Dr. Matt Carere
Physician, Educator, Athlete, Husband, Father, Community Member, Human
I’ve always found that when you work with motivated people, they tend to motivate you. It energizes you. It feels good. That’s why I love working in the Emergency Department. It’s really filled with the most amazing people you will ever meet. These nurses, physicians, care aids, housekeepers, specialists, social workers; they are all so driven—and so caring. These people voluntarily come into a place that is hard and loud and smelly to be present in someone’s worst moments. And they do that every day. Sometimes in the middle of the night. Sometimes for 12 hours at a time —all because they love caring for others.
As a staff emergency doctor, I’ve had the honour of working alongside teams of people like these at both Royal Jubilee and Victoria General hospitals for the past 7 years. As a medical educator, I’ve also had the opportunity to prepare others for this line of work. One thing I try and instill in my students, and residents who are training with me, is that this job comes with both huge benefits, and huge burdens. The privilege of our job in the emergency room is that we get to be present for very intimate moments in people’s lives: when they’re sick, or when new life is delivered into the world. The burden is the weight we carry on our shoulders when things don’t go well, when there’s a bad outcome. It can be a hard journey, so you have to be able to handle it in a healthy way.
“I love working in the Emergency Department. It’s really filled with the most amazing people you will ever meet.”
“I also love being able to use this business to serve the community.”
One way that I get some reprieve from my work, is actually through another job. Three years ago, I partnered together with another Emergency Department colleague, Dr. Bri Budlovsky, to open Philosophy MD, a cosmetic skin-care clinic. I initially started my career as a family doctor where I dealt with dermatological issues regularly; so I had a background in skin health, as did she. Our goal was to create an environment devoted to self-care, excellence, and comfort—not only for our patients, but for us staff as well. I think that’s what we’ve created, which is nice. I also love being able to use this business to serve the community. We’ve been able to partner with the Foundation on several occasions now to help raise awareness about how important donors are, both to the emergency room and to the entire hospital system. That really aligns with my values.
Of course, everyone needs ways to unplug from work altogether. One of those ways for me is volleyball. I grew up playing in high school here in Victoria at Claremont Secondary. From there I went on to play at Camosun, the University of Hawaii and professionally over in Europe. It’s been a big part of my life. I don’t play competitively anymore, but luckily enough, there’s a group of us guys in town who played together through years, both in high school and overseas. Once or twice a week we head down to Willows beach to play a few sets. Our families will come and hang out together and we’ll share dinner. It’s a great social circle.
Having a solid support system around you is so necessary. My wonderful wife Tara also works a lot, and we’ve got two lovely kids, Georgia and Henry. Our friends help us out all the time, as do our families who are also here in town. There’s no way we could exist the way we do if it weren’t for our community’s help.
I think it’s easy to forget, because they are so large, but our hospitals are very much the same. They are just people from Victoria and Vancouver Island, caring for other people from Victoria and Vancouver Island — and they all rely on each other. We’re doing this together, whether it’s a group of 10 or 860,000.
To me, the optimal form of the human experience is this: being surrounded by a community of people who you care about — who you can support and bring value to, and who support and bring value to you. I’m so grateful to have that. Although it’s my name at the top of the piece, my story is so much the product of all the other human beings around me: my colleagues in emergency and at Philosophy MD, my family, my friends—my community.
“Although it’s my name at the top of the piece, my story is so much the product of all the other human beings around me”
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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