body language, allows me to get more out of that conversation, from what they say but yeah, I'm fine, but then I learned that fine is a lot of things.
Speaker 6You know how you say it, I'm so. You find it really fine. So communication is good. That effectiveness, having your support group, having your family, is a big thing because, like Brandon said, your mom or people who are like your family, so Brandon's my family, jessica's my family, jasmine's my family, I met her. What was it? Zumba? So I mean all the different things that you go along and really taking care of yourself, because if you don't take care of yourself, nobody else will. You can't take care of other people. That's going along and being honest with yourself during that time. Also, if you need to, having a therapist. You know I would try to debunk that stigma that having a therapist means that you're crazy and even taking that word off, it's really being able to find those coping skills because you encounter things every day. How do we do this? How do we have that time that we can either meditate or pray, go back to your source, all those things that come along. And having, like you said, the tenacity as you go forth, reaching back to your supporters, getting help early, because a lot of time you're all are intelligent, you're smart and you'll figure it out.
Speaker 6That was one struggle I had in medical school. I'm normally figure it out and I did great. I graduated with all A's from A&T and all those things and I figured it out. But then with medicine, you're drinking from a water fountain while you're trying to go through the ocean. You know that's a lot of stuff you trying to get and then trying to figure that out down the down the pathway is challenging and so being able to get that support and help that you need early will be helpful.
Speaker 6Because at A&T and we were at ECU there was another guy named Malik that we talked about. He said whatever you need. All of them said whatever you need, I'll help you. And he sat down with me one day because I was having trouble in my first semester. He was like we're going to work through how to do this study schedule. We're going to work through all this. He wanted to go into surgery and he was on a surgery rotation. We wrote it down. He was like the future, we're going to look back at this day and we're going to laugh because we're going to make it out of here. Because I was like I remember crying when home and I was like if I'm going to make it through this. This is a lot harder than I anticipated. To help you, more than likely they will Just don't be scared. The worst they can do is say no. So that's the biggest thing Don't be scared. And it's okay to be fearful and just go for it. Move through it and you're going to make it through.
Speaker 6So I went around the whole answer but at the end of the day, we're here for you. Have all the things that you need and come back to us here, even after the fact.
Speaker 5You may be a year later, but this reminds where you met us and we're gonna help you so in terms of like activities and things you should be doing while you're here at a t, I would say, things you enjoy and then doing, uh, taking leadership roles and like those organizations that you truly enjoy they can be medical or non-medical related and then showing consistency over time in those roles. I think consistency is a key thing in terms of your activities like.
Speaker 5It shows that you can stick with something over time and you can be dedicated to something and I think medicine is a career where, like admissions, people want to see someone that they know is dedicated. Because you have to be dedicated in medicine, because it is hard, like everyone was saying, there's a lot of stuff you have to know. I'm in the midst of it now. So it's definitely like drinking from a waterfall and you have to like, like you said, you have to go back to your roots, go back to like what gives you strength and like go back to your. Why like you to go back to your roots? Go back to like what gives you strength and like go back to your. Why, like you said, go back to your roots, go back to your family and truly like, remind yourself, like, why are you doing this? Because this some days might come back home from med school and I'm like.
Speaker 5I'm tired because it's so much to learn in a short amount of time. And you're like I'm I have to study for my medical science class, but then I got to study for my doctorate class and then I got to essay due for my social health systems class. So it's like you're not only. It's not. You don't only need to know the science, you have to know how to talk to the patients. You got to know about the health system, bi things, all that and you have to balance it and take care of yourself. So I would start with you know showing dedication to like something here at A&T over time.
Speaker 5Like I said something you enjoy doesn't necessarily have to be being the president of MAPS. It can be being the president of, you know, like Atlanta Aggies or something like that, but that you show dedication to it over time. So yeah, I think that's a great place to start at.
Careers in Medicine and Mentorship
Speaker 3Yeah, so I co-signed everything all three of them said and kind of still a mix of their answers. I definitely agree. I think you know, as everyone has said, you know medical school is hard. It doesn't mean you can't do it. I mean, obviously you know we're here today for a reason and so it's very much possible. It's just it's a challenge, and so the more that you can figure out those coping skills and just knowing how to really motivate yourself and push yourself early on, it's really going to help you thrive when you get to that more challenging environment. So I think that's something that if you can do while you're here, that'll be a great skill to have. And kind of speaking to what Malik was kind of mentioning too, I think the more you learn to multitask so learning how to juggle many different things happening at once because, like he mentioned, when you get to medical school you're probably going to be studying for multiple exams at any given time. Like Brandon and India mentioned, we would have exam blocks and so what that meant is we would have usually two days, but we would have multiple tests back to back, like on those days, and so you're having a lot of exams like every. What do we do every six weeks every six weeks, and so the more you can learn like how to multitask and that can be from you know your classes and joining different organizations and taking on those leadership roles. Those types of skills will be directly transferable to you once you go to medical school and you're expected to then multitask with all these different things you have to do all of a sudden and then studying.
Speaker 3One thing I realized, like looking back, is that I didn't really know how to study like that until I got to medical school. I thought I did and I like it didn't say you know, did really well here. So I was like, okay, I must know how to study. But then, once I got to medical school and realized what I was used to doing was not going to work, I'm like, okay, I have to figure something else out, and so if you can figure out like your study styles early on, that might help you also when you go to medical school. And so, like, for me, I'm a big visual learner and so I learned that, okay, if I can like draw something out for me, if I can like draw something out for me, if I can map it out, it's going to be easier for me to be able to easily pull that information for when I need it, like in a test, and so I had to learn that through various different styles. And so for me that was a little bit of challenge when I first got to medical school, because I had to play around with these different kind of studying types before I figured out what really worked well for me.
Speaker 3You know, some people worked or did really well in studying in group settings, other people really needed that independent time, and so just thinking of little things like that, if you can figure that out before you go to medical school, that will definitely serve you well.
Speaker 3And then the last thing I'll say is thinking about your team of mentorship and what that looks like, and I would encourage you all to have many different mentors. And so somebody like Malik, who is currently in the grind in medical school, somebody like me, india or Brandon, who are already out in the field, have some experience under our belt an older physician, someone that is doing something you want to do If you want to be a pediatrician, making sure that you are connected with the pediatrician, or if you want to do emergency medicine, making sure you have a mentor there. So just thinking about what that network of mentorship will look like for you and making it as diverse as possible so you're getting a lot of different perspectives and having a lot of people essentially, that you can follow on when you need it, because you will need it. So those are probably the three things that I would encourage you all to think about while you're here.
Speaker 1Definitely. I love all of the things you said you spoke to. The key highlights I'll take away is faith, whether that, whatever your source, is family my family's back there supporting me now so it never ends. So your story of moms, you know, being called and helping you through and the struggles my mom knows we prayed before every step exam, before every board exam. So just having that support system, as you all said, and then making sure that you are figuring out who you are now and what you enjoy so you can continue to pull that through your career, because you're always going to be busy and I think what happens is, as a student, you think, oh, okay, once I get to med school, oh, I might have the time to pick it back up, but no, it only gets more and more busy.
Speaker 1And then what you spoke to about communication, I really want to emphasize too, because I think we don't realize those skills translate so well. Every day we're talking to patients, right. Every day we're talking to parents, you know as pediatricians and you in the emergency room. You're talking to every age group as well. It's not just about can you study and get the grades, those intangible skills of can I make eye contact? Can I read body language? Can I really be excited when I talk to somebody I meet? Those things really matter too. So you all spoke to some great qualities that I hope you all can take away from what our panelists have said, and so I'm going to have. I have one last question and then we'll open it up to audience questions. But if you could each talk about where you are now in your career and what you're doing and how you see yourself continuing to make the impact in medicine that you hope to make, we can talk about that together we're colleagues, by the way.
Speaker 1We're both assistant professors at USC.
Speaker 3So yeah, I'm off the office here at UNC School of Medicine. As Dr Weiss mentioned, I'm a pediatrician and preventive medicine physician, whicha lot of people don't know what preventive medicine is. So I'd love to talk with you all about it if you're interested. Briefly, just to give you kind of an overview of what that is. It's a specialty of medicine that essentially treats like populations as patients, and so you get to do a lot more public health-minded practice and so if that's something you're really interested in, I would love to talk with you about it, because not a lot of people know about that field.
Speaker 3But again, I'm a doctor at UNC and I do a lot of different things. I won't bore you all with that because I literally could spend an hour talking about all the things I do, but I do a mix of a lot of different jobs. I stand my own patients in clinic. I'm also supervising our resident physicians in clinic and teaching them as well do something teaching. I'm here and there with the medical school students and then other students. That's just looking for kind of mentorship and medicine. And I do a lot again with my preventive medicine background, a lot of public health work, and so I work with the state health department on some projects. I do a lot of kind of physician education, where I get to essentially virtually travel to places all over the country to teach physician groups about things that they should be thinking about and how to better take care of their patients.
Speaker 3As Dr Weiss mentioned the associate program director for our preventive medicine residency at UNC as well so do a lot of different things, are very rewarding, very busy, and I'm a mom and a wife yes, I have a home life too, so, like she said, it doesn't stop it. Just you know things, just kind of add on and you learn how to multitask and you know just kind of handle it with grace. But yeah, I would love to talk with anyone afterwards if you're interested about any of that. But yeah, do a lot of different things now, which is very rewarding and exactly what I wanted to do when I kind of thought about how I wanted my career to look. So I'm very happy to be where I am today so I'm just beginning my medical journey.
Speaker 5I'm a first year medical student at UNC. I currently serve as one of the co-presidents for the student national medical association at UNC School of Medicine. I am a National Future Leadership Project fellow at like National SNMA, where I'm getting skills you know, learning how to potentially be a leader at the regional and national level of SNMA.
Speaker 5I'm a part of the medical education scholarly concentration at UNC, where I'm a part of the medical education scholarly concentration at UNC, where I'm learning about how to pivot medical academic medicine from the perspective of a medical educator. I want to teach in the future and potentially do research at the intersection of, like medical education and public health, and so, yeah, that's a little bit about me. I'm interested in anesthesiology currently and I'll be doing research this summer at MassGen, Massachusetts General Hospital in anesthesiology and chronic pain management.
Speaker 5So, yeah, that's a little bit about my journey first year medical student and happy to talk to anyone after the program about medical school and the transition to medical school and what it's like being a first year medical student and answer any questions you have.
Speaker 6All right. So I'm currently in private practice at Greensboro Pediatricians. Been there about five years now. I am in the current process of becoming partners, so that takes a long time. So we still hope to be able to answer that pretty soon. I'm an adjunct professor with UNC School of Medicine with the immediate Excel program, and so what that is is if the students do well within the program, they already have the undergraduate degree.
Speaker 6Some are masters program, but they have an automatic admission into UNC School of Medicine, and so this is our third year in the program and so I've had about six students that have come through me since then. I also partnered with A&T, so I've had about six students that have come through me since then. I also partner with A&T, so I have an A&T student that partners with me each year that shadows, and so if they do well with me during that year, I do write them a letter of recommendation for medical school, and so my last two years they both are in medical school. Right now I have a new student with me. Currently.
Speaker 6There's another thing I work with A&T's pre-medical department. I cannot say everything right yet because we're in the current works and haven't filled all the stuff out yet, but that is something I'm working with within the pre-medical department so that we can continue to have opportunities for students, because we are not connected officially with the medical school, but hopefully we'll have some things prepared for you all. And so a lot of my thing is about mentorship and making sure we have those opportunities for our students If I can't have them in my office. I do a lot of mentoring If they don't shadow me. So I have some students that found me online and do things of that sort.
Speaker 6And then outside of that, I'm very big within my community, giving back to Greensboro, and so I'm on the board at the YWCA here in Greensboro and then the Pettiford Foundation, and so that's where Lupus Research and support within here, and then Roxborough, north Carolina, and so I always say that in the sense of I know that I have a part in medicine, but part of me being a pediatrician especially primary care it's not just medicine, it is a way that you can teach, it's giving back into your community, it's also being a counselor, it's being nutritionist. There's so many different facets of that that preventative side of medicine that I want to see because we are building our future generations, and so that's where I see myself. Even though I'm here at graysboro pediatricians, my mom always says she doesn't see me just being a physician, and so I'm seeing that trickle in slowly over time because I know this is what I've been called to do and so I'm hoping that my calling will be a light to others so that you can achieve what you've been called to do.
Speaker 2So I'm currently a partner at Mount Airy Emergency Physicians working with staff for a private company that staffs the hospital in Mount Airy. I've been there for about seven years and I am the chief of staff there at the hospital as well. So as far as some of the medical decisions that are made, I guess for the doctors and nurse practitioners and PAs on staff, we're kind of the governing body that helps to make some of those decisions. I'm also a father to two boys. That's probably my biggest, happiest, yet most stressful job that I have. And I'm also a proud husband to my wife, who I met in medical school. So being active in the community, being active in the church, you know, trying to give my boys some of these same principles that we're talking to you guys about, that you guys I'm sure already have. You know, like I said, that's two full-time jobs there.
Speaker 4But happy to help connect with any of you guys who have any questions any way that we can help.
Speaker 1I mean, I'm sure I speak on behalf of all of us that we're happy to do it. I love that, I love that. So, you guys, see, I see. So this time we're gonna open it up to audience questions and well, well, you guys, you know, if you can stand up, say who you are and say what year you are and then ask your question, I just want to highlight the fact that there's a lot of diverse interests represented here. Right, you heard private practice, you heard research, you heard preventive medicine and public health. For me, it's research, it's having an entrepreneurship bug, it's seeing patients, it's teaching. So you can do a lot of different things in medicine and I want you all to start to think about that early as you go along your journey. So, with that being said, does anybody have a question they'd like to ask?
Speaker 4Hi, my name is Ayan Anyaborechi. I'm a third year pre-med mathematical student and my question to you all is you kind of touched on this with why you're interested in medicine, but I wanted to know how did you know what specialty best suited you and how did you know that you were interested in?
Speaker 2it.
Speaker 3So when I started out I wanted to go into pediatrics.
Exploring Medical Specialties in Training
Speaker 2The person who inspired me to go into medical school was my pediatrician, and so I thought, for sure, that's what I wanted to do. I got to medical school, I did my pediatrics rotation and I said I think this is for me Like you know it's if you know me, I am outgoing. I am all over the place. My mind is racing. So I needed something that fit that same kind of mold, that same personality, and for me it wasn't pediatrics. I enjoyed family medicine. That was my first rotation. I said I think I want to be a family medicine physician and the next thing I did was OB and you have to do a little bit of the OR.
Speaker 2You have to do a little bit of outpatient clinic. I said I'm gonna be an obstetrician. Then the next one was sight and see it, and I'm not doing sight, so I did internal medicine. I think following that I was like I like some caveats of internal medicine, some of the facets there. I could be a cardiologist, could be a gastroenterologist. I might want to do that.
Speaker 2I did peds and I said I think I was actually more disappointed and hurt, because that's why I went into medical school thinking I was going to be a pediatrician and realized it wasn't for me, which I think is just as valuable as figuring out what you do want to do and I think the last rotation I did that year was surgery and and I enjoyed surgery I said maybe this could be what I do.
Speaker 2I think I sat down over the summer and I thought about it and I said I'm not a morning person. I can't see myself waking up at 4 o'clock, having to be there for a 7 o'clock start getting prepared for the day. So I said surgery's out the door, plus, all my patients are mostly asleep. I'm operating on them and I like to talk and I can't talk to my patients that are asleep so I can see them in follow-up in clinic.
Speaker 2But the patients you see in follow-up in clinic are probably not the ones that you want to take care of every day, so that's a whole other story so then I had to sit down with our advisor and thought about, okay, what might fit me, and we came up with maybe anesthesia and maybe emergency medicine, and so we're coming down to the you know, the 11th hour, where I should have already made a decision by now and I did some away, rotations and anesthesia and said I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the procedures, I enjoyed being busy and seeing different facets of medicine. However, it was that same kind of issue of early mornings patients that are mostly asleep and then being in a cold, secluded OR for the most of the time. So then I did emergency medicine and I felt like I had found my calling, secluded OR for the most of the time. So then I did emergency medicine and I felt like I had found my calling.
Speaker 2I had a little bit of OB, where I get to deliver babies. I had a little bit of the anesthesia where I'm intubating patients, I'm starting central lines. I had a little bit of the family medicine component and that I'm seeing patients of all age ranges, literally from birth to death, seeing a little bit of everyone. And I even got some of that psych in there, whether I asked for it or not so.
Speaker 2I felt like I had all components of medicine wrapped up into one with that same fast pace that I needed. That kept me guessing, kept me on my toes, and so I feel like emergency medicine ultimately found me, and so it was the right match for me.
Speaker 6I think for me I always wanted to be a pediatrician. That was like what kind of hit me at the beginning. But you don't really know until you go through it. And so at my church at a young age they allowed me to be the assistant youth director and so it was over all the age groups. So I worked with the babies up until they were going off to the high school age and so with that just, I'm very bubbly.
Speaker 6I talk like Brandon. I like to talk a lot, being him. If we're at conferences there, he's there, I'm here. We never can get a picture because we're both talking somebody, and so it allows me to be myself.
Speaker 6I walk in rooms I have had to learn does not bust in too many rooms at work because the kids make behind the door but they but'll help me.
Speaker 6I watch Disney movies, I sing, I keep to do that and I really want to be like just be there with them when they're developing Adults. I love you all, but you've already made your choice in your mind of what you will and will not do. You know I'm going to help take care of my dad, Love him to death, but it takes a lot to deal with that older person, I joke around with it, but to say that I like to make sure that we can go ahead and prevent those long-term illnesses that we have beforehand. And so I think with pediatrics it was very much of who I was and what my beliefs were long-term, of making sure that you wanted to be what you want to be in the long run. I can talk about every facet what school you're going to, what your interests are and all that, and so that's why I saw myself in the primary care setting. Now I went in there with that mindset but, I, always kept my mind open in medical school.
Speaker 6So my first rotation was surgery, because I said I'm going to get it over with, but it was exciting. I said I'm going to get it over with, but it was exciting. I called my mentor. I said we had called and I stayed up for 24 hours and I got the V in here and she said this too shall pass. And it did.
Speaker 6But um, I don't want to get it four o'clock in the morning, but I enjoyed it. So each time I went I saw a surgery resident who had a similar personality as me, was very bubbly and getting in there family medicine. I like to talk to everybody my family, joke around and say you would do well in a nursing home because you go in there and have fun times with the older people and so just keeping that open mind as you went there and then as you delve in to see what is your passion, what can you see yourself getting up to do? So the Malik said go back to your why.
Speaker 6And I encourage you even record yourself now why do I want to be a doctor, why am I here? And each step that you take, each phase that you go into, do another one, or whether it's writing it down, and remind yourself of those things, Because when you're in the thick of things, you can forget why you got to that place. And so I would say that's kind of how I got to where I was. I had it in my mind, but it flourished and developed over time, because you don't really know much until you get into it, as Malik probably knows. Once you got in it, you're like, oh, this is truly what it is. And now you're like, OK, we're making it through, and so I think that's what you'll get. You'll have the mindset here. But once you get your feet rolling, you get in that ocean, you're treading water.
Speaker 6You know somebody throw that life jacket out and you say this is the place that's pulling me in the closest.
Exploring Medical Specialties and Career Paths
Speaker 5So I have not chosen a specialty yet, because I'm still a first year, but I would like to say that it's good to keep your mind open, I feel like, especially when you're first starting at a med school. Right now I'm interested in anesthesiology, but who knows, I could change. I'm open to, I'm flexible.
Speaker 5I'm not super slow and fixated on anesthesiology, because, as you move, I'm in the preclinical phase right now, so we're learning about all the different body systems drugs, the pathology, the physiology, all that stuff and um I don't know like certain blocks of things I've never thought about. I'm like well I'm kind of good at this, like um, I never thought I would be interested in this like our pulmonology blog, never, ever thought about that.
Speaker 5But I was like I kind of this is kind of fun to me like I kind of like this so as you move through blogs, as you learn about things. Or like my circulatory slash cardiology block, I thought that was really cool too. And so as you move through things, learn more about different body systems, and then I'm not at this part yet. I'm sure my mind might change about some things.
Speaker 5But when you get to your third year, like when you're in the hospital and you're actually like in the midst of those clinical settings and not just hearing about it on the TV show or watching a vlog about it on YouTube. But you're actually doing it. A lot of people I know they've changed their minds. I knew one of my friends. She wanted to go into neurosurgery and then she went on her surgery rotation and saw she didn't like it pretty much. And now she's thinking about neurology. And so just keeping your mind open and you know, while you're in medical school I think is a good thing, but it's good to have something to think about or lean toward something, but still like keep an open mind.
Speaker 3Yeah, I think for me kind of similar to India. I always kind of had this inclination that I wanted to be a pediatrician and then when I came here and got connected with MAPS and Dr White and the shadowing program that India mentioned, I got paired with a pediatrician, dr Chris Miller, who is actually now India's colleague at Greensboro Pediatricians and I just love the work that he did. I loved observing him, how he interacted with his patients, the relationships he was able to build with his patients, but also the relationships he built with the parents and the family, the caregivers that came in with the child. I like how he got to do kind of a little bit of everything. He wasn't just confined to just the medicine of it right. Like he got to do a little bit of mentorship and talk to his patients about what they wanted to be when they grew up and kind of instill some of that like you can do it and just kind of helping them with that motivational speech from again someone, particularly for his black patients. You can imagine how important that was for them to see him in that field and so just watching him and how he was able to connect with the families that he saw and the things that he did outside of the community. I just saw myself doing that. But even with that, you know, like everyone has said, I went to medical school thinking like I think I want to be a pediatrician but maybe I should keep an open mind and think about all the other specialties that are available, because there are just so many opportunities and I pretty much narrowed it down.
Speaker 3Once I did my third year rotations to pediatrics, family medicine and OB-GYN, but pretty much after I did my pediatrics rotation I decided on pediatrics. I think I wasn't, you know, no shade to adults, older people, but I realized that just wasn't my passion to provide care to older population, elderly population. It just wasn't something that really excited me. For OB, I really liked the delivering babies part, but the kind of being in the OR guy part wasn't really my thing and so I narrowed it down to pediatrics for that reason and I think it's the best specialty ever. I mean it's just so fun. You get to do a lot of cool things and connect with a lot of different people and really help people, especially when they're experiencing vulnerable moments. A lot of people will lean on us as pediatricians as someone to help guide them and I enjoy that. Since I am another specialty as well, I can speak briefly to that For preventive medicine. I honestly had not heard of that specialty until I was almost all the way through my pediatrics residency.
Speaker 3So by then I had graduated medical school. I was in pediatrics training and, like most of my colleagues at the time, we were thinking about, well, what are our next steps going to be? Are we going to go on to fellowship and specialize like pediatric cardiology, pediatric gastroenterology, or are we going to primary care? And so those were kind of the two pathways that people took, but for me I felt like I didn't really fit well into either one of those. I knew I wanted to do primary care pediatrics, but I didn't want to do that with all of my time and for me I had this, this desire to fulfill this like community partnerships and practicing medicine from kind of a higher systems level standpoint.
Speaker 3I really wanted to do that. It was very interested in public health but didn't really know how to get the training to be a physician in that area, and so I'm a millennial. I hopped on Google and it's like what other training programs are available, if any, that I can gain the skill set that I'm looking for to really practice population health and to really address things like health disparities that are so prevalent that we see, you know, every day in our practice. And so I came across preventive medicine and when I read about it I was like this is exactly what I'm looking for, exactly what I want to do will allow me to gain those skills to really address problems from a higher systems level standpoint. So that's kind of how I got into preventive medicine.
Speaker 4Good evening everyone hi. My name is Alira Burnett. I'm a first year biology student, a freshman biology student, so my question was I have a couple questions and I'll try to narrow them down For one how did you romanticize being a student, like you know, being a long term student and that? My next question was you know either from Dr Mills or Dr Young, how is it being like a parent?
Speaker 4I don't know if you are a parent as well but if you are a parent, like, how is it being a parent and balancing, like the life of a doctor? And then, lastly, financially, was it worth it? And that was two.
Speaker 1I'm going to repeat the question.
Speaker 3Well, I'll answer your second question about being a parent and being a physician, because, like Brandon said, being a parent is my favorite job. It's the most rewarding job I have. As much as I love seeing my patients in clinic, nothing gives me greater joy than to be able to raise my baby girl. I have a three and a half year old, so, to put it plainly, it's a challenge.
Speaker 3I think both Brandon and I are both working full time, and so medicine is a very demanding career and so, going back to something I said earlier about, it's very important to learn how to multitask and to know how to handle a lot of different things coming at you at once, because once you are a parent, it's nonstop. It's nonstop Like you are on 24-7. And so rewarding, but it's hard. So, I think, just learning how to also, you know bringing in some of the other things that's been said, like what are your hobbies? Learning how to just be a person outside of medicine, if you know you especially want to have a family, one day there will come a time where you know you have to prioritize your family and some things with your job and with medicine. You just kind of have to let go for that moment, and so just knowing how to really have that good work-life balance, it's really helpful. I'm still figuring it out.
Speaker 3It's hard, I'm still figuring it out you know, some days and I used to hear people say this all the time before I became a mom, but now that I'm living it. I'm like oh yeah, this is what they mean. But you know, sometimes you're the best doctor. You're like killing it in the game when it comes to being a physician and doing things for your patient, but maybe you feel like you fell short as a parent.
Speaker 2And then there are other days where I'm like, well, but maybe you feel like you fell short as a parent.
Speaker 3And then there are other days where I'm like, well, I'm killing it as a mom, I'm doing all these things and you know my baby girl is thriving, but you know, I feel like I let some projects go that I really need to pick back up on at work, and so it's a balance and just giving yourself grace. I think is so important when you are a parent and also in a demanding career. I know you had other questions. I also in a demanding career. I know you had other questions. I don't know if anybody else wants to answer one of the other ones. I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1You had a question about financially. Is it worth it to you the journey to medicine? Somebody want to answer that one.
Speaker 2So yeah, so I think anything that makes you whole and fulfills you is financially worth it. Okay, so you know, we were fortunate enough to go to, at the time when I started, the cheapest medical school in the country. It was not by the time I graduated, but still on the lower end of things comparatively on the national scale.
Speaker 3So would I go back and do it again? I certainly would.
Speaker 2I think that it's important to follow your passion, follow your dream, and so at what cost.
Speaker 2You know whether it's, whether, to me, to put it bluntly, the financial costs didn't pale in comparison to the cost of missing birthdays and funerals and weddings and family events, family reunions, and so you know. But again, it's that sacrifice, it's that tenacity that I was telling you guys about. You know I paid the money because I had to pay to play. But the thing that people don't talk about is that you're going to miss a lot of things that are going on in your family, your friends' lives, that you know. You're making that sacrifice because this is what's important to you. And so for me to answer your first question about romanticizing, you know, the education piece. I enjoy learning.
Speaker 2I mean, I'd be lying if I said I didn't, but I'm not the guy that's, you know, wanting to go sit down at a lecture, you know, as opposed to going out and hanging out with my friends because I'm so social. So the part for me that kept me going, that kept me thriving throughout the whole experience, was this is a means to an end. And I know ultimately I want to become a doctor. I know that this is my calling to help folks, and so this is how I have to this is what I have to do to get there, and if it means I have to you know, take out these loans to do it.
Speaker 2If it means I'm going to miss another birthday, so be it, because it's what I want to do in my life, it's what I'm called to do so we'll go to the next question and then we'll again.
Speaker 1You can ask more questions afterwards too.
Speaker 1My name is Desiree Jimerson. I'm a first year biology student and I'm interested in the PhD med school route and I was wondering for the ones doing research like, what is it like to balance between research and still being a physician to your best capacity? Sure, I can oh, you wanna speak to that? Okay, I can speak to that one. So most of my time right now is actually spent research, protected time. So there are many routes in medicine. You can do private practice or work at a med school. So that's kind of one of your first distinctions we'll talk about. So that's academic medicine.
Speaker 1When you do academic medicine, some people have their PhD and some don't so that's another thing that I want people to know.
Speaker 1You don't have to do an MD PhD to do research, but if it's something you're really passionate about and you love the research aspect, you can absolutely go that route. I know a lot of students and some of my mentees who are doing MD PhDs. One of the big perks to that is they don't pay. A lot of programs are full scholarships to medical school for your MD-PhD, so that's something to keep in mind. So I took the route of doing medical school, doing residency and then doing a fellowship to get my master's in health sciences, and so that's how I used that time that I learned in my Masters of Health Sciences to learn how to write grants to find my research niche, which for me is medical education in the transition from undergrad to medical school and I don't think a lot of people know that you don't have to work in a lab at all to do research some people do clinical research and other people do medical education research, like myself, so there's a lot of different avenues. I think you have to stay making sure that you're going to get the grants that you need over time and making sure you find what you're passionate about and pursuing that, because that'll really keep you going and moving when you're trying to shape your research career as well.
Speaker 1Hey, the Be Med Amplified Tour is live on college campuses. Do you want us to come to your school? Let us know in the comments. Tag a friend below if they can benefit from the information we've been sharing. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe to Black Med Connect.