School
I graduated from high school in 1969. I went on to college to study language. It was a tumultuous time in this country, and I lost my draft deferment. As a conscientious objector, I was required to take employment in an under served area. I worked as an operating room “orderly” for 2 years and became convinced that nursing was a good choice for my future. I went on to graduate from college in 1977 with a degree in nursing. I still maintain my nursing license. Finding that I wanted more, I decided to pursue medical school and graduated in 1988. I finished my family practice residency at 1991. I finished a master’s degree in health care ethics in 2011.
Work
I think my first job was as a paperboy at the age of 11 or 12. I haven’t been unemployed since. I worked in a grocery store through high school and college. I got my first job as a nurse in 1978 at a large, inner city hospital as a floor nurse in the MICU/CCU. Eventually became a nursing supervisor on the night shift there. It was at that time that I decided to go to medical school. I worked as a nurse through my four medical school years and my residency three years later. I became a full-time, private practice family physician in 1991. I served as a nursing home medical director and the local hospital’s community advisory board member for home care. I became a part-time hospice medical director in 1994. With the encouragement of the local hospice agency and, seeing the need, I engaged in self-study and passed my hospice and palliative medicine boards in 2001. In 2005, the local community hospice agency hired me as their first full-time medical director. I helped develop palliative care as a service in two local hospitals. I also developed the community-based palliative care program for my local hospice agency. I held that medical director position until the agency was acquired by a larger, regional nonprofit hospice for which I am now an associate medical director. I have been their interim chief medical officer for about 6 months in the past when the position was vacant.
Profession
I have been a good medical citizen. I served on my main hospital’s medical staff committees and medical executive committee. I was chief of staff at one time. I served as the founding chair of their ethics committee. I served on and then chaired the ethics committee at my second hospital. I also served on the ethics committee for two other hospitals. In the end, you can say that I stayed busy.
Scholarship
I was appointed to the local medical school’s faculty shortly after I finished my residency. Since that time, I have actively participated in the education of both students and residents. I have remained a consultant to a family medicine residency and currently advise residents on their scholarship projects and represent the residency at the medical school’s department’s office of research. Over the past 30 some years, I have written research papers, co-written book chapters and monographs and presented or co-presented on various family medicine topics internationally, nationally, and locally. But, in terms of scholarship, I peaked early. My residency senior project was published in JAMA! In some sense, you can say that it’s been downhill since then.