Q&A with Dr. Clark

Sophie Baldwin, 7/16/24

What are your day-to-day responsibilities and typical caseload?

• Patients come into the hospital for help with their addictions

• Some patients will come for the withdrawal symptoms they suffer from

• Some feel as though they need stimulants to stay alert on the street

• If someone isn’t ready for recovery, that is their choice, and we do not force them into that

• In the morning, I will see consults

• In the afternoon, I complete admin work and have meetings

• Initially, I was the first physician on the addiction medicine console service, and then we opened a bridge clinic

• We work with a lot of social workers and other support staff

What is most exciting about your job?

• Able to see the immediate impact of the medications we can offer to help with withdrawal symptoms

• For opioid addiction specifically, it is rewarding to give patients relief medication that helps keep them stable

• Many patients have overnight physical changes

Why did you decide to pursue medicine?

• I was good at math and science and wanted to help people on both the individual level and a public health level (pursued MPH)

• It wasn’t until I got to medical school that I saw why I truly wanted to be a doctor

• Inspired by patients with opioid disorder

• Seeing so many younger patients in recovery was eye-opening compared to the geriatric population that we typically saw

• Started training during opioid epidemic and saw a need for addiction medicine

What is one moment in your career that made you appreciate medicine?

• During my intern year, I watched how one of the more experienced doctors interacted with patients

• He talked with patients like they were people

• This showed me that I could be more open and honest with patients

• We had a cancer patient who passed away; his wife collapsed into my arms when she got the news

• In that moment I really felt like a doctor because I could be there for a family

If you could go back and choose a different specialty, would you? Why or why not?

• I liked surgery, but the work-life balance is not very conducive (in the hospital too much)

• I am where I am supposed to be and find a lot of value in helping adolescents

What was the most difficult aspect of your journey to medicine?

• During my intern year at Brown I struggled over the first week and felt overwhelmed

• It is very difficult to go from med school to residency

• It feels like an initiation; there are no days off and long hours

• But, you are in there with people going through the same thing and it gets better

How are you able to manage a work-life balance?

• Remote work: I have access to patient charts all the time

• This saves hospital trips, but it is also harder to draw the line between work and home

• Our on-call tasks are divided up

• Addiction medicine has a relatively good work-life balance

What is your advice to students interested in pursuing medicine?

• Keep being you! Bring in your personality

• Do not try to put on a “doctor” persona; patients want transparency and not a robot doctor

• Choose a specialty you care about

• Be more person-centered

• The younger generation should advocate for appropriate work hours and regulations (especially in residency)