Shadow Me Next!

How Resilience Shapes Healthcare from a PA School Faculty Member| Pete Breitinger, PA-C

• Ashley Love • Season 1 • Episode 38

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Pete Breitinger's journey to respected PA educator spans more than three decades and reveals the profound human connections at the heart of healthcare. What begins as a candid reflection on his unexpected path into medicine transforms into a masterclass on resilience, advocacy, and equity in patient care.

When Pete shares stories from his years in pediatric cardiology, his voice brightens with genuine affection for the families he's followed, some from infancy through adulthood. "These kids are resilient," he says, "you talk about a definition of resilience? Go to Peds Cardiology." This perspective on patient strength becomes a thread woven throughout our conversation, reappearing as he describes the qualities that make successful PA students and practitioners.

The most powerful moment comes when Pete redefines his profession's very acronym. "What does PA stand for?" he asks his students each year. Beyond the official "Physician Assistant," Pete insists it means "Patient Advocate," a conviction forged while navigating the healthcare system with his wife during her cancer diagnosis. Seeing patients struggle without guidance crystallized his belief that advocacy isn't just political action but happens in every exam room, with every prescription, with every referral.

His work with UF's Mobile Outreach Clinic brings this philosophy to life, providing care to underserved communities from a converted bus. "If you want to be a true patient advocate, go work in underserved areas," Pete advises, noting how this experience forces practitioners to find creative solutions without "all the bells and whistles" of well-equipped facilities. The geographical distribution of healthcare resources, with standalone ERs concentrated in affluent areas, becomes a stark visual reminder of persistent inequities.

Through three decades of evolution in healthcare education, Pete has witnessed growing awareness of these systemic issues. Today's students arrive more community-aware and ready to address social determinants of health, giving him hope for medicine's future. His parting wisdom? Simply "be kind," a reminder that seeing patients as complete human beings rather than medical cases is perhaps the most fundamental form of advocacy.

Join us for this illuminating conversation about what it truly means to care for patients in all their complexity. Subscribe now and follow @shadowmenext on social media for more insights into the human side of medicine.

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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. I've had the privilege of knowing today's guests for over a decade as a colleague, mentor and friend.

Ashley:

Mr Pete Breitinger has spent more than 30 years shaping the PA profession, not only through his work in pediatric cardiology in the UF Mobile Outreach Clinic, but also by guiding generations of students as an assistant professor at the University of Florida School of Physician Assistant Studies. In this conversation, pete shares how a career that began with a love for wildlife conservation led him to medicine. He talks about the unexpected joy he found in pediatric cardiology and the lessons he's learned about resilience, both in the clinic, in the classroom and in his personal life. We talk about patient advocacy in its truest form, the realities of healthcare, inequity and how some of the most important moments in medicine happen outside the exam room. At its heart, this is a conversation about the human side of healthcare, the part that shapes who we are as clinicians. 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.

Ashley:

This is Shadow Me Next with Pete Breitinger. Hey Pete, thank you so much for joining us today on Shadow Me Next. This is such a gift to me because Pete is not only somebody that I've known and admired for such a gift to me, because Pete is not only somebody that I've known and admired for such a long time, he is my mentor and was my mentor throughout PA school. So it's a treat for me to have you on the show. Thank you so much for joining us.

Pete Breitinger:

Thank you. I'm so honored to be here and I'm so proud of you for doing this, but not only that. I mean kudos for your graduation speech. That was so inspiring. It really was, and you know that's what makes me so happy as well to see people who you know PAs right, who have been through the program and their success, you know I mean that's really fulfilling. So so proud of you.

Ashley:

I appreciate it. You know it was a group effort from the people I've spoken with on the podcast, who are just you know. I invite them, expecting them to be your typical average healthcare provider, and then we have this conversation and every single one of them is just mind-blowingly incredible and awesome. What we're doing is not just ending when we step out of those exam rooms. These people are doing incredible things and they contributed to but, it's just.

Ashley:

It's a mark of what an incredible educator you are the fact that you do follow your students and you've been in PA education for a while, so you have seen a lot of students come through and really seen how they've shaped the landscape of this incredible profession that we have. You have had a long career as both a PA and a PA educator. How long have you been doing this, tell us?

Pete Breitinger:

So my LinkedIn profile said hey, congratulations for being at UF for 32 years. I'm like whoa, that's amazing. It's been an amazing journey, amazing ride, amazing career and you hear this from PAs all the time. It's like I picked the best profession to be in and we most definitely have. It's been really cool to really kind of see students grow throughout the program, you know, becoming PAs but, more importantly, following them through their careers to see the amazing stuff that people do, right.

Pete Breitinger:

We have PAs who've invented stuff. We have PAs who are doing podcasts outside of the profession but yet still kind of promoting the profession, which is really cool. I had a faculty member kind of tell me, not too long ago actually, which really kind of resonated with me. It's like you know, you spend this time educating students and if you add up the amount of students that you've touched through education, right, and then you multiply that by the amount of patients they have seen, that's literally the amount of patients that you have indirectly kind of helped affect or at least kind of understand and know about the PA profession, and it gets you know, when you've been in the profession for a while, it gets up in the millions, right.

Ashley:

I imagine a tree, you know, and I imagine all the branches of that tree. You know, we've talked a lot about mentors on this show and having a mentor is so important and a lot of times it's not. I mean, good Lord knows, I do not work in pediatric cardiology, I couldn't. I'm amazed with what you do with these sweet tiniest littlest of hearts. But you still mentor me, you know, and I still ask you questions about all sorts of things related to the profession, not necessarily related to the medicine, and I think that's what is so interesting is mentorship can look so vastly different as a PA. Pete. Go back, go back more than 30 years. How did you know about the PA profession? It was rather new when you first entered it, wasn't it?

Pete Breitinger:

So it was. You know, it's funny. I look back at my career kind of, where I went into medicine. I originally wanted to go into wildlife management. Okay, I was going to be like you know, I'm going to save the wolves, think, whatever. You know, somehow along the way I figured out there's really no career in wildlife management and just kind of fell into actually going to santa fe for cardiovascular technology. I was a cardiovascular tech and worked cath lab, worked, did ultrasound, that kind of stuff. And then through there I actually had some exposure to a couple PAs that I knew, one who actually was part of the program at the time and she kind of encouraged me because you know, at the time, looking at cardiovascular techs and you know, great profession, great people, but it's really about lateral movement. It wasn't really much in the variety and I like variety so anyway, so I kind of fell into PA and you know, been there ever since.

Pete Breitinger:

Obviously, as far as Pete's cardiology that was kind of the similar I initially started kind of going to work at the student infirmary, which is a great gig, and then came into education from there and then I actually kind of have a good friend of mine who is a pediatric cardiologist here, who's a genius, kind of convinced me hey, come on down, come on into Pete's Cardiology.

Pete Breitinger:

And it was such a great move because I never realized that that was actually kind of my passion as a PA, you know, getting to know these patients, the families. But more importantly it was probably my relationship with my supervising physician, who is my mentor and was fantastic with helping to kind of, you know, really get me into the profession, you know, into Pete's cardiology as well. So, and you know, it really led to a lot of wonderful experiences that as a PA I never thought that I could have, you know. I mean I was really brought in to help with the echo lab, to help with the exercise program, but became so much more developing those relationships with the supervising physician and those patients and such it was great.

Ashley:

Pete. What? Because I'm sure well, number one, I'm interested. It's a question I've never asked you, but I'm sure many people would be interested. What does a day look like for you? Just a typical regular day with these pediatric patients? I'm sure they're rather sick. If they're seeing you, is it always quite sad or it seems like you enjoyed it. So I would imagine it's not always a hard day.

Pete Breitinger:

No, not necessarily. I was really more on the outpatient side of things. I never really kind of had the hospital responsibilities, which was fine because my comfort and my forte is really more clinic-based medicine. A typical day over there would be, you know, we'd have conference in the morning, you know kind of go through surgical cases and patients, just like that, and then pretty much just kind of looking over your patients of the day. You know kind of go through surgical cases in patients, just like that, and then pretty much just kind of looking over your patients of the day. You know kind of seeing if there's any labs that are going to need to be done or any follow-ups and such like that, reading last notes, et cetera. And then of course you know clinic and just kind of running the patients with your supervising physician. Now I also had the unique opportunity of helping develop their exercise program. So you know, scattered in there I'd either be doing MBO2 stress tests or we'd be doing regular stress tests on patients. That kind of depended on the day.

Pete Breitinger:

But you know, getting to know not only the patients but the families themselves is one of the most fulfilling opportunities you can have as a provider and making those connections with those families and there's still some families today that I'm still kind of connected to and watching the kids grow. You know seeing them from when they were first kind of a baby, having their surgeries and such, but yet following them, you know, as teenagers and eventually into kind of adults or helping them transition into that. That was big with us too is transitioning our kids into. You know adult medicine as well and you know kind of following the adults over time too Were there the sad moments and such, because you do get incredibly close with these people. I've had several of adults who, or even some of our teenagers who have grown into adulthood and then passed away arrhythmias, whatever, and that's hard, that's so tough. You know just the joy. I mean these kids are resilient. You talk about a definition of resilience.

Pete Breitinger:

Go to Pete's Cardiology, see these kids and the families themselves. I'm always impressed with you know, since we're kind of a regional center families from all walks of life and I'm always impressed with those families who probably don't have two nickels to rub together but yet their priority is their kid. They're still bringing them to clinics. They're still doing what they need to do, but not only that. The psychological side of coming to clinic is is this the time they're going to tell me my daughter needs surgery? Or, as an adult, is this the time when they're going to tell me my daughter needs surgery, you know? Or, as an adult, is this the time when they're going to tell me no, your heart's not getting any better. We're probably going to have to list you for transplant. You just kind of go through that, you know, wondering when's the shoe going to drop, right?

Ashley:

It just. That's a great example of how you know you can have these great relationships with these patients and their families and usually things are really really good in your exam room but, for whatever reason, one day they walk in and they're just upset or angry or sour, not acting like they normally would, and there's just so many other fears that are underlying these conversations that we're having the preconceived notions and the things that they're experiencing at home. And when you have these relationships with these patients, you will run into those things. It is a gift, I think, in medicine to be able to say and it really is one of my favorite things to be able to say hey, what's going on? This is not like you, this is not you know you weren't like this.

Ashley:

The last four or five visits Is everything okay, and then they will say no, and then they'll talk about something completely unrelated to your visit, but it contributes to their care. It's one more element that I don't think we talk about enough in clinical medicine that it's so much more than looking at their diagnoses, than reviewing their medications and coming up with their plan. It's factoring in the rest of their life, sometimes as well.

Pete Breitinger:

But that's we are in medicine to do, right, I mean, that is the holistic side of medicine and a lot of times that can actually be more the healing side of medicine, right, I mean just the fact that you're listening and you're talking to them. They put so much trust in us. You know, that is the other side of medicine that I would hate for see people kind of taking for granted, because that to me is kind of the fulfilling side as well that you talk to a lot of students about too, because you can read a textbook and you can learn about all of these conditions.

Ashley:

but it is some of these human moments in medicine that it is nice to give students a glimpse into. You are a PA educator. You work for a university PA program. You have for a while we've already mentioned you've seen a number of students come through For you. What is the most rewarding thing about working in PA education? If you had to pick one?

Pete Breitinger:

I would say graduation, you know, because if you think about it, it's a culmination of what they originally dreamed they wanted to do, you know, until they got in there and realized, holy cow, this is tough, right, but to watch our students starting, you know, first in the summer, I have no clue. Yeah, you know no clue. But to watch their growth into becoming a provider in two short years is amazing and it just fills me so much. I mean, I tell my advisees, for better or for worse, I said you know, look, I expect you guys to really grow through this and you're going to, and there's going to be some trials and tribulations, but you are going to come out the other end being a strong, beautiful, wonderful provider.

Ashley:

It's incredible, pete. So we've talked about your role in clinic as a in Pete's cardiology. What about as a PA educator? I would imagine it is a very, very different day for you, probably multifactorial lots of things in the air that you're balancing Still exciting though I would imagine.

Pete Breitinger:

Exactly what you said Multiple balls in the air at any time, what students don't see and they don't need to. It's like behind the curtain, wizard of Oz kind of stuff. But there's a whole lot of administrative stuff that goes on that we all have to deal with. We are blessed with having a great faculty, great staff who are dedicated to the mission of the program but, more importantly, the mission of the students and ensuring that we're giving a good quality education. But yeah, from day to day you just never know what fires are going to come up and what you need to kind of do.

Pete Breitinger:

The best days are when you're in the classroom and you're not dealing with the emails that are coming in. I think that the other side that I really love about being here obviously is the variety, but it's also the creativity that it kind of can bring out in you putting together lectures, putting together labs. It's a lot of work up front, but when you're up there and you're delivering content and you're seeing students are just kind of like, yeah, the light bulbs are going on or you're throwing candy at them and they're happy. It's a highlight of education in a sense. But yeah, the behind the scenes stuff, it's a lot of administrative stuff really is.

Ashley:

It's almost like wearing two hats.

Ashley:

You know, which I mean I think medicine's the same way. You're in the room with the patient, you're wearing your patient, your patient I call it the customer service hat, and then you step back and you start charting and it's all the clerical work and it's just a little bit less. Well, I smile less when I'm sitting at my computer as opposed to when I'm in front of my patients. I'd imagine the same students you mentioned getting to really interact with these students and getting to see them pick up some of these incredible concepts that you have really worked so hard to present to them. In your opinion, when it comes to the, let's talk about the students for a second. For PA students specifically, what are some of the qualities that you consistently see in some of your most successful students? Let's not just talk didactic, let's do didactic and clinical students. So, just generally speaking, when you think about the most successful ones, what do they have? What's that thing?

Pete Breitinger:

I think the number one thing that I see in the most successful students, but really would love to see develop more so in all our students, is resilience.

Ashley:

Now. Pete and I did not get a chance to discuss a quality question, but this brings up an excellent opportunity to review a question that you might hear on a pre-health professional school interview Describe a time in your life that helped you forge the most resilience. Listen in as Pete describes why this is so important in both our pre-health students and also our healthcare professionals. Keep in mind that there's more interview prep, such as mock interviews and personal statement review over on shadowmenextcom. There, you'll find amazing resources to help you as you prepare to answer your own quality questions.

Pete Breitinger:

You know, knowing when you get to a tough point it's going to be okay. I just have to power through this, you know, and then take that time to look back and go, okay, what was it that was giving me so much angst that I need to kind of improve in myself that it's less and less next time. These things kind of come up. And I guess you know, prime example, regardless of whether it's clinical or didactic, is you know, our students are highly motivated, highly successful, but yet they've never really felt the pain of maybe failing a test, you know.

Pete Breitinger:

So when that happens, it's almost world-ending for them you know, and you know, not that we're going to kick you out, but you know, I would hope that you're going to go back and go, okay, what was it that I didn't know? So that now I know it for my patients later. Right, because we're not studying for the exams. Well, I mean, you got to get the grades, but we're studying for our patients ultimately, you know, but having that resilience to realize, okay, we're still marching on, we're still doing what we want, still realizing our goals and our dream, you know, and realizing also and I think you know the the trust is a big thing, you know. Trust the process, trust the program, trust where you're going and how we're taking you there, but, more importantly, trust we're here to support you, you know, because, like I said, come graduation, I can't wait to call you colleague.

Ashley:

It's a special moment, and that's actually a perfect segue into another question that I wanted to ask, which was for students considering specifically for PAs. What is it that they should be doing now to best prepare? And, of course, we know about the studying. They should be getting good grades, they should be getting clinical shadowing experience, but I'm wondering if what you might say in this case is put yourself in positions where you can develop resiliency and you can at least be able to speak on that a little bit. Is that what you would say? And if so, how could we do that?

Pete Breitinger:

That's a great question. I think it's kind of hard to really say here's a cut plan for how you need to go about this, because everyone has a different makeup of how they study and interpret things. But I would probably say, if you are looking to get into PA school, start taking some harder classes, classes that are going to challenge you when you get into PA school. It's nonstop, right. We've all experienced it, We've all lived it. Right. It is tiring, It'll wear you down. We used to have a director who would say well, you all are in PA school. However, the cracks you may have bringing in, we didn't create them, but we're going to help widen them. So it's like wow, but to some degree, unfortunately, it really challenges our mental health of who we are when you're going through this incredible stress time and time again.

Pete Breitinger:

So I think the other thing that I usually kind of also tell at least my advising students is you know what? Yes, you guys are going to be under a lot of stress here. Don't forget who you are and practice your wellness. You know. Get back to who you were before this and know that again, we're here to support you. You're going to get through this.

Ashley:

And really, I guess, again leads to a really interesting question. And you've been doing this for a long time and I'm sure you've seen, you know, plenty of difficult moments for students. But have you experienced any difficult moments in your career whether it's in clinic and practice or perhaps in education where you had to say, okay, let's get that putty out and let's fill up this crack real fast, because this is rough right now?

Pete Breitinger:

You know, I think we've all kind of gone through our periods of burnout and you know it can be a cyclical event, right, I know that through education yes, being in a PA education I've had those moments of going through the burnout and questioning myself Am I really cut out to be an educator?

Pete Breitinger:

Am I really developing these students the way that they need to be developed? Because I mean, you know, students obviously come in with their own expectations, right, of how things should be and how they are, you know, and there's been times when I felt like I just don't feel like I'm living up to those expectations and it's bothered me. Challenges, clinically, I'm going to know what to do. Throughout the course of what she was going through, I was fortunate that, yes, I have background in certain areas, but I don't have backgrounds in the areas where it's going to count the most for her right now, where it's going to count the most for her right now and to me, that kind of left me feeling I don't want to say less as a PA, but it did kind of motivate and inspire me to make sure that you know what.

Pete Breitinger:

I am here to care for patients and I need to do the best that I can, no matter what situation I'm in.

Ashley:

Thank you so much for sharing that, because I think it's something that we don't talk about a lot is when we are put in those social situations, whether it's a spouse or a child, or even a good friend. So many people will reach out to us in our private life and say, hey, what's your opinion on this? And it might not be your specific field, but because you've been trained medically, they just want to know your opinion on that and I think, gosh, especially something that is so intimate as having a close family member walk through a long-term diagnosis like that, it can be eye-opening, I think, and it gives you an opportunity to be. You were definitely an advocate for your wife, of course, but I think it really reframes patient advocacy when you are the one that is so motivated to advocate for your spouse, for your child. How did that? Well, let me take a step back, and we mentioned of course it's a buzzword we mentioned patient advocacy. What does that mean?

Pete Breitinger:

first of all, I'm so happy you brought that up because that is something that's very important and near and dear to my heart and actually kind of form my opinion of what that looks like and what it should be, while going through with my wife what she was going through, seeing her strengths, seeing her resiliency, but, more importantly, realizing our system's broken. Our system is rough, you know. So I, when I'm with the students, you know, especially now, that they're new and such one of my lectures is on the biopsychosocial Okay, so it's kind of the whole, you know putting it all together, but yet you know kind of empathy, all that stuff, right, but one of the things that I asked them and I ask every class, this and I have for a while. So what does PA stand for? And we get, oh, physician assistant or associate, now Right, and I go, well, yeah, that's our title, but what does it stand for? And they're like, oh, patient advocate, because that is first and foremost your job as a PA is to help and make sure that that patient is getting through the system and they have the support they need, and that is your cure. That is what you are as a PA, because I mean going through our own experience. I mean, we had some wonderful nurse navigators I mean, oh my gosh, fantastic.

Pete Breitinger:

But looking at some of these people who are going through this alone and not realizing, you know, how do I need to kind of get you know over here, or how do I need to kind of get into this office? Or you know what do I do if this happens? Right, I don't know how those people do it without someone kind of being there to kind of advocate for them. You know, now, granted, advocacy takes on many forms, right, with the government political side of advocacy Super important, right, you know. And if you're a person who is into that kind of grassroots kind of stuff, then yes, be a patient. Advocate in that direction, we need that as well, right. Advocate in that direction, we need that as well, right. But most importantly, when you are in clinic, when you are with your patients, you are their advocate first and foremost. So I'm hoping that that kind of impresses on the students as they go out and we start to see this kind of building more and more.

Ashley:

It's true. Thank you for defining that for us, because I think it's a word that we so often hear thrown around. Nobody really quite knows, of course, like you said, the political, grassroots efforts, things like that. But politics sometimes feel so far away from some people and they think, well, I'm not cut out for patient advocacy, I don't want to lobby on Capitol Hill, that's not me. But that's not all it is. It's so much more intimate than that in certain situations. So thank you for defining that. Pete, as you have worked in PA education, you also had the opportunity to work on a mobile outreach clinic, which I'm sure gave you the opportunity to really see some of these biopsychosocial issues firsthand. Tell me about this outreach and tell me about why it is so important for PAs to seek out some of these opportunities that maybe are a little bit outside of their wheelhouse.

Pete Breitinger:

So if you want to be a true patient advocate, go work in underserved areas or rural health.

Ashley:

There you go.

Pete Breitinger:

That is, I mean, to me that's just so inspiring. And the mobile outreach clinic is basically a bus that goes through Gainesville to provide care for underserved, non-insured patients. They have such a wonderful crew between the nurses, the NPs that are there and the PAs. It's a really kind of cool interdisciplinary model as far as everyone kind of working together for the same shared goal. You know, but they do it with such compassion, such love for the patients. And you know, but they do it with such compassion, such love for the patients and, and you know, it's very much inspiring.

Pete Breitinger:

I'm so grateful that we can have our students kind of going through that and in fact, if we could, I would say every single student should go through this, you know, because not only does it kind of open your eyes to the health inequities that are out there, but it also opens your eyes and kind of helps influence you with social determinants of health and how powerful that plays within communities as far as determining population health and such, but also kind of helping students recognize resources within communities to help their patients, in addition to the fact that you're really practicing medicine without the benefit of having all the bells and whistles right. Needs an MRI? I can't just put the order in to say, schedule an MRI. I've got to find some other creative solutions to either try and get this person an MRI or at least get them to a point to where they're feeling more comfortable. Right, until we can, you know. So you really have to kind of think about what you're, what you're doing and what you're able to do.

Ashley:

I remember I did a rotation on the bus and I 100% agree with you it absolutely should be a required rotation for everybody, because you walk into this situation this is my experience but you walk into the situation knowing that you're going to be providing care to underserved, providing care to people with less. But, pete, I tell you, at no point while I was on the bus did I ever think, oh, this person is less, they just have less and they have access to less. And I had to be more intentional with the care that I was giving and the prescriptions that I was writing, because it was just our access and their access and social determinants of health. These are things like transportation. It's a big one. You know a lot of these people can't get to the other side of town to come see the doctor, so the bus does that, things like that. I think it is just. It is incredible. You've been working on the bus for a while. Go back to when you first started being a PA. How has your understanding of healthcare equity changed?

Pete Breitinger:

Oh, immensely, you know, and. But I think, though, that that that has also been in general for everyone, right? I mean, I look back to when I started. Yes, you knew the inequities were out there, but there weren't kind of programs in place to say, oh, you know what, let's start putting some clinics on the east side of town to get more people into the system per se. You know, it's been a slowly kind of evolving process, obviously, and it's still not there. Show this to the students if you look at where the majority of ER and the standalone ERs are, they're all on the side of town, where the money is, insurance is.

Ashley:

Wild.

Pete Breitinger:

So I mean, just looking at a map alone, you see where the inequities lie, unfortunately. Being in education, though, it's also helped to better inform me as well, true Throughout In that respect. Better informed students too, I mean our students are coming in more community aware and community responsive to what the needs are and being those advocates for that as well. So it's really cool to see.

Ashley:

That's incredible, you know. It feels like the problems seem bigger, but the awareness is also bigger now, I think, and it is, it's great, cool to see. That's incredible, you know, it feels like the problems seem bigger, but the awareness is also bigger now, I think, and it's great. And I also think it's important, regardless of where you're practicing in medicine or how specialized your field is, or if you're ordering MRIs all the time or if you're shopping off of the Walmart $7 list for prescriptions with your patients, I think everybody needs to have a general understanding of these things and of these problems, and I think that is something that we are doing so much better, at least recently, in education and healthcare education. So, working our way there, what's one piece of advice that you like to give your students outside of medicine? Something that speaks to life or their character, not necessarily something that you would find in a textbook.

Pete Breitinger:

Oh, I'm not that wise.

Ashley:

I disagree.

Pete Breitinger:

Yeah, that's the golden rule right, just be kind, right, be kind. You mentioned something before that resonated with me with the bus is, when you see these patients, you don't see them as patients, right? Nor should you see anybody as a patient, right, because they do. They have lives, you know, behind what we're seeing, you know and they're going back to. I think, if anything, that for all of us is, we need to recognize and maybe look beyond some of the biases that we have, because, you know, working on the MSE is not for everybody. Some people have those biases they can't get over. It's like, well, that's not your issue right now. Your issue is taking care of this person and looking beyond that to be able to objectively do that right. So be kind, let's be kind.

Ashley:

That's fabulous, pete. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us on shadow me next and just share your incredible journey and all of the people that you've impacted and the patients that you've impacted, and I'm grateful for you and it's a pleasure, of course, as always.

Pete Breitinger:

Well, I thank you as well, and I'm so proud of you. I'm very grateful of you and for what you're doing as well, so you are amazing.

Ashley:

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

Host