Sharon Rabinovitz, MD, is the Director of Emory Student Health. We had a chance to sit down with Dr. Rabinovitz and ask her a few questions about her path to healthcare.
Julie Wechsler: Could you tell me a little bit about your position and your current work?
Sharon Rabinovitz: So my current work pre-COVID or during COVID? I can cover either/or. So during COVID, I am overseeing some tremendous programs, which include isolation and quarantine, contact tracing, COVID assessment, and COVID testing, and so those are things that didn't exist six months ago. So as far as that experience, it's been fascinating. It's been bringing my team together to be innovative beyond even our wildest dreams and kind of take us to the next level. I think it's, you know, there's lots of examples… It's beyond our wildest dreams as far as being able to innovate, really, really quickly. For example, doing telehealth, putting together a telehealth program in two weeks basically, in March and April, and we've refined it, obviously, but being able to just get things up and running and then knowing that you can iteratively improve while you're doing the work. Sometimes you want it to be perfect before you kind of stand things up, but now we know that you can start something and create it and improve it over time. So I think that was a really important learning lesson. I think right now, I'm much more administrative than seeing patients. I don't see many patients specifically right now, which is challenging for me because I love seeing patients, but it's for the greater good, like overseeing so many of these other operations is really taking all the time that I have right now. And the other thing that's been tremendous about this time is just getting to know so many people, across the university and in healthcare, as we come together to basically manage the pandemic across the university. I wouldn't have met people that I'm meeting now, if it wasn't for that. I feel very fortunate to be at the table, at the conversations with very impressive leaders in the pandemic, so that's been truly amazing. So my life is much, much, much different now, during the pandemic than it was beforehand. At student health, we have about 50 to 60 people in the office, so a lot of management skills and oversight of many different types of people, anything from administrators to clinical staff, both nurses, APPs, and physicians. So, you know, getting everyone to work harmoniously is a wonderful, wonderful challenge. It's a wonderful thing, and a challenge, but it's been a gift and a privilege to do it, especially now. Before COVID, I would see patients and we would, you know, we were working on things that everyone wants to make sure were improving and attending to, like the mental health impact on university students, or eating disorders in Emory students, or health and wellness and what that looks like for students. You know, those are the things that we were concentrating on and seeing patients and taking care of students for every need, whether it's musculoskeletal or GYN or anything that would walk in the door, but that's much different now. So that's, that's, that's a big framework. I hope that helps a little bit, kind of getting a sense of where we are now and what I usually would do. Obviously my role before COVID was about– I would see patients two or three half days, so still mostly administrative, which has developed over, you know there's been a lot of development over time. I was the Director of Clinical Services beforehand and I was about 50/50 clinical and administrative in that position. But once I stepped in this position, it became much more administrative, with a lot of you know, still a lot of great clinical touch points. So now I'm in my room Zooming a lot, as we all are.
JW: Yeah, thank you. In thinking about kind of how you got there, can you talk about some of the events that led you to a career in health?
SR: In health? I think I was one of those children who knew at a very young age. Like, I remember at 12 when I realized I wanted to be a physician, I was in Philadelphia, in downtown, and I saw this girl getting on a bus – so a young girl, using crutches and I just knew at that point, I need to help people. I remember that was a vivid moment. And so I was very “tunnel vision” from there on out, as far as I knew I wanted to be in medicine, going in as pre-med, much like many of you, and just went through medical school and residency right away. And I volunteered when I was 14 in a hospital, kind of making sure I could do it and I wouldn't pass out at the sight of blood, things like that. So, and then once I was in college, I, you know, worked in hospitals, did research, did everything I could just to make sure that this is the path for me, and it just kept reinforcing what I already knew. Just trying to get as much exposure as possible.
JW: Did you have any specific mentors who helped you along that way?
SR: More so, my mentors really came in in medical school. I was very fortunate to have mentors in the Family Medicine department. And then residency, I had some really tremendous mentors. In college, I didn't… I worked with some great people, but they were more research, they weren't as clinical, so I didn't connect on that research level because I really love the clinical piece. So I didn't really have mentors – my father is a physician, but he is a radiologist, so he is a different kind of physician than I am. He likes being in a room and not really interacting with people, so what he would do actually gave me clarity of how I wanted to practice as a physician, because I wanted something completely different than what he gravitated towards.
JW: That’s really interesting. Is there anything you wish you had known at the beginning of your career, like during college while you were pre-med?
SR: I think a couple things. One of the things I did right was I was very good at foundationally weaving self care into my life. You know, I exercised a lot – actually, now is the least that I've exercised in COVID times – but before that, it was always something that I carved the time out, I put it in my schedule, it was a given. I think that's really important, and just having fun and finding connections, great friends, I think is really, really important. Especially in medical school and in college, the people who understand what you're going through, you know, I think that especially with a group like this, you understand each other and what you want and how hard it is to get there. And so I think that those kinds of friendships are really, really important. And then just eating healthy and trying to get enough sleep and you know those things are also really important to foundationally put into place early in your career. It's harder to kind of get into bad habits and break them. So I think one really important thing for everyone to take into account. Let me see if there is… I think that's the most important thing.
JW: Yeah, so this is kind of related then, so it might be the same answer, but what advice would you give to people who are aiming for something like what you do now?
SR: Yes. So I think kind of combining everything is one, take care of yourself, because if you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of anyone else, or learn, or do well. And two, try out different venues to learn more and see more and do more, as much as possible, prior to going to medical school. It's a commitment – it’s a time commitment, it’s energy, money, so you want to make sure that you expose yourself, not just to put on your resume, but just to make sure that that is what you want to dedicate your life to. And you don't have to know exactly what type of medicine you want to go into, but you'll know when this is the space that you want to be in. You'll feel it, and just making sure you give yourself enough opportunities to know that’s the path you want to go down. And there's so many different paths for medicine. I have one friend who went to medical school but has really never practiced medicine because she got her MBA and is an administrator. But she has that lens through which she can, you know, really understand some of the nuances of being a physician, because she actually went to a residency and didn't practice. So she kind of knew what her path was: “I’m going through all this, but my goal is to be a really effective administrator.” So I think that that's a really important thing, to just expose yourself and let new experiences come your way. I would definitely provide care when all this is over in a different setting like a different country or I worked on a Native American reservation one summer. So looking to see what medicine looks like in other parts of the world, I think, is also a pretty fantastic experience and it makes you realize how lucky we are.
JW: You mentioned that going through medical school is a hard process – what are the biggest challenges that you face?
SR: Going through medical school, it's just, it's a lot of time, energy, you have to stay on point, you can't get distracted. And I think that's the hardest thing, is it just takes so much commitment. You know, everybody at Emory is smart enough to do medical school, but it's a commitment and you have to put some other things on pause – you know when your friends go out and start making money and getting a job and going out, but you're in medical school for four years, it's like a different experience when you see what your friends are doing. So I remember that was something that, you know, you just have to keep your head down and keep going, even though your other friends in the same phase of life are traveling and doing a lot of different things, you have to just make sure that you… that's why it's so important to really know that that's what you want to do. At the same time, nothing’s etched in stone. So, you know, honor yourself if you decide that it's not what you want to do.
JW: If you could start over, is there anything you would do differently?
SR: I think the one thing, as a working woman, I think we can do it all, just not all at the same time. So I think that's one of the things that wasn't as easy to talk about back then, when I was in residency. It was like “women can do everything, and we can do it just as well as anyone else, and we can do it all.” We can, but the caveat, and I think it's also more acceptable now, is that we can do it all but not at the same time, like there is this balance that you have to have in your life. And just when you go into your career, understanding what that balance looks like to you and being intentional about it. So, you know, and what specialty leads to what type of lifestyle, and how do you envision your life and kind of meet that in the middle. So if you really want to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, but you don't want to work seven days a week or go to a residency for seven years, then you have to figure that out, you have to reconcile that, so just being intentional about that. Does that make sense?
JW: That was my last question, but I'll leave it open if there's anything else you want to share?
SR: I mean, medicine is such a privilege to practice. You know, getting to know your patients – and you meet them for five minutes and they've opened their world and their soul to allow you to help them – is such a privilege and I think knowing that lens of going into, you know, being pre-health and pre-med, I think is really a good thing to think about as you're going through that, because the goal is to take care of people and to have them open up enough to you for you to help them. I mean, it sounds very trite, but that is a huge part of being successful and an effective healer. And so I think that's the lens through which I look at everything in the world: how do I connect with people and provide them comfort and be empathetic. And that goes a long way in medicine and your career, but also personally. So that's one piece of it, it really is an honor and a privilege, and it really colors the lens through which you see the rest of your life, which I think is important. And like I said, everyone can do anything they want and be whoever they want to be, and I I've been actually working with Emory medical students since 1999 and they're tremendous. And so if you do wind up coming to Emory, it is an amazing place. But there are tons of schools that will be happy and lucky to have every single Emory student, if that's the path that you choose. And I know that you can get there, based on what you have to do here because it's such an incredible school with incredible opportunities. So just stick with it and you'll make it, and lean on each other because you understand each other better than anybody else. And if there's anything I can do to help, please let me know.
JW: Great, thank you so much!