Interview: Trang Vo ~ PA in Inpatient Internal Medicine

Pronouns: she/her

Current job title: Physician Assistant in Inpatient Medicine at Bellevue Hospital

Education Background: Bachelors in Biology and Masters in Physician Assistant Studies

What skills did you acquire as a student that prepared you the most for your position/career?

• Interviewing patients

• Pushing beyond my limits during challenging times

Which activities or courses do you wish you had taken to be better prepared for what you are doing right now?

• Spanish!

What's a typical work week for you? Do you think that your duties are the same for anyone with your job title or level within an organization?

• 3 days a week, 12 hours a day

• Yes, my duties are about the same

What are the greatest rewards of your work?

• Being able to discharge someone home because that means I have treated them well even though initially, they were sick enough to be in the hospital overnight

If things develop as you would like, what types of career goals do you see for yourself?

• To become more involved in the education of PA students and be apart of a PA program

Is there anything you wished you had known about this field when you were just starting out?

• I just wish I knew of this profession before I started university

Has your typical work week changed prior to the Covid-19 outbreak? Why or why not?

• Yes, we take more time to investigate whether someone is high or low risk for COVID.

• We re-arrange how we round on patients as to decrease exposure, and we spend more time with family on video chat or over the phone because visitors were not allowed

What has been the biggest challenge?

• Acknowledging that I/we cannot fix everything, that sometimes death is inevitable despite our hard work and prayers - that even death may be the most humane thing we can provide patients.

Lastly, is there anything you want to shout out to the world?

• BOSTON STRONG; NEW YORK TOUGH