Sustaining the evolution of PAs in hospital medicine

Editor’s note: Each month, SHM puts the spotlight on some of our most active members who are making substantial contributions to hospital medicine. Visit www.hospitalmedicine.org for more information on how you can lend your expertise to help SHM improve the care of hospitalized patients.
 

This month, The Hospitalist spotlights Meredith K. Wold, PA-C, APC supervisor, Hospital Medicine and Critical Care, at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., and adjunct faculty, Augsburg University Physician Assistant Program. Ms. Wold is a long-time member of SHM and the recipient of this year’s Clinical Excellence Award for Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants.

How did you first hear of SHM and why did you decide to become a member?

I’ve always recognized the importance of engaging in a community beyond my daily practice. Shortly after starting my career in hospital medicine, I quickly recognized this was a belief shared and cultivated by my hospital medicine group as well. Our HM group at HealthPartners has a long history of SHM participation. As our advanced practice clinician (APC) group grew, I knew engagement at the national level was critical to ensure that our ongoing evolution was supported, sustained, and shared.

What does it mean to you to receive SHM’s Clinical Excellence Award for nurse practitioners and physician assistants?

Being awarded the SHM Clinical Excellence Award is remarkable. I work alongside really, really amazing people, and every day I strive toward the exceptionally high bar they set. I’m passionate and committed to hospital medicine, and I’m so very grateful this is appreciated.

Which SHM conferences have you attended? Tell us about some of the highlights from these courses.

The first SHM annual conference I attended was in 2008 in sunny San Diego. I’d been a physician assistant (PA) for barely a year. I remember being so energized by the passion and commitment of the speakers and attendees. I harnessed that energy and spent the next several years being part of a growing APC group at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., where our HM group holds partnership and innovation at its core. You can imagine my excitement when I was asked to speak about APC practice models at HM16. Fellow APC Emily Thornhill Davis and I spoke to a standing-room only audience! Emily and I partnered again as faculty at HM17. I look forward to being part of a panel discussion at HM18 in Orlando (alongside some SHM trailblazers!).

Closer to home, I’ve taken advantage of phenomenal opportunities hosted by our local chapter of SHM. My colleagues Benji Mathews, MD, and Kreegan Reierson, MD, have led Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) training courses regionally and nationally. Their comprehensive, hands-on course ensured that I had the foundation to incorporate portable ultrasound into my practice. Thank goodness for their refresher course as well; my skills were rusty after a long maternity leave!

Given the tremendous clinical growth I have absorbed through local and national SHM offerings, I look forward to my leadership and operations skills being bolstered at SHM’s Leadership Academy this fall in Vancouver. As APCs hold more and more vital roles within HM groups, it’s integral that, along the way, our leadership skills are recognized and honed as well.

As an SHM member of over 10 years, what has been most valuable for you as a physician assistant?

The relationships. Networking, sharing ideas, pushing the status quo with other like-minded clinicians from around the country is invigorating. Because of SHM, I have an APC network from coast to coast – a lattice of clinicians that are linked by dedication and enthusiasm to hospital medicine.

What advice do you have for early-career physician assistants looking to work in hospital medicine?

Find a hospital medicine group whose culture allows and supports your growth as an advanced practice clinician. In an exemplary HM model, the delegated autonomy of an APC should widen and deepen over time. Seek out a team that appreciates the importance of this evolution.

Ms. Steele is marketing communications specialist at the Society of Hospital Medicine.

Editor’s note: Each month, SHM puts the spotlight on some of our most active members who are making substantial contributions to hospital medicine. Visit www.hospitalmedicine.org for more information on how you can lend your expertise to help SHM improve the care of hospitalized patients.
 

This month, The Hospitalist spotlights Meredith K. Wold, PA-C, APC supervisor, Hospital Medicine and Critical Care, at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., and adjunct faculty, Augsburg University Physician Assistant Program. Ms. Wold is a long-time member of SHM and the recipient of this year’s Clinical Excellence Award for Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants.

How did you first hear of SHM and why did you decide to become a member?

I’ve always recognized the importance of engaging in a community beyond my daily practice. Shortly after starting my career in hospital medicine, I quickly recognized this was a belief shared and cultivated by my hospital medicine group as well. Our HM group at HealthPartners has a long history of SHM participation. As our advanced practice clinician (APC) group grew, I knew engagement at the national level was critical to ensure that our ongoing evolution was supported, sustained, and shared.

What does it mean to you to receive SHM’s Clinical Excellence Award for nurse practitioners and physician assistants?

Being awarded the SHM Clinical Excellence Award is remarkable. I work alongside really, really amazing people, and every day I strive toward the exceptionally high bar they set. I’m passionate and committed to hospital medicine, and I’m so very grateful this is appreciated.

Which SHM conferences have you attended? Tell us about some of the highlights from these courses.

The first SHM annual conference I attended was in 2008 in sunny San Diego. I’d been a physician assistant (PA) for barely a year. I remember being so energized by the passion and commitment of the speakers and attendees. I harnessed that energy and spent the next several years being part of a growing APC group at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., where our HM group holds partnership and innovation at its core. You can imagine my excitement when I was asked to speak about APC practice models at HM16. Fellow APC Emily Thornhill Davis and I spoke to a standing-room only audience! Emily and I partnered again as faculty at HM17. I look forward to being part of a panel discussion at HM18 in Orlando (alongside some SHM trailblazers!).

Closer to home, I’ve taken advantage of phenomenal opportunities hosted by our local chapter of SHM. My colleagues Benji Mathews, MD, and Kreegan Reierson, MD, have led Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) training courses regionally and nationally. Their comprehensive, hands-on course ensured that I had the foundation to incorporate portable ultrasound into my practice. Thank goodness for their refresher course as well; my skills were rusty after a long maternity leave!

Given the tremendous clinical growth I have absorbed through local and national SHM offerings, I look forward to my leadership and operations skills being bolstered at SHM’s Leadership Academy this fall in Vancouver. As APCs hold more and more vital roles within HM groups, it’s integral that, along the way, our leadership skills are recognized and honed as well.

As an SHM member of over 10 years, what has been most valuable for you as a physician assistant?

The relationships. Networking, sharing ideas, pushing the status quo with other like-minded clinicians from around the country is invigorating. Because of SHM, I have an APC network from coast to coast – a lattice of clinicians that are linked by dedication and enthusiasm to hospital medicine.

What advice do you have for early-career physician assistants looking to work in hospital medicine?

Find a hospital medicine group whose culture allows and supports your growth as an advanced practice clinician. In an exemplary HM model, the delegated autonomy of an APC should widen and deepen over time. Seek out a team that appreciates the importance of this evolution.

Ms. Steele is marketing communications specialist at the Society of Hospital Medicine.

Editor’s note: Each month, SHM puts the spotlight on some of our most active members who are making substantial contributions to hospital medicine. Visit www.hospitalmedicine.org for more information on how you can lend your expertise to help SHM improve the care of hospitalized patients.
 

This month, The Hospitalist spotlights Meredith K. Wold, PA-C, APC supervisor, Hospital Medicine and Critical Care, at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., and adjunct faculty, Augsburg University Physician Assistant Program. Ms. Wold is a long-time member of SHM and the recipient of this year’s Clinical Excellence Award for Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants.

How did you first hear of SHM and why did you decide to become a member?

I’ve always recognized the importance of engaging in a community beyond my daily practice. Shortly after starting my career in hospital medicine, I quickly recognized this was a belief shared and cultivated by my hospital medicine group as well. Our HM group at HealthPartners has a long history of SHM participation. As our advanced practice clinician (APC) group grew, I knew engagement at the national level was critical to ensure that our ongoing evolution was supported, sustained, and shared.

What does it mean to you to receive SHM’s Clinical Excellence Award for nurse practitioners and physician assistants?

Being awarded the SHM Clinical Excellence Award is remarkable. I work alongside really, really amazing people, and every day I strive toward the exceptionally high bar they set. I’m passionate and committed to hospital medicine, and I’m so very grateful this is appreciated.

Which SHM conferences have you attended? Tell us about some of the highlights from these courses.

The first SHM annual conference I attended was in 2008 in sunny San Diego. I’d been a physician assistant (PA) for barely a year. I remember being so energized by the passion and commitment of the speakers and attendees. I harnessed that energy and spent the next several years being part of a growing APC group at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., where our HM group holds partnership and innovation at its core. You can imagine my excitement when I was asked to speak about APC practice models at HM16. Fellow APC Emily Thornhill Davis and I spoke to a standing-room only audience! Emily and I partnered again as faculty at HM17. I look forward to being part of a panel discussion at HM18 in Orlando (alongside some SHM trailblazers!).

Closer to home, I’ve taken advantage of phenomenal opportunities hosted by our local chapter of SHM. My colleagues Benji Mathews, MD, and Kreegan Reierson, MD, have led Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) training courses regionally and nationally. Their comprehensive, hands-on course ensured that I had the foundation to incorporate portable ultrasound into my practice. Thank goodness for their refresher course as well; my skills were rusty after a long maternity leave!

Given the tremendous clinical growth I have absorbed through local and national SHM offerings, I look forward to my leadership and operations skills being bolstered at SHM’s Leadership Academy this fall in Vancouver. As APCs hold more and more vital roles within HM groups, it’s integral that, along the way, our leadership skills are recognized and honed as well.

As an SHM member of over 10 years, what has been most valuable for you as a physician assistant?

The relationships. Networking, sharing ideas, pushing the status quo with other like-minded clinicians from around the country is invigorating. Because of SHM, I have an APC network from coast to coast – a lattice of clinicians that are linked by dedication and enthusiasm to hospital medicine.

What advice do you have for early-career physician assistants looking to work in hospital medicine?

Find a hospital medicine group whose culture allows and supports your growth as an advanced practice clinician. In an exemplary HM model, the delegated autonomy of an APC should widen and deepen over time. Seek out a team that appreciates the importance of this evolution.

Ms. Steele is marketing communications specialist at the Society of Hospital Medicine.