A Life in Doctors’ Care Inspires Career as Physician Assistant
Matthew Valentine, a Rutgers senior with cerebral palsy, switched to allied health from premed to be closer to the patients
'I was sitting in those lecture halls surrounded by everyone who wanted to be a doctor. Everything was science-based, not people-based. I realized that I care more about the people side of medicine.'–Matthew Valentine
Matthew Valentine wanted to be a doctor for as long as he can remember.
That may be because he has been going to some kind of doctor, hospital or physical therapist’s office for as long as he can remember.
Valentine, a senior in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, was born three months premature, weighing 1 pound, 15 ounces. He was diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy when he was an infant and has had 19 orthopedic surgeries. The neurological disorder causes his leg muscles to contract and he walks with a slight limp.
He spent so much time with doctors that he said it was natural for him to want to become one.
“I can’t see myself in any other field,” said Valentine, 22.
But when he began taking premed courses in those large lecture halls, becoming a doctor no longer seemed right for him. Valentine, of Cinnaminson, couldn’t see himself going to medical school but he still wanted to be in the field. The primary reason he wanted to be a doctor was the time he would spend with patients.
“I was sitting in those lecture halls surrounded by everyone who wanted to be a doctor,” he recalled. “Everything was science-based, not people-based. I realized that I care more about the people side of medicine.”
He began researching other medical careers and found what he wanted to be: a physician assistant. P.A.s practice medicine under the supervision of a doctor. They attend graduate school and receive their master’s degree in health science.
Looking back on his experience as a patient, he remembered Linda Duffy, who was a P.A. and cared for Valentine at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del.
“You can tell when she walked into the room, she wasn’t rushed,” Valentine recalls. “She actually cared. It was inspiring.”
He contacted Duffy for guidance and arranged to shadow her during winter break of his freshman year. In those weeks as he made the rounds with Duffy and met her patients, Valentine knew he had made the right decision.
When he returned to New Brunswick that spring, he wanted to find more students like him: those who loved the medical field but didn’t want to be a doctor. He soon learned the half dozen pre-med clubs on campus catered primarily to would-be doctors or nurses. There wasn’t an organization, he said, that focused on the other areas of the medical profession, such as physician assistant programs, athletic training, physical, occupational and speech therapies or radiology. So, he along with a few friends founded their own club. The Allied Health Professions Club of Rutgers University now has 105 members, 50 of whom are active. The purpose of the club, said Valentine, is to make students aware of their options.
Allied health professionals are invited to lecture about their work and answer questions for members. Valentine, who is the club’s president, said it also has partnered with the Physician Assistant program in the Rutgers School of Health Related Professions to pair graduate student mentors with undergraduates.
The summer between his freshman and sophomore year, Valentine signed up for an intensive training program to become an EMT. He trained seven days a week for five weeks and is now a volunteer member of the Beverly Edgewater Park Emergency Squad.
Valentine attributes part of his first-year success to the Office of Disability Services. The office provided him the tools to navigate campus and get adjusted to college life. Valentine said that when he and his family were researching colleges, one of the things they considered were disability services each school offered and Rutgers’ Office of Disability Services stood out.
About 1,600 students with disabilities, 7 percent of whom are graduate students, use the Office of Disability Services at Rutgers-New Brunswick, according to Executive Director Bill Welsh. Students’ disabilities go beyond the visual. The office provides accommodations and services for students with a wide range of disabilities and health conditions, including Crohn’s disease, heart conditions, epilepsy, attention deficit disorder, learning disorders, bipolar disorder, depression, and autism spectrum disorder and many other conditions.
The 13 staff members educate the students about the services available to them. For example, for those who cannot carry heavy textbooks, turn the pages in a book or read the print, ODS provides digital or audio versions of the books. ODS also works with faculty and other university offices to ensure students are accommodated.
“We want them to be able to use any service the university offers like any other student would,” Carlie Andrews, director of ODS, said. “We don’t want them to have an experience that’s different.”
She said ODS doesn’t tutor students, for example, but rather provides training for tutors in the University Learning Centers. ODS then works with the tutors and academic coaches to ensure they have the skills necessary to work with students with disabilities.
“It’s about equal access,” Welsh added. “Our job is to teach students to work within their curriculum and also utilize independent skills so that they can go out and obtain gainful employment.”
Valentine is counting the days until he is a P.A. He plans to continue on at Rutgers next year in the School of Health Related Professions Physician Assistant Program and be working by summer of 2019.
“I cannot wait until I’m on the other side of the operating table or bedside,” he said.