Born to parents who were both in the medical field, I have always envisioned myself in a position to make the world a better place, and I found that continuing their legacy in medicine provided me the best opportunity to serve those around me. There is nothing more rewarding than taking the time with a patient, providing them the care that they deserve, and seeing them improve.
I grew up in Idaho, soaking up all the wonderful outdoor activities our state has to offer, before attending UC San Diego for my undergrad degree. For medical school, I travelled to Australia to train at the University of Queensland, a program which partnered with a hospital in New Orleans to provide a medical education in two different and diverse environments. After graduating medical school, I returned to Idaho for residency as part of the inaugural class at the Kootenai Health Family Medicine Residency. Residency provided an invaluable experience in delivering healthcare in outpatient and inpatient settings for an array of medical conditions, but it also taught me that the demands of primary care are such that I could not spend the time I felt necessary to address the health concerns that both the patient and I held. Following residency, I spent a year working in the urgent care, learning to practice completely independently while treating all manner of sub-emergent medical conditions.
After a year in urgent care, though, I felt unfulfilled, unable to form the relationships with patients that are at the heart of primary care. I subsequently moved back to primary care at a Federally Qualified Health Center, delivering care to the underserved in North Idaho. After 6 years, I found myself burnt out, juggling patient expectations with those of insurance, my adminisitration, and my own. And of course, it could take weeks or months for someone to see me, requiring urgent care visits for stitches or ear infections that I could easily have treated myself. That is when I decided to venture into direct primary care. With direct primary care, I hope to provide the kind of care that I would expect from my doctor – having the time to spend with my patients, to care for the whole person, to provide preventative healthcare, and to respond to new health concerns when they come up, not 3 months later.
