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What was your first job?

When I was xiii years old, I worked as a kitchen aide at a private hospital in a small town in Nigeria, where my mother ran her own licensed practical nursing school. She provided nurses for the hospital when they needed staffing. So, when I was looking for a job, she went to the hospital CEO and said, “My girl wants to go to medical school â€" can she come and piece of work at your hospital to go experience?”

He agreed, but the merely bachelor position was in the kitchen. Then, I worked at that place for a summer, then transferred to the pharmacy the side by side summer, and then worked every bit a nursing aide the summer afterwards that. I completed my licensed practical nursing training and worked on the nursing staff at the hospital before I ever went to medical schoolhouse. Living with my mom, y'all really had no option! Somewhen all 4 of us kids became doctors.

Did yous e'er know yous wanted to get into medicine?

I call up the specific moment when I roughshod in love with medicine: When I was about 4 years old, I had a severe asthma attack and my parents took me to the pediatrician, who was a sugariness, older gentleman. I took the medicine he gave me and â€" blast â€" I felt better! To a four-year-old, it was like magic!

Then, from that indicate on I knew I wanted to be a md. Just, medicine was all around united states growing upward; my parents were both involved in wellness care (my mom was a nurse and my dad was a medical lab tech), and I had two older sisters who also wanted to become physicians. Initially, I thought about becoming a pulmonologist and so that I could treat asthma, just that idea lasted almost a month later on my oldest sister died of a severe asthma attack during my second preclinical twelvemonth of medical schoolhouse. After than I fell in love with hematology.

What was it that made yous fall in love with hematology, and eventually with treating patients with sickle cell affliction?

My primeval memory of becoming aware of hematology was spending time with my mom. I tagged forth when she conducted customs health education events, which included raising awareness near sickle cell disease and making sure families had penicillin and folic acid and that children received their vaccines. You see, Nigeria has the highest prevalence of sickle cell disease worldwide. I would besides become with her to offshore oil-drilling platforms to vaccinate the workers, and lookout man her teach about preventing anemia from malaria using mosquito nets and taking antimalarial prophylaxis. That was when I started thinking, “Hematology is all kinds of cool.”

Then, when I went to medical schoolhouse, it then happened that, every time I started a new rotation, I was assigned to a hematologist. So, if I was on a pediatric rotation, I was with a pediatric hematologist. It was like fate.

To cap it all off, I had a good friend whom I met during my first twelvemonth of medical schoolhouse who was living with sickle cell disease. He died the year I graduated. He had 6 younger brothers, all with sickle cell disease and all of whom died while I was in school. When he died, I was devastated, and I looked at this family and I thought, “This shouldn’t be happening. When you lot hear ‘sickle cell’ in Nigeria, it’s like a death sentence. That’s just unacceptable to me. We should be able to practice amend than this.”

Dr. Osunkwo (second from right) with her husband and their three children.

What brought you from Nigeria to the U.S.?

I had the best of both worlds growing up. My parents are originally from Nigeria and they migrated to the U.S. in the 1960s on separate scholarships. They got married in New York Urban center and we were all born in the Bronx. When I was seven years one-time, my dad decided he was tired of the cold atmospheric condition, then he went back to Nigeria. Nosotros stayed in the U.S. for one more than year, and so went and joined him in Nigeria. I feel lucky to have experienced life and medicine in ii very different continents

After graduating from medical schoolhouse and completing a yearlong internship in Nigeria, I came back to the U.S. â€" earning my master’s in public health from Johns Hopkins University, doing my residency at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Bailiwick of jersey (UMDNJ), and completing my fellowship at Columbia Academy.

What was your babyhood like, growing up with four sisters?

It was fun â€" except that my female parent used to dress us alike … When we were in New York, the area we lived in was mostly Caucasian, and nosotros were the only blackness family unit. Sometimes we felt a scrap weird, and there were racial tensions, but, every bit kids, we didn’t experience information technology. When nosotros left to join my father in Nigeria, we were not happy with such a desperate change, simply when nosotros got there, it was cracking! We were treated similar princesses â€" the interesting “new kids” who spoke with funny Yankee accents.

My parents got divorced a few years later, so my mom concluded up raising united states on her own. Money â€" and space â€" was tight. To get through it, I poured myself into schoolhouse. Middle school and loftier schoolhouse were a blur because I was then focused on where I wanted to get, and that didn’t stop once I got to medical schoolhouse; it was all about achieving and existence the starting time in my class.

Were in that location whatsoever mentors or advisors who played a big role in shaping your career?

I’ve been blessed to work with amazing individuals throughout my career. My master resident at UMDNJ, Patricia Morgan, MD, was a lifesaver. She taught me everything about actually being a doctor and basically walked me through how to be an intern, how to talk to and develop a rapport with patients,  and how to put in orders. Interestingly, when I applied to my chore now at Atrium Health, the interviewer said, “Did you lot know that Pat’south hither? I encounter you lot went to UMDNJ around the same time.” I said, “What do you mean, ‘Pat’south here?’” It turned out that she was working with kids and teens at Levine Children’south Hospital as well at Atrium Health, so it was a happy reunion.

My fellowship director, Linda Granowetter, MD, also taught me so much almost how to be a clinician. She was very smart and very skilled, but also a very down-to-earth, no-nonsense person. When I was a new mom and trying to juggle that with fellowship, she told me something that has stuck with me to this twenty-four hour period. She said: “Ify, you accept a great job, just delight don't brand your chore your life. Accept care of your husband. Take care of your children. Figure out how to get some balance.” Those words are a constant refrain in my caput whenever I feel my life getting off track.

James Garvin, Jr., MD, PhD, was my clinical fellowship mentor. He reminded me of my medical school mentor and watching him help me model what blazon of patient provider interactions I wanted to embody.

I credit my fellowship manager Mitchell Cairo, MD, with teaching me how to write my first book chapter, first clinical protocol, and first manuscript. He was a kind of “task master” but I realized later that I needed that! He helped launch my clinical inquiry career and I was delighted to moderate a press briefing at the 2018 ASH annual coming together with Dr. Cairo as ane of the panelists. Talk about coming full circle!

During my time at Emory Academy, I met and developed a great friendship with James Eckman, MD, who ran the adult sickle cell program at Grady Memorial Infirmary in Atlanta. We got along instantly (maybe because he reminded me of the pediatrician I saw when I was 4 years old…), and if I ever need anything, I’d just pay him a visit.  That’south still the case today; when I phone call him, day or night, he answers the phone and we can talk for hours. He was an extremely patient private who was very thoughtful and spent time with me talking well-nigh my career and offer wisdom and guidance for my personal life. I loved that, even though I was younger in my career, he talked to me like I was a peer. He’d walk me through career-related questions, complicated patient scenarios, treatment decisions and offering me sage advice on everything, from how to talk to people, how to get what I want, and how to not take a temper tantrum when I don’t go what I want. I may not e'er take heeded that advice, but I’d usually think and tell him, “Jim, I actually should have listened.” He would just say, “Well, you’ve got to learn.”

In 2009, I participated in a research training found led by Betty Pace, MD, as part of a National Institutes of Healthâ€"funded initiative to increase minorities involved in enquiry. This was a career-changing experience that helped catapult my career as an established clinical, translational, and outcomes researcher, and led to success with grantsmanship and bookish productivity. Dr. Step remains a trusted friend and mentor.

I’m extremely fortunate to piece of work for Derek Raghavan, Doctor, PhD, as well â€" and I’m not just saying that because he’s my dominate at Atrium Health (though he has been the best boss I’ve e'er had). He's direct, fair, and can tell me difficult things that I may not want to hear in a way that makes me hear them. We share the same passion for health equity for underserved populations, and he has given me amazing opportunities to create a system of care for individuals living with sickle jail cell illness.

As a minority woman, I truly value the mentorship of Belinda Avalos, MD, who helped recruit me to Levine Cancer Institute. She has been a wonderful part model on how to exhibit dignity and grace nether pressure and is my biggest sponsor and career cheerleader. It helps to have someone like her in your corner every bit you abound in your career.

What lessons has your work life taught you? Are in that location any pieces of communication that you would share with younger hematologists?

The get-go thing I learned is to appreciate the different personalities of everyone who you work with, in and out of the hospital. Not everybody is like me, and that’southward okay. Everything I do, I do with a lot of passion. I can exist pretty intense, and I can overwhelm folks with my passion. Other people might not become as excited, but that doesn’t mean that they are less effective or not equally interested in the work as I am.

I’ve also learned that it is okay to fail. I’thousand an extremely competitive person; with myself and with others â€" probably because I was the heart child of five kids and I had to fight to become a piece of pie before it was all gone. I fifty-fifty compete when there is no competition, like trying to all-time my fastest speed on the treadmill at the gym. Ultimately, I’ve learned that I don’t take to get an ‘A’ all the fourth dimension. I don’t have to be the first in everything and “failing” is not always bad. What I might think of as failures are learning opportunities. For example, I failed my first pediatric hematology/oncology boards and I was devastated. I had never failed an exam in my life. I felt shame and a lot of fear … but my competitive nature kicked in and I was able to get through the retake successfully. I’ve also had and so many grant rejection messages that I stopped counting them; each of those rejections, though, just made me better at writing the next grant.

Y'all mentioned learning to notice balance between your work and personal life â€" what makes that hard, and do yous have whatsoever advice for finding that balance?

It’due south a struggle, and I tip into an imbalance pretty often, especially when I accept an exciting project that I’m working on, but my husband is the most patient, amazing partner I could dream of. Nosotros accept two daughters and i son, and my husband is an attorney with his own practice a mile from the house, so a lot of the responsibilities of dropping off and picking up the children fall on him. I call back the fact that we have been married for more than 21 years is actually one of my biggest career accomplishments.

I made a real endeavor to gear up better boundaries for my personal life afterwards I had a crude patch at work a few years ago. I looked around and I saw that the people who were there for me was my family unit. So, I said, “Okay, I need to first over and make fourth dimension for the people who are always going to be in that location. Work people come up and go, but cypher is so serious that it should come up before my family.”

I honey my job, of course, but I’ve learned to say no to certain commitments. For example, before I had that “a-ha” moment, I would finish my work in the clinic around 5 p.thou., and then I would encounter patients at the hospital until 9 p.m. I gave anybody my cell phone number and fabricated certain that I was available 24/vii. I would bring piece of work domicile regularly. There was always something more to do and I e'er made myself bachelor to practise it.

I don’t exercise those things anymore â€" not considering I don’t love my job, simply considering I need to give my kids and my husband some role of me. If one of my kids asks me to spend time with them, I know that I need to be there for them.

How exercise you spend that time that you’ve carved out for yourself?

I love dancing and I love to sing. If there'due south a party, I'1000 there in my stilettos and in that location amend be a skilful DJ. I’g certain most people think I’m a large extrovert, but I as well need to spend time relaxing in serenity at home in my own infinite. In my tranquility fourth dimension, I love to read curt romance novels to take my mind abroad from the present. I have a drove of more than than 500 novels I’ve read since fellowship.

Who is your dream dinner party invitee?

I would love to accept dinner with Michelle Obama. I have so many questions for her: How do you get your buff arms? How do you balance your work and your family unit life? How practise you lot stay and then calm and nerveless in the face of all the drama? What do you want to exist when you grow upwardly?

She never looks stressed, or upset, or frazzled â€" and that’s something I aspire to, because, I must admit, my inherent personality is quite the contrary.

What is 1 thing that people would be surprised to learn about you?

I have dyslexia, so I capsize letters and numbers when reading, dialing the phone, and writing. I also accept attention arrears hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’due south not something I shared with many people because I was embarrassed by information technology. In one case, during medical school, I showed upward to an exam on the incorrect day because I read the calendar wrong, and the test administrator turned me away. Information technology was devastating. And so, I learned to hibernate the fact that I was dyslexic. I also have two children with ADHD. It is quite humbling to take children with a chronic illness and to boxing i yourself as a physician. People expect you lot to exist super man. Only, in the past couple of years, I hit a brick wall and realized that I had to tell my boss because, of course, the college I went in my career, the harder information technology was to encompass upward these challenges.

I’ve learned to be a meliorate patient with managing my asthma. I also have severe food allergies to basics, mushrooms, and shellfish. Now I must disclose this to anyone and everyone as I have experienced a few near-death anaphylactic events in my life!

When I started sharing with people about my dyslexia and ADHD, I noticed that they were more understanding virtually some of my quirks. Like, now they know why I need data presented in a sure way with visual cues, why I demand frequent reminders (preferably via e-mail/text), and why I strive for consistency with my clinic schedule. I’thou corking with the big picture, only I need collaborators who have an affinity for the smaller details. Before, people might have been aggravated past these things, or just assumed that I was extremely demanding, but now they sympathize that this is part of the construction that I’ve created for myself to be able to practise things more efficiently.

Living with food allergies, asthma, dyslexia, and ADHD has also taught me that everybody struggles with something â€" sometimes we know what it is, and sometimes we don’t. I realize that this is what makes united states all human, to our colleagues and to our patients. It also makes us more empathetic of others. I actually recall it has helped make me a improve doc.

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Source: https://www.ashclinicalnews.org/spotlight/pulling-back-curtain-ifeyinwa-ify-osunkwo-md-mph/

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