I've always been athletic. I've always been organized.
I've always been compassionate. I've always been loyal.
And those are some of the values that the Navy represents.
Being a Navy podiatric clinician I have a vast patient
population with both military and dependent populations.
My day-to-day operations are pretty smooth. My patients come in;
they receive direct ? hands-on treatment from the provider.
I am not rushed to spend five minutes with each patient. I can sit down
and I can take as much time needed to complete that evaluation without
fear of penalty that I'm not seeing a certain number of
patients in a day. So, to me the comparison of military medicine and
the civilian sector is it affords more patient-to-doctor interaction
and less time spent worried about financial expense
associated with seeing patients.
Upon immediate graduation from Officer Indoctrination School not only
was I tasked to be the podiatric surgeon and the podiatric clinician,
I was also tasked with being the division officer, meaning as soon as
you're done with Officer Training School, not only are you to do your
medical task but you're also tapped with the responsibility of
running your entire department.
I have to be responsible for the physician assistants
that are assigned to me. I have to be responsible for
the civilians who also play a team role in my day-to-day activity.
I look at it as if I'm the leader of a team that is supposed to
render effective medical treatment.
Currently I am the only foot and ankle specialist in my department.
I am also the orthopedic consultant for foot and ankle complex injuries.
That allows me to further branch out and collaborate with the family
medicine division, the internal medicine division, sports medicine,
physical therapy. The multitude of collaboration to ensure that
Navy medicine runs smoothly is right within my reach.
The great thing about being in the Navy is that we are afforded
continual medical education credit. One conference per year is
paid for by the Navy. Not only are you able to attend that
conference but you're still entitled to your salary and your benefits.
The Navy has a wonderful program for students called the
Health Services Collegiate Program. That program allows a
student to receive a stipend that can assist with the expenses
associated or accrued with being a medical student or a resident.
Being a recipient of that award allowed me to use those funds
to buy necessary medical equipment ? I was able to buy lab coats;
I was also able to buy books' expenses otherwise that would
have come directly out of my pocket.
And the Navy does have a loan repayment program.
Recently I had a patient who had been flown back from theater.
He came to my attention and he asked that I go ahead and proceed
with surgical correction of his ankle. It was an elective procedure
but one which he had put off long enough to serve his country and
carry out his military responsibilities.
We went through the entire post-surgical protocol ? rehab,
getting this patient back to his day-to-day regimen. And it's at
that point where it sort of hit me to see someone who fights
hard to ensure that our country is able to be protected,
that we're able to sleep at night; someone who protects our
freedom that's a humbling experience for you
to do your part and heal them.
I honestly would tell someone considering a career as a
Navy podiatrist that the face of podiatric surgery and medicine ?
upon military medicine ? is changing. And it's only changing for the better.