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24 - Medicine, Military, and Mission: How One Patient-Turned-PA is Transforming Lives | Maj. M. Tiye Young, PA-C

• Ashley Love • Season 1 • Episode 24

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What does it take to transform obstacles into opportunities? Major M. Tiye Young knows firsthand. When deployment orders arrived just days before her PA school application deadline, she didn't abandon her medical dreams—she recalibrated. When a cervical cancer diagnosis threatened her future, she fought back with unwavering resolve. Now, as both a military leader and surgical PA, she's redefining what resilience looks like in healthcare.

This conversation takes us behind the scenes of Major Young's extraordinary journey from Army service to acute care surgery and gynecologic oncology. She shares the raw reality of balancing night shifts in a trauma center with military duties, including her recent command of 1,500 National Guardsmen during Hurricane Helene's devastating aftermath. The leadership skills she's honed through military service translate seamlessly to the operating room, where split-second decisions can mean the difference between life and death.

Perhaps most powerfully, Major Young reveals how her personal battle with cancer transformed her approach to patient care. Walking into the same hospital room where she once received treatment—this time as the provider rather than the patient—created a full-circle moment that fuels her compassion daily. She now advocates fiercely for patients showing subtle symptoms others might dismiss, remembering how her own body gave warning signs before her diagnosis.

Major Young's story isn't just about personal achievement—it's about creating pathways for others. As a Black female PA who grew up without access to healthcare providers who looked like her, she's committed to visibility and mentorship for underrepresented communities. Through social media and direct mentorship, she shows pre-health students that their backgrounds don't determine their potential.

Whether you're pursuing a healthcare career, serving in the military, or simply searching for inspiration to overcome life's unexpected challenges, Major Young's perspective will leave you with renewed purpose and an expanded vision of what's possible when you refuse to give up.

Follow her incredible journey on instagram @tymcarolina_

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Ashley :

Hello and welcome to Shadow Me Next, a podcast where I take you into and behind the scenes of the medical world to provide you with a deeper understanding of the human side of medicine. I'm Ashley, a physician assistant, medical editor, clinical preceptor and the creator of Shadow Me Next. It is my pleasure to introduce you to incredible members of the healthcare field and uncover their unique stories, the joys and challenges they face and what drives them in their careers. It's access you want and stories you need, whether you're a pre-health student or simply curious about the healthcare field. I invite you to join me as we take a conversational and personal look into the lives and minds of leaders in medicine. I don't want you to miss a single one of these conversations, so make sure that you subscribe to this podcast, which will automatically notify you when new episodes are dropped, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at shadow me next, where we will review highlights from this conversation and where I'll give you sneak previews of our upcoming guests.

Ashley :

Today on shadow me next, I'm excited to introduce you to Major Tiye Young, a truly extraordinary woman whose life story is a testament to resilience, leadership and unwavering commitment. Major Young is a 14-year veteran of the US Army and a physician assistant specializing in acute care surgery and gynecologic oncology, but her path to becoming a PA has been anything but conventional. After completing her prerequisites for PA school, major Young was unexpectedly deployed, forcing her to pivot and take a different route towards her dream of working in clinical medicine. Despite these challenges, including navigating a complex military career, transitioning from active duty to the National Guard and overcoming a personal battle with cervical cancer, she persevered and went on to graduate from Wake Forest University's PA program. Currently, she works in a high-pressure surgical environment, caring for patients who are facing some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Her experience has given her a deep well of empathy, allowing her to provide not just medical care but hope to those in need. She's also a passionate advocate for underrepresented communities in healthcare, using her growing social media platform to mentor and inspire pre-health students, especially those who may feel like the path to medicine is out of reach.

Ashley :

In this episode, we'll dive into Major Young's remarkable journey, the lessons she's learned along the way, and how she balances the demands of medicine, the military and advocacy, while still finding joy in the journey. Please keep in mind that the content of this podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered as professional medical advice. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. This is Shadow Me Next with Major Tiye Young. I have been looking forward to this. You don't even know how long I am so excited to chat with you. I'm in love with your journey and I truly don't know how you have time to do it all. So thank you for being here, thank you for joining us, thank you.

Maj. Young:

I'm so excited to be here and it truly is privilege, and I hope that every person that gets to sit in my seat and talk to you knows that.

Ashley :

You have so many elements of your story that I'm just so excited to dive into and to highlight and to show people that really, on your journey, you've had. You've had and I'm not going to call them setbacks, you've just had some surprises right, and sometimes the surprises are really interesting and sometimes the surprise is really scary, but you have just shown time and time again that you come through these surprises a stronger person who is more relatable to, to people, which I was going to say patients, but just to people generally. So I'm so excited to highlight that about you. You have served in the United States Army for 14 years. Thank you so much for your service. It's incredible. You were set to attend the Army PA school in 2013, but you were deployed and this is one of those moments when you ran into a surprise perhaps.

Maj. Young:

I was applying and I knew I'd spoken to everybody. I knew I pretty much was good to go, got my letters of recommendation finished, every single prerequisite course that had been assigned, because at the time the courses were a bit different. So I was like I know I'm going, this is going to be great. All I have to hit is submit right now. And I was like, ok, well, I had 11 days and I was deploying 11 days and I didn't even get my stuff on the container that shipped. They had to reroute my bags because I was a latecomer to the deployment, put it on a separate carrier, and so I arrived like with barely anything, just the stuff that I could bring, and then waited for my stuff to get shipped out there. It had to be shipped after I already was on ground as well.

Ashley :

And then fast forward 10 years after that. You're a graduate of Wake Forest University PA program. You're now practicing in acute care surgery and gynecologic oncology. You are active in the army reserves. You have a burgeoning social media platform. I mean, like the, I feel like the world's just exploded for you. Are you happy right now? Tell me how you feel about your position currently.

Maj. Young:

Oh, you know, when you do something and you finally get there and you're like I'm not sure I'm going to feel about this, I'm in the phase where I can't believe it actually all happened. I am so happy. Every time I get to walk into my patient's room I'm like I'm actually the provider. Oh, they're listening for what I'm going to say because they need the information. And as a student for so long or as somebody who's shadowing or as a medical assistant, you're kind of always listening to somebody else provide guidance, and so you're kind of a fly on the wall. You're not the primary. So for the first time I felt like what I'm saying is meaningful and the advice, the guidance or just the hope sometimes I'm giving to patients is what is going to be long term. And it's up to me to know what I'm talking about. But it's up to me to give it as kindly and as emotional as I should be, considering their circumstance, and so I'm so happy to do that and it's so awesome.

Ashley :

Honestly, it's like it's like a full circle moment, right. I mean, the experiences that you've had that we're going to talk about I'm sure make the weight of that moment. You mentioned giving patients hope sometimes, I I'm sure make the weight of that moment. You mentioned giving patients hope. Sometimes I'm sure it makes the weight of that moment even that much heavier. But, as we all talk about, you've been there and you know, and now you have the education from Wake Forest and you can provide this to your patient in a way that is compassionate and empathetic and sympathetic. The beginning of your story is so interesting. It's hard for me to even talk about beginnings with you, because I feel like what's so amazing is that you have had so many beginnings which is just unreal.

Ashley :

But let's start with your military career. So you, from the time you were young, you knew you wanted to go into the military. Tell me about the day you encountered the PA profession.

Maj. Young:

Yes. So I had not really heard of what a physician assistant now you know, physician associate was. But I was in Baumholder, germany, and there was a female that was in my unit and I was like what do you do? I'm thinking she's a medic, but she was a captain. So I was like I don't think we have captain medics. You know, I'm trying to find and rattle in my little brain at the time what does she do? And people were asking her questions.

Maj. Young:

My commander walked up to her and asked her something in pediatrics and I was like, wait, she knows stuff. And she was able to describe exactly what was going on. And I went up to her and I was like, what do you do? She's like I'm a PA. And I was like I'm sorry, I don't know what that is.

Maj. Young:

And she's like, oh, I'm a physician assistant in the army, I am a provider. I'm not a doctor, but I'm able to have free range with providing services to the soldiers in all capacity, whether I'm on ground, whether it's emergent, whether it's trauma. And I was like, wait a minute, no way. And then later on I would get to see her because I realized I'm in her unit. So she's my PA, me, not understanding how that worked. And I was like, oh, you're my provider, not like my primary, but like if I get hurt, you fix me. And she's like, yes, and whether we're deployed, whether we're stateside, whether we're in another country. And I was like I want to do that, that's what I want to do. I first time. I first access to the soldiers, wellness their health, treating them if I needed to on the battlefield, being the first person on like field missions. I was like that's my job and I'm going to do it.

Ashley :

I just didn't know it was going to take so long. How incredible for her to be able to explain that to you. So this segues really nicely into something called the IPAP, which stands for the Inter-Service Physician Assistant Program. Tell us what this is. Tell us a little bit about it?

Maj. Young:

Yes, so the IPAP program, or the Inter-Service Physician Assistant Program, is an all-service PA program that's down in Texas, and so what this allows is for that component soldier to become a PA. It doesn't matter whether you were enlisted, whether you're a warrant officer or already officer. This allows you to go back and practice in that branch. So whether you're National Guard, reserves or Active Duty and it's kind of confusing because those are three separate branches they're in the Army but there are different components of it. So I wanted to go ahead and transfer to be an IPAP student to then become a PA on active duty, and so it has all the same requirements. You have your didactic year, you have your clinicals, which you then sometimes often practice with the other students that are in the program, and what's really cool about this is that they have this thing called constructive credit. So if you had a certain rank, technically you're not an expert in that new branch, right? But they allow you to be paid as an E6 while you're there. So you're getting your regular pay, but of course your housing and food is all still provided for in that capacity, so you're still getting paid, but then once you commission or you graduate, you're automatically a first lieutenant.

Maj. Young:

Now, if you already had a previous rank before that, they can do the constructive credit and then see how many years of service, your expertise and kind of give you a different rank, which is new, because you all used to start off as a first lieutenant everybody and then within like that six months you get promoted to captain. But you're a practicing PA. So you go to a battalion or you go to a company and you are that group of soldiers, medical provider for all things, not primary. You still go to your primary for your annual but periodic health assessments for deployments. You're doing everything. So you get all scopes of practice and you can even specialize. So you can do surgery, you can do very niche things within the military, you can go to special forces, and so it's just a way for you to be a medical provider in the military specifically, whether it was Navy, air Force, army, etc.

Ashley :

Thank you so much for explaining that. I think it's a really, really good option for a lot of people that might not know the option exists Now. You went through the IPAP application, then got deployed, and then you did regular PA school application. Then got deployed and then you did regular PA school application.

Maj. Young:

Yes. So I had finished IPAPS requirements, which were not the same as civilian school requirements. So I had done the CHEM I. I'd finished, about to finish CHEM II. I went back and did the bio, I got the shadowing hours, I got the clinical hours and then the Army changed its rules and regulations.

Maj. Young:

If you've been an officer for more than 10 years, then you need a waiver from like what? From my side, federal side to be able to transfer, and that just wasn't going to happen. That I'd already received a bonus in my branch we're already a low density branch, meaning there's not a lot of people that do my job, so they're not going to be willing to let me go. But at the time when I was applying, I met all the criteria. So I was like, all right, I'm just going to go to civilian program.

Maj. Young:

This came out in 2021, by the way, this is new. So I was applying and found this out, that I was no longer eligible for IPAP, and I was like, well, I need to actually take more courses, because now I need biochemistry, now I need genetics, which part of the IPAP program you didn't need, like the last semester. So I took a year's worth of classes so that I could qualify for civilian school At the time. You need 50 shadowing hours to do IPAP and then some clinicals. I needed 2000 for civilian, so it was going to take me an extra couple of years.

Ashley :

It's another surprise in the plan right For you. So you, of course, your, your resilience, your tenacity, you did all of these things and you didn't just get into PA school. You got into PA school Wake Forest. Tell us how PA school for you at Wake Forest University compared to some of the challenges that you face serving in the army? Part of me wonders for you at Wake Forest University compared to some of the challenges that you face serving in the Army. Part of me wonders for you and your experience in your background, is there a perspective here that we need to be considering?

Maj. Young:

I would absolutely say that I did not get to have like the typical PA experience because I still served and a lot of people do not do that together. So I still went to drill. So while people were leaving on Thursday because sometimes we might have class like until 12, I'm leaving to go to drill right after that. Or Monday I'm missing school because we have a field mission that's three hours away and so I'm bustling in the middle of the night to get back and to get a quiz done and then to go to class. So that perspective of PA school being hard as far as academically is one thing. But I just didn't have as much time as everyone else and I come to find out that most people don't do it. I was one of only three out of my unit that went to PA school. I'm the only one still in. No one, everyone else got out or unfortunately didn't graduate.

Maj. Young:

So I didn't really understand that. I thought that this is just what you do, this is what you muster through. You get up, you show up on time, you're in the right uniform, you're in the right place, you do your job and then, whatever else comes, you also do that job. I just didn't realize how hard that was. Pa school is hard, don't get me wrong. It's hard. It's manageable if you know yourself. If you don't know yourself and you don't know your capacity, you don't know your boundaries, then it's really, really hard. And I had to learn that the hard way, and sometimes to a fault. I wanted to still do everything and I realized that sometimes I couldn't.

Ashley :

So, yeah, pa school is hard but it's manageable. It's such a beautiful reminder for people who are so worried about PA school and about how hard it is and about the amount of time that they're going to have for X or for Y or for Z. And look at what you've done. You went to Wake Forest, you passed PA school and you were still serving all of this time and, like you said, you just put your head down and you got it done. Okay, so you've graduated Wake Forest, you're a PA. You are still, at this point, national Guard.

Maj. Young:

Yep Because I switched components from active duty. I left active duty and then joined the Guard so that I could go back to school.

Ashley :

to apply to PA school Unbelievable. It just pivots, pivots, pivots just to make it all fit. Before we get a glimpse of a day in the life of Major Young, keep in mind that there's more interview prep, such as mock interviews and personal statement review, over on shadowmenexcom. There you'll find amazing resources to help you as you prepare to answer your own quality questions. Now, Major Young and I did not have the opportunity to talk about a quality question, but she brings up an excellent point.

Ashley :

Everyone's journey to PA school is unique and the experiences we have along the way shape who we are as future healthcare providers. A quality question that you might hear on interview is this what life experiences have shaped you most and helped you prepare to tackle the rigorous challenges of PA school? Whether it's overcoming personal challenges, balancing demanding jobs or working in healthcare settings, these experiences can teach us valuable lessons of perseverance and understanding. Valuable lessons of perseverance and understanding. So let's talk about a day in the life of a PA who works in acute care as a surgical PA at a level two trauma facility, and then you're also a gynecologic oncology PA. What are you dealing with on a day-to-day basis?

Maj. Young:

It blows my mind every day that they let me do this and that they pay me to do this, with just a little bit of knowledge that I have I mean, I just graduated I took the pants like August because I had to do it again. I will say I missed it by one question the first time. The anxiety of it all just really got me. But on my day to day I work night shift. So I work the night 7 pm to 5 am, which is amazing, and I work seven straight, so Monday through Sunday, 7pm to 5am. So the get ready with me. I get up at between two and three, I go to the gym, I run between two and three miles or I'm rucking and then I kind of look over some material, if I can, so I might play like purpose games but like surgical instruments, just to make sure I'm on par. And then I go and we review the charts together.

Maj. Young:

Usually I'm going into a surgery whether it's an appendectomy or cholecystectomy and then I round on the floor and so then I review my patient list. Do I have a gynecologic patient that day, meaning, did they have a surgery or a procedure, or were they admitted via the ED? And then I go check them out, check their charts, and sometimes their imaging comes back and I'm like they need to go to surgery. I'll get a CT back and I'm like, absolutely not, let's go to pre-op. And then I go explain to them I'm sorry, but you might have a hematoma or you have dilated loops of bile.

Maj. Young:

And so then I go back in the surgeon and I first assist I can do the anastomosis myself, so I'm the one sizing and I completely do that all by myself. And then, usually around midnight, people like to either hit things with their cars, unfortunately, or sometimes we have gun violence, and so I'm running to a trauma which I've had multiple gunshot victims over this time and so I do a trauma assessment victims over this time and so I do a trauma assessment Is there an open fracture somewhere? Can we find where the fragments of whatever happened? And so usually rushing them back to the OR. And then I was first assist the surgeon there, and that is a daily, a Monday through Sunday, so I get it all, and then I'm off for a week, and so that's that's what I do there's a lot of emotion in that too, I would imagine, because you have a patient that's already that's already post-op.

Ashley :

You know, especially in gynecologic oncology, these are scary cancers and then you're having to tell them more scary news. And then you also have patients coming in on literally their worst day because they've been shot or they've been hit by a vehicle, like you said. You know there's a lot of emotion there. I'm going to jump ahead. This is a question I was going to ask you later, but it's so applicable right now.

Ashley :

You have seen, organized and managed so many missions in the Army, most notably in 2024, when you were assigned command and control in operations. You were the operations officer for Hurricane Helene, yes, and you're responsible for staging, managing 1,500 Army and Air National Guardsmen from three different states. I mean 1,500 Army and Air National Guardsmen from three different states. I mean the amount of organized chaos that that must have been. So all of these experiences, that and this is just one of them but all these things you've experienced working in the Army, what have they taught you about human resilience? Because I'm sure you see something that's very, very similar when you're working in surgery and when you're working in the hospital.

Maj. Young:

Yes. What I will say is that, because I have such a significant amount of hope and because there's nothing, I think that I can't do nothing really feels as hard as it probably is when I'm having to do it and that's on it and I have an exorbitant amount of energy. I did not know that was abnormal until people tell me so for me this is just getting it done. For me, I'm getting there and I'm like okay, I was the first person to arrive in Conover, which is our staging base for Hurricane Helene. One of our LMTVs, which is a big vehicle, got swept underwater and six of my soldiers had to swim out on the side. Oh, my gosh. We tried to send a helicopter out and tried landing, but unfortunately there was so much fog.

Maj. Young:

We're trying to find and get people who have maybe been sucked into a river, and so to me, I have to be calm, but I have to know that sometimes those things suck too, but I have to manage that on my own time.

Maj. Young:

So for me, having resilience is understanding that I have to put the mission first people always but at that time you need to be calm. But it's gonna get better and people are relying on you and if you honestly gave them everything that you had, when you're trying to think through a plan, when you're trying to come up with the best course of action that will do the most amount of good, then that keeps me resilient, because I know I never faltered. It might not have been as successful as I wanted it to be, but I didn't falter, and so that gives me hope and that keeps me resilient. Because Hurricane Helene was devastating, knowing that at some points I'm on the phone with people who were telling me that their parents are dying and I can't save them. And we tried, we tried. We could not get to them in time, and so I had to take that with me, that we did the best that we could, despite what media might have shown or said.

Ashley :

I know what my guys did and we busted our chops out there, incredible, and I cannot imagine a better person working in an acute care surgical position other than you. Who's literally this has been your training in situations far more grand, but it's similar emotions. I would imagine it's similar emotions On the other side of things. I would imagine that teamwork under pressure that you experienced and not only experienced but managed and led is exactly what you experience and feel when you're working the OR yeah, I mean what we do as a PA. It's all about teamwork.

Maj. Young:

Oh absolutely the surgical techs save me all the time because I'm like I don't know what the surgeon needs to be handed next and they're like, hey, are you going to do this? I'm like, oh yeah, that's great, I do need that lidocaine here. Or when I'm closing sometimes I'm like I just don't feel like this is closing really well, what do I do? And I'm like, oh okay, well, maybe apply some Dermabon at this and we can pinch this together. I've never done an amputation before and the nurse is like, oh well, this, there was another PA, there was the CRNA. I was like, oh, I've seen this before.

Maj. Young:

So everybody kind of always pitches in, even if it isn't their specific specialty, and that, to me, is all I've ever asked for. That's what I get in the army. I'm never by myself in the army. You're never on your own. There's always a battle buddy with you, and so when I am in the OR or making a bedside decision because that's on me the surgeons normally aren't there. So sometimes we have patients that decompensate or start to code and we have to run a rapid. And I'm the only one there.

Maj. Young:

That CNA has seen this before. She's seen hey, they're, they're, they're desatting. I've seen this. The nurse up there has seen it, the charge nurse, the environmental services people. They're like hey, I've seen them. They don't seem like themselves and I'm like you know what, let me go check on that patient, because they see things before we do. So. That's what feels like a team to me. Everybody has a part, no matter what. It is no parts too small, and that's what makes me feel so good about being a PA that is just the most perfect example that I have ever heard of why being a PA is so fantastic.

Ashley :

I mean, it's just, it's so good. Now, some of these procedures that you've you've described, unfortunately, you have a very intimate relationship with, because before you could start your career in medicine, you were a patient yourself. So tell us, tell us, a little bit about this experience and what it means to you now, looking back in the position that you're in now.

Maj. Young:

Yes, I would position that you're in now. Yes, I would have never expected that in my 20s I would be diagnosed with cervical cancer after being treated by so many providers. And it amazes me today that I went to go train for gynecologic oncology and I walked into the same room that I was a patient in and for some reason, it didn't hit me while I was walking around, because I don't know what my room looked like for me walking, because I wasn't walking. I was on a bed, I was on a stretcher, so I'd never seen the path that they took to get me there. And a lot of the times all three times I was coming back from anesthesia, so I never noticed it until I looked at the window, I looked at the bed and I looked where that sink was and I was like this is where I was. This is when I was readmitted after having post-op complication Because I developed a pelvic abscess, just like the patients that I see and so that at the time I was at UNC Charlotte, I had enrolled in classes and my provider was very frank.

Maj. Young:

She was like you can't go to school right now Because I was thinking I could do some things online. She was like this isn't what this. You're not going to feel good and I'm like, well, I can do anything. She's like I know you can, I know you're capable, but this fight is going to be a bit long. Capable, but this fight is going to be a bit a bit long.

Maj. Young:

And so, understanding now what my patients are facing, it's hard but I know that it's survivable. The hard thing is that sometimes I see patients that are younger than me now that it's preventable, and then sometimes I see people who are older and they're so far progressed that there's nothing we can do. We go into 20% of our patients from and I know it's too advanced, it's metastatic, and that's who I see in the ED. I'm like your cervical cancer is metastatic, it's in your liver, it's in your lungs and I know they're not going home. And so sometimes it's hard to take myself out of that, because at one point they thought I'd come back and they was like we have a 50% chance because there's no way to find it if it already metastasized. Like you can go through chemo treatments, but being even being young, it's just it wasn't a good outcome. And so now sometimes it's hard to take myself out of it, but a lot of the times I have hope.

Ashley :

It's the worst possible way for you to be able to sympathize and empathize with your patients and, at the same time, it's the best possible way for you to empathize and sympathize with them, and I can only imagine the challenge that you probably felt, that internal struggle, walking into that room and kind of being in the same position again, but this time with power, and this time with hope, and this time with confidence that you are there for a purpose right, and this isn't something that's happening to you. This is a way that you can step in and intervene for others. So I think, as clinicians, as people, a lot of times our experience dictates how perhaps we communicate and what we communicate to some of our patients.

Ashley :

You've spoken about your passion for, for example, for listening to your body and not ignoring early warning signs of certain things. You know, seeing these patients come in with metastatic disease is devastating and sometimes there are early warning signs for certain conditions. Staying active, my God, you run and you rock before work. I'm just so impressed with you. Can you share how that passion has kind of shaped your approach to patient care?

Maj. Young:

Absolutely. You know, when I hear the complaints of constipation, when I hear the complaints of bowel changes or bowel habits, when I hear things like hey, I've been fatigued, where they're normally a bubbly, upbeat person, those make me ask different questions. What's in your family history? Has anybody close to you talked about having similar symptoms? Was it already too late when they discovered them? Because we're understanding now that it's younger people that are experienced in colon cancers. It's younger people, who may not have been vaccinated, that have the higher risks, especially between black and brown women, and so when I'm hearing these things, I get to ask them a little bit more. Not that I treat them better or differently from other patients, but the variety of questions that I may ask them may attribute more to something that I'm trying to make sure we don't miss, not necessarily find. So I'm not doing extra imaging for no reason, but I need to make sure that I don't miss any signs, and for me it was very weird.

Maj. Young:

My toenails stopped growing, my hair stopped growing, my hair was falling out and I could not for the life of me. I remember going to my nail technician, and I see her religiously because getting my nails done is something that I just love to do. And she was like, do you want to get your nails, your toenails done? And I was like, oh no, they still look good. She was like it's been three months since you last did this and I'm friends with her, so she knows.

Maj. Young:

And then that's when I realized I hadn't been here. And then my hair I took pictures. My hair was like spiky and like literally shedding and I'm like what is going on? And my stomach pain was growing, I was losing, I was losing weight and I'm like I don't understand what is happening to me. And so that's when I, just when I got to that doctor's office, I said I'm not leaving. He was like we don't have time to see you today, we don't have this specialty, and I was like, well, you're gonna have to wait till you get somebody in Call security. I'm not leaving.

Ashley :

I literally was like call security.

Maj. Young:

And that's when she found it. That's what she literally did Spe speculum exam went in there and she was like I can see it. And I was like, well, I'll be darned because something wasn't right. And she said it might have been a polyp. And I immediately rushed to another doctor who I think he immediately knew, he knew, and so I don't ignore those symptoms. I had telltale signs, I had the stomach pain, I had the vaginal discharge, that just I'm like I don't know what's going on.

Maj. Young:

They said, oh, it's normal, it's common throughout your cycle, for and that could be for anybody, but then for me I knew it wasn't, because why would it change? I'm not, I'm not much older, and so I'm glad that I got to advocate that. So advocate for that. And so now I tell people you can ask your provider, you don't have to come in with a list, you know but ask is this normal? I'm experiencing this, what do you think this could be? And then, with wellness, when you have the chance, go outside, go run, go walk, don't wait, because so many patients come in and they see us and they wish they never waited. And I'm glad that I had the opportunity and the privilege to still be here. So that's what I like to advocate now Get your vaccinations. Despite what you're hearing, it works. Had I gotten it, I wouldn't have had this, but 81% decreased incidence of cervical cancer off of one vaccine. So what else can we do? So I advocate go get it. I'm very passionate about that.

Ashley :

And from what I have seen and from what I have read, your passion doesn't just stop with your patients. You are also so passionate about serving as a mentor for others and we're going to get into it but, oh my gosh, your content creation for other people is just incredible. Tell me about why you feel so compelled, especially to work with underrepresented groups. Why is visibility so important in medicine?

Maj. Young:

You know what? Sometimes patients need to see themselves and who's taking care of them, because there are things that are different culturally, but not only that. People need to know that they could do it too. People need to see examples of people that don't come from great homes, that don't have the best education, that are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Sometimes they don't know things are possible until you say that it is because you say that I've done it too and people are like no, you have the media, you have the internet. There's so much access you don't know how much access there really isn't until you're seeing people use other Wi-Fi's and libraries. Do you see kids who are 15 that are working jobs after school because their parents don't have enough for rent or they're taking care of their siblings? Just because we think that things are so easily accessible because of our own lives, we forget that it's not true for everyone. And so being able to be a representative of just, not as a minority, as a woman, but to tell them that, despite everything that has happened, I can still put my best foot forward. Now I do know I have an advantage of resources by being in the military, so not everybody has that and not everybody is able to join. So I know that I'm privileged in that respect.

Maj. Young:

But sometimes they need to know that I never had a pediatrician. I went to the local state department. I got my shots at my school. I got free lunch. No one in my family has a degree. My siblings didn't graduate from high school At the time. Things just weren't feasible for them.

Maj. Young:

So if I can tell them now that even back then, I'm not so far removed, I'm 35. So if you're 19, there's so much you can do that you might not even know you can. And that's why I think people need to see themselves in the work that's happening around them. Because I had never seen a PA, I had never had a Black provider. We couldn't even afford that. I don't even know if we had good enough insurance to even do that.

Maj. Young:

So if I can tell somebody that that even happened in my generation it's still happening in generations now then I can show them that it's possible and that I'm here to lend a hand. That's our purpose is to help those who are coming after us. Right, somebody went before us and got less than we did, so now we need to give more to them, and that's kind of our job and our, our, our mission is people, I would think so. That's why I think I'm the person to do it, not because I feel like I have to, but because that's what I'm supposed to do as a human being.

Ashley :

That could be your motto for your whole life. Because I'm sitting here thinking, you know, imagining the young black girl who is coming in to see you as a patient, maybe has never had a pap smear before, and she's just terrified. And she, she's looking for somebody that she trusts and and for her you're going to be that person, okay. And then I'm also imagining this patient that's received this terrible diagnosis that you have received once and again. You're in that role of mentor, of sister in the disease, in the diagnosis, of champion. You are their champion, really, and you can do that so well as a PA and as their medical provider, and I'm so grateful for you, for stepping up to bat every single day. Doing that for others. It's a blessing, I know it is, but it's not without its own emotional costs. So, thank you, thank you for doing that. You're tough as nails.

Ashley :

I think we've all determined this, which is actually a really great segue into your content creation. So I was looking at your social media. You have moments where you're in your medical scrubs, okay, after a long night shift, and then you're in your military uniform, literally in the snow, and then you're in a ball gown and a sash and a tiara for the Miss Veteran America Awards and then literally on the next slide you're in your PT outfit doing trap bar deadlifts. You are literally always smiling, always giving your best, strong effort. And I know social media it's snaps of our life, but I can just tell this is you right. You are just showing the world what you can do. What has surprised you the most about your platform?

Maj. Young:

I'm always excited to create content, but I tell people like I don't edit my stuff. If I have a blemish, it's there. If I have a role, it's there. I know how to pose a little bit better so I don't show them all, but it's there and I'm not. I'm not changing that. But I am genuinely also very happy. My unit says that I'm the happiest soldier to be there.

Maj. Young:

They always say that and it's because I really am, and so I never want them to think that I'm a first take type of person, that I'm an all 10 of 10 scores, that I don't fail. I never want anybody to know that. So I tell them I had to take the pants twice. I missed it by one question. If I just calmed down a little bit and stopped worrying that everybody else was passing, I probably would have been okay. But even as confident as I am, there are moments when I know I'm going to make it happen. I just don't know how. And when I'm creating content, I get to tell them that and that surprises me that more people reach out that they're like well, this happened to me too. People that I've known for years that I'm like oh well, I didn't know that about them, and then it gives them the courage to be able to say, oh, I didn't know that about them. And then it gives them the courage to be able to say, oh, I saw her post that this didn't go well. Now I can too. And then, with its growth, my audience shifting from being confetti cannon that is just who I am, but it's not a facade. I wake up like this.

Maj. Young:

So I'm hoping, as I transition more into medicine, to pre-health students, even to current PAs or pre-PAs or even pre-meds, whomever you are that they see that, but also they know that I am still only a human being. I will never be better than anybody else. Everybody has a role, no matter how significant, and I hope that they see that, that I'm just another part of a wheel that is going to continuously move, whether I'm there or not. But it is my job to make sure that it's sharp, it still works, it gets over rocks, it doesn't get stuck in the mud, and I just hope everybody else wants to play their part too, and I hope on my platform that is what it shows. I love to travel, I love to eat, I love to run, I love to hang out with my friends, so I hope that they see that I'm the everyday girl. I just had to fight a little bit harder in some respects and work a little bit harder, but I'm not really any different.

Ashley :

The relatability is incredible. But beyond that, just the, just the can do, and God, the joy for life. You see some really heavy stuff in the hospital. And we're not even talking about burnout because I feel, like you, that word doesn't even touch your lips because of, well, number one, how busy you are, you don't have time for burnout. But number two, I think that when you are that involved with so many different things, so many different avenues, when you're that sure of yourself and who you are and what you need to do to maintain you, burnout isn't even a question, right? And I just like, if anybody were to ask me well, ashley, how would you combat burnout? I'm just immediately going to direct them to your page and be like, look at her, she is combating burnout and she doesn't even know it because she's just living her life. Tai knows what she knows and she's doing it. Like you said, you just make sure that your wheels not getting stuck on rocks or stuck in the mud. Just keep on turning.

Ashley :

There is one more question that I want to address before we get to the final question, and a bunch of the things that you've talked about it's really brought me to this. You mentioned in other interviews that in the next five years you would like to go to Capitol Hill and advocate, and I think we've already heard how you are an advocate. You are an advocate for women, you are an advocate for people who are underrepresented. You're an advocate for the regular, average Joe who maybe wants to know can I do this, should I do this Right? What advice would you give? We've talked about vaccines too, and there's just there's a lot of noise right now.

Ashley :

What advice would you give to someone who's feeling disappointed or maybe disillusioned by, I'm going to say, politics and medicine? What advice would you give to somebody who's just frustrated?

Maj. Young:

What I tell people sometimes for the there's two, there's two sides and two facets to this. The people who are struggling to not understand what they should believe and they're frustrated. Should I be trusting my government? Should I be trusting my leaders? What would make you the most healthy and most well person? That is, what would make you the most healthy and most well person? That is what would would you give yourself a fighting chance? And in getting that fighting chance, do you want that vaccination? Do you want that access to care? And then also ask, ask yourself sometimes we have to do things that may not always benefit us immediately. So, is that extra $2 as far as taxes, that gets that kid health insurance? Is that going to hurt you? What, what, what would make you better in that moment? And that leave with that decision. So, through the smoke, through the fog of that all, what makes you the better part of that? And you make that decision from there, regardless of what you're hearing.

Maj. Young:

And then on the other side, it is so frustrating to see a people try to kind of blanket their disappointment, their hurt and their shame and their like what's going on in the world? By dismissing what we already know. And I try to ask them are you doing this because there's a part of you who is disappointed with whatever's happened, and this is your way to feel better of you who is disappointed with whatever's happened and this is your way to feel better. This is your way to mask what's going on by making decisions that you seem like I need to stick with something, even though it's not right. Ask yourself if that's really why you're doing it, and if you can't come up with a good reason with backed up research, then reevaluate that, because it is so easy to point in the wrong direction when it feels better. It always feels better to think that you are right and to feel and know that you were wrong. It's always going to feel that way. So for those people, think about that.

Maj. Young:

But also in the frustrated people who's been fighting for forever, who've always wanted access to health care, which I worked with the North Carolina Department of Health Services to give, to expand Medicaid, medicare I want that to be there. It's important. If I pay more than everybody gets, gets more, and then together we have better maintenance, we have healthier people, so we can cut down on this. That's what we want to go towards. Don't fight. Don't stop that fight. I've fought Congress before and I won, and I would do it again, but you can't. You can't let them tell you to back down. That can't happen. And the reason that that can't happen is because they don't know what you've seen and they don't know what you know. And the better you fight, the harder you fight, then, the more than maybe you can do and then get others to do it for you, with you and for you.

Ashley :

Incredible.

Ashley :

Thank you, and thank you, thank you for your, your future service even more to our country in this role, because I know you're going to do it and you know I just I hate to think about the women working in gynecologic oncology, the women that are going to be in the back of your mind when you present some of these arguments.

Ashley :

You know, and I think that that is what weighs so heavily on us as medical providers is, for a lot of people, this is just conceptual, you know, and, and for you it's not. You have stared this concept in the face and you have told her that this is metastatic and that the reason that her hair is falling out and that her toenails are not growing is not in fact, in her head. It's because she has cancer. You know, and, and so I'm just, I am, I'm so hopeful for what you will do, I'm so saddened by what it will take to get there, but knowing that we have amazing leaders like you that are going to just continue to push us forward and lead the way is just. It gives me so much hope. So, thank you.

Maj. Young:

Thank you so much and may I say something about you. I am thankful for you. The sheer will to wanna share people's stories but, more importantly, highlight what we can continue to do is. It amazes me to see you do this, to look at everything that you've done, that questions that you ask, the fight that you put up Like. I am so thankful for people like you. And people don't understand what you don't have until you don't have it. We need people like you. This is how things continue to go. We need people to share those experiences. Every when I'm on the treadmill, I literally say my patients' names who aren't here anymore.

Ashley :

Wow.

Maj. Young:

You know, I'm like. You know what they would want me to do. They don't, they can't anymore, and so moments like this, when I'm listening to you and I know what you've done, I'm like she's done this. I don't have a reason why not. Okay, let's figure it out.

Ashley :

I appreciate that. It reminds me of what you said earlier, how you're never alone in the army. I think medicine sometimes can be very isolating, especially if you're struggling with burnout, and I've spoken with Dr Todd Otten a couple episodes ago and he spoke about physician suicide and I think it is isolating and I think the more that we can band together and we can at least have these conversations where we feel like we're not alone, we encourage the next level of students coming behind us all the pre-health students to get in their medical community. That's why we do what we do, right, ty? Oh my gosh. This has been an incredible conversation. Before we go, usually how I wrap up is tell me some advice that you would have for your pre-health students. I'm going to shift and instead, because you have done so many incredible things, how do you decide when it's time to pivot or when it's time to take on a new challenge?

Maj. Young:

You know, I'm not going to be the same person as I am today in five years. So if I'm pivoting, will my interests change? Life is going to look a bit different. Things are unexpected. I'll never be able to forecast. So I need to be able to make that decision that I'll still be happy with in five years. So if the pivot is just career and not thinking about family, do you want a family? Then let's consider that. Even if you don't have one Financially, is there something you wanna invest in later? Do you wanna buy a house? Do you feel like this charity program? Because, believe it or not, you start it. You're gonna be putting a lot of your own money into it. So make those decisions that in five years, are still gonna make you happy and still, even if it fails, not drastically change who you are. And that's when I make my decisions.

Maj. Young:

Because, going to PA school in my 30s, I hadn't gotten married yet, I haven't had kids yet. What am I really forgetting? And I've forgotten and forgot that I did. I did. I was like, oh, it's never too late.

Maj. Young:

So I have to think about if I'm going to pivot, if I'm going to change. If this is best for me, will it be best for the family that I still want, will it be best for the economy that I hope to still have? So I have to make those decisions where I can still be able to afford the basics, still take care of myself and then hopefully still be able to provide for the family that I hope to have. And so that's when I make those decisions, not for the now but for in five years. What will that be? And I think that concept when people get asked what's your five and 10 year, can get lost Because they're saying, no, what's your career? But what would change that? What would make that not be able to happen or be able to happen bigger? We don't know. And so that's what I would tell somebody.

Ashley :

Incredible. Tiye, you are amazing. I am so happy to have met you and to know you. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us on shadow me next. Um, I cannot wait to follow the rest of your career, which is just already so impressive. So thank you for joining us today. Thank you so much. Thank you so very much for listening to this episode of shadow me next. If you liked this episode or if you think it could be useful for a friend, please subscribe and invite them to join us next Monday, as always. If you have any questions, let me know on Facebook or Instagram access. You want stories you need. You're always invited to shadow me next.

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Ashley Love

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