Speaker: Isabel Valdez, PA-C, Producer, The Curbsiders Internal Medicine Podcast
Please briefly introduce yourself! Tell us your name and title.
Isabel Valdez, PA-C: Hello, everybody! I am Physician Assistant Isabel Valdez, and by day, I am an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine and the School of Health Professions at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, where I see patients and I teach physician assistant students. But by night, I am one of the producers for the Curbside Internal Medicine Podcast.
In a few sentences, what will you be speaking about at the 2024 GNSA Conference?
Isabel Valdez, PA-C: I'm truly honored to have been invited to the GNSA Conference this year in Washington, D.C., where I'll be talking about my journey as an advanced care, advanced practice provider, and also my journey that has somehow taken me to participate with and become a producer for the Curbsiders Internal Medicine Podcast. I'm going to be talking pretty frankly about some of the challenges that I face as a woman in medicine, as an APP in medicine, as sometimes being the only either the only Hispanic in the room, sometimes being the only APP in the room, and some of those little voices that we sometimes hear like, oh, you can't do it, you know, you know that little voice from the imposter phenomenon that you may or may not experience. So I'll be talking about that and talking to you about my journey everyday, my day-in, day-out journey on surpassing and quieting those voices that tell me I can't do it. Just some of the tricks, some of the tricks that I've learned along the way, and I hope that you, that you find it valuable. But more importantly, I hope to hear from you. What are your tricks on getting you through the day-in, day-out? How do you quiet that little voice that says, you know, that creates self-doubt sometimes? So I am really excited to not just talk about my journey, but more importantly, get to connect with you and hear about your journeys and how you make it every day.
What are you most looking forward to at the 2024 GNSA Conference?
Isabel Valdez, PA-C: I'm really looking forward to talking to other grad students. I work with them in the physician assistant program here at Baylor, but I really want to hear about your experience. What drove you into medicine? I want to connect with everyone that way. There's so many inspiring stories, every single one of you has an inspiring story on how you got to here, to this conference, to this day. And that's what I really want to, I look forward to connecting with you and hearing your stories on how you got here. What, what drove you here, and maybe also give me some ideas for other podcasts if there's a topic that you want to hear about because I'm always looking for ideas. So, yeah, those are a couple of things. I'm looking forward to, meeting you, learning about your path to medicine and to, to this profession. And also, I need ideas for my show.
What advice do you have for graduate nursing students as they advance as leaders in the next phase of their nursing career?
Isabel Valdez, PA-C: What advice would I give to anyone who's trying to advance their career, especially in leadership? I am... There's a lot of things I can say, but I'm going to try to do like three, hit three points. The first one is be comfortable with the uncomfortable. As achievers, we as planners, we always have a plan set. They're like, I know it's gonna happen, step one, step two, step three. But every now and then life is going to throw a wrench at it and that gets very uncomfortable for someone who's such a planner, for someone who's such an achiever. Like how, what, wait, this was not part of the plan. So being comfortable with the uncomfortable is the first thing I would say, and in fact, something I tell my students every day. The next thing I would say is to, to lead with your heart and lead with kindness. There's so many people in the leadership rooms and who maybe elbowed their way up there, and maybe did it in a way with, that, that hurt other people perhaps or who do things in a way that they advance in themselves as opposed to advance the the good of the group, the good of the, of, everyone. So when you're in the space of leadership, lead with your heart and lead and that means sometimes saying, backing down and saying that's not my forte, but this person here is fantastic at that, and I'm going to support this person, and sometimes it's leading with our passion, like my passion is doing this, and I really would be great at it if I'm given the opportunity. So follow that, follow, trying to follow that little mantra, like lead with your heart. And lastly, I think I would also say it's OK to say no, in fact, no is a full sentence, is a full stop because you always want to do things that are going to advance your passion. So once you know what your passion is, right? Your, what is your North Star? I tell my students, what is your North Star? And then I think what, what's your guiding light here? And if there's something that comes to you is an opportunity that someone throws at you and says you should do this. I need you to do this. Always ask yourself, is this going to help me get towards my North Star? And your North Star may be education, your North Star may be clinical work, your North Star may be research. If there's an opportunity that comes to you that doesn't match that North Star, that doesn't get you to that, then it's OK to say no. It's the hardest word in the language sometimes. But all the no's that you're going say are probably going prepare you for an amazing yes that you will not regret.
