Know Your Provider: My Journey Into Medicine
Choosing a provider is a deeply personal decision. Learn more about Caylin, how she got into medicine, and how she sees health and wellness as a provider.
Caylin seeing patients outside during the COVID pandemic.
Knowing your provider is vital to building trust. In this article, Caylin details her path to becoming a nurse practitioner and opening her own practice.
If you’re ready to see someone that provides care that feels personal, creates safety, and doesn’t separate your body from your story, schedule a visit today.
My Journey Into Medicine
It may be a cliché but it is true for me: I really did get into medicine to help people.
Choosing a provider is a deeply personal decision. It’s not just about finding someone that meets our health needs–though that is, of course, important–but we all want to find a provider that makes us feel comfortable and that we can trust. This week, I was thinking about what I wanted people to know about me, my journey into medicine, and how I see health and wellness as a provider.
It brought me all the way back to high school and a mission trip in Mexico where I was helping to build a medical clinic and at the same time reading Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. The book details the life of Dr. Paul Farmer, who dedicated himself to curing infectious diseases around the globe. The book is deeply hopeful even as it can be heartbreaking.
The title is based on a Haitian proverb: “beyond mountains there are mountains.” That is to say: as you solve one problem, another presents itself–so you solve that one, as well. Persistence.
“Beyond mountains, there are mountains.”
That was the week that started my winding journey to becoming a nurse practitioner and opening my own practice. I went on to work in healthcare quality improvement right after college, which maybe sounds a bit bureaucratic and stuffy. But what it really means is that I was working with international health systems on making their care safer and more patient-centered. Putting patients at the center means respecting their preferences and making sure they feel valued and involved in their care. That remains a core part of my practice today: Providing care that doesn’t separate your body from your story.
But I wanted to be working directly with patients because I was so inspired by the providers I was working with around the world. So I trained as a medical assistant and started to work at a community health center in Boston. I was introduced to the amazing value and intimacy of building relationships with patients through primary care. I loved it.
At my Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) graduation.
I went back to school for my nursing degree and then my nurse practitioner degree, all while continuing my work in quality improvement. Fast forward to today and I’ve now been a nurse practitioner for nearly seven years, working in a variety of settings. My favorite by far has been opening my own practice, Whole Person Well Care. It’s here that I feel most human as a provider and where I get to connect with patients as people.
What I Believe As a Provider
Medicine, at its core, is about connecting, healing, wholeness. I might not have been able to articulate this when I first decided I wanted to go into medicine but it’s been this idea that has guided me through my journey and what I have found lacking in so much of our system.
I’m passionate about creating a safe space for people who traditionally have trouble finding it in health care (and in society)—women, queer folks, neurodivergent people, people with chronic medical conditions (especially dynamic conditions like chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder).
My hope is that my practice will be a safe haven: a place where people can heal, ask questions, and learn. I want every person that comes to me to know they are not broken—they are human, and they are worthy of care.
And beyond a mountain, there really may be another mountain–health is a continuous journey! And I will never say no to solving a health or wellness concern alongside you. Mountain after mountain, together.
