Trevor Dickey, MD, Class '06
I made the choice to pursue the primary care leadership track after I had already been accepted to Duke. It was the most significant decision of my medical school career. It can often be intimidating choosing a specialty in medical school, and choosing a career path in primary care often adds to that uncertainty. There can be feelings of missed opportunities or inadequacy as other's pursue more traditionally prestigious fields. In my own case, I knew that I first viewed going into medicine as an opportunity to put into practice my beliefs about social justice and medicine. Primary care was the way that made sense for me to pursue these goals. I was so happy with the support that I received in PCLT. Here was a group of fellow students and mentors that I could be inspired by and who reflected my values regarding health care. In addition, one of the most significant parts of PCLT was the involvement in the community. Most of my standard track colleagues spent their clinical years within the confines of the hospital. Although I only lived in Durham for 5 years, it is perhaps the community I feel most connected to in my life and a large part of that was the breadth of experience I gained from PCLT. I was able to integrate into community events and services in a way that I would not have been able to replicate on my own. The PCLT emphasizes engagement and involvement in the community in a way that helped me foster growth and humility in myself as a physician. I subsequently completed residency at a Family Medicine program in Seattle that is social justice oriented and am now pursuing additional training in an addiction medicine program for pregnant women. In the long term I hope to be involved in medical education while working at a community health center. I owe such a large gratitude to PCLT for helping me to crystallize and pursue my medicine career path.