It takes a certain personality to enjoy emergency medicine. To thrive in the chaos. For me, I am excited by the unexpected. I feel like I’m at my best when a curve ball is coming at me. It’s a great shift when I’ve got a versatile and ready team around me and there are unpredictable things happening. The stuff you see here in the emergency department—let’s just say it’s beyond what you’ve seen on any TV show—so it keeps us on our toes.
I’ve worked as an emergency physician for almost 20 years, going back to my time in Newfoundland as a medical student. It was there in my home province that I began my journey into medicine, volunteering with St. John Ambulance, eventually being encouraged to pursue a medical degree. My first residency specialized in rural family medicine, much of which was really emergency work, and I enjoyed that aspect so much that I decided to pursue it full time.
“I feel like I’m at my best when a curve ball is coming at me.”
I finished my training in Alberta, where I met another residency student from Victoria named Laura. She was roommates with some friends of mine from the East Coast, and our friendship quickly grew as we bonded over our love for cycling. We really enjoyed hanging out together and going for bike rides. One thing lead to another, we got married, and now we really enjoy raising kids together and going for bike rides with them.
Shortly after finishing our residencies, Laura and I moved back here to Victoria, and the Island really is just amazing for biking. We mostly mountain bike, and there are so many great spots here in town, in Duncan, up in Cumberland. We try to get out as often as we can. It’s a great way to unwind.
“We in the emergency department are driven by this responsibility; we come together for the health of our community.”
With our healthcare system under pressure these days, it is important for us as caregivers to find opportunities to gather together as a community and celebrate. Once a year, my colleagues and I get together to honour the life of our former peer Dr. Dennis McElgunn, a local emergency physician who passed away a few years ago. We remember his legacy with an event to encourage everyone to focus on the joy in medicine. The emergency medicine residents collect and present fascinating cases from the year to highlight the uniqueness and humanity of emergency medicine. To be able to share and learn from one another, and encourage each other on in the care of our community, is a special thing. Working in our field is not always easy, so these fulfilling reminders of why we do what we do are important.
One of the things Laura and I have tried to teach our kids as they grow up is the responsibility we all have to come together and care for each other. Throughout all of the unexpected moments and challenges, we in the emergency department are driven by this responsibility; we come together for the health of our community. We are a part of this collective of people living here on earth, figuring out how to make things work together. And to me, that pursuit is at the core of our humanity.
They are humans first, who put other humans first.
More than 8,900 caregivers and staff work around the clock in our Victoria Hospitals
#HumansFirst is dedicated to sharing the stories from behind our hospitals’ frontlines. These stories remind us that those who provide care and keep the lights on in our hospitals also have lives outside of them. They have family and friends, they enjoy hobbies and interests, and they have all lived through their own personal triumphs and heartbreaks. Like all of us, they are human, and they have a story to tell.
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