Get to know a Caregiver: Kelsey Martin, MD
June 03, 2020Get to know a Caregiver: Kelsey Martin, MD
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Information
Kelsey Martin, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine (Hematology), discusses her journey to becoming a doctor.
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- 00:00Thank you for agreeing to do our
- 00:03get to know a caregiver series
- 00:05in my pleasure. Thank you. It's a
- 00:08lot of fun
- 00:10so you know I wanted to take a
- 00:13minute to ask you a few questions
- 00:16and starting out with where
- 00:18you're from and how you grew
- 00:20up. Sure, uhm. I
- 00:22was born in New York City, but I raised.
- 00:25I was raised mostly in Connecticut so
- 00:28I consider myself a Connecticut native.
- 00:30An an eye my whole my whole life.
- 00:33I grew up in Connecticut,
- 00:35from kindergarten through through high
- 00:36school and moved away at various points.
- 00:38But I'm now back right where I grew up,
- 00:41so it's a lot of fun. And
- 00:45tell me a little bit about
- 00:47your family. Are you? How many siblings do
- 00:50you have anything?
- 00:51Yeah, I have a brother.
- 00:53Um parents have a small family,
- 00:55uh, we always grow up with dogs
- 00:57and a big dog person. And uh,
- 01:00I'm the only position in my family.
- 01:02Only percentage medison or healthcare.
- 01:04Uhm, so that's something that I enjoy. And
- 01:07so tell me about
- 01:08the decision to go into Medison
- 01:10like how old were you when you
- 01:12knew you wanted to be a doctor
- 01:13and and why did you chat?
- 01:15I think I always knew
- 01:16even when I was a little kid.
- 01:19I would say I wanted to be a doctor
- 01:21and maybe not even fully obviously
- 01:23understanding what that meant.
- 01:25But I love science. I.
- 01:26I think you know, in a classic way.
- 01:29I probably had really great mentors
- 01:31through my college and uhm,
- 01:32you know high school in elementary school,
- 01:34you know, going back far,
- 01:36and but I really have always loved science.
- 01:39I think is what drove me to to
- 01:41medicine and probably just with that.
- 01:43I think the ability to
- 01:45work with people you know.
- 01:46An an probably is what drew
- 01:48me to Madison the most.
- 01:50Where did you end up going
- 01:51to medical school I went to
- 01:53medical school in Ireland an when I when
- 01:56I got there by when I was in college,
- 01:58I had spent a semester abroad in Dublin.
- 02:01And I had a great time and I felt
- 02:04really drawn to the country and I am
- 02:07have some Irish background in May and
- 02:10I would just wanted to go back and
- 02:13I had a really wonderful opportunity
- 02:15to take part in medical school
- 02:17there with a program or about half.
- 02:20My classmates were from North America
- 02:22and the rest of the students were Irish.
- 02:25An amazing experience. That sounds
- 02:28really amazing and what a cool
- 02:31way to learn about Medison
- 02:34in another country. Absolutely,
- 02:35uhm and the the you know there
- 02:39was a really strong emphasis upon
- 02:41just your your history taking
- 02:43our speaking to patients and
- 02:46your physical exam skills and.
- 02:48An it was spent time is it was amazing.
- 02:52I keeping a great touch with them.
- 02:54My colleagues from there.
- 02:56So it was fantastic. And
- 02:58so from after medical school,
- 03:00then you chose to go into internal medicine,
- 03:03residency and then ultimately Hematology,
- 03:05Oncology, Fellowship talk a little
- 03:07bit about those decisions and an
- 03:10any formative experiences that
- 03:12helped you decide what to do.
- 03:14Yeah, I had a really, really
- 03:16great mentors. UM, I I wanted
- 03:17to be back in the New York.
- 03:19I wanted to be in New York City so I did my
- 03:22residency training in the Bronx, which was.
- 03:24So cool, because there is just, uh,
- 03:27it's such a diverse place to work and I
- 03:30had the opportunity to have patience from.
- 03:34Number of different ethnic backgrounds,
- 03:36socioeconomic backgrounds,
- 03:38which was really rewarding.
- 03:40I learned so much an I think I
- 03:44ultimately chose. Palazhi based on.
- 03:46And you have family members who
- 03:49had a history of breast cancer.
- 03:52So I think that had some element,
- 03:55of course.
- 03:55But I think also again just really
- 03:58great mentorship along the way.
- 04:00I also realized that I was entering
- 04:03oncology at a unique time I think
- 04:05when the field is really wrapping your
- 04:08rapidly changing very positive way and.
- 04:11Our knowledge science was changing.
- 04:14And. Any every day.
- 04:16I think you know we get new information
- 04:18about how to diagnose things,
- 04:21treat cancer and I just thought I
- 04:23want to be involved in this this
- 04:25exciting time and so that was a
- 04:28large part of what drew mean.
- 04:30Oncology and then of course I think we have.
- 04:33It's a unique field to where we get to.
- 04:36Really get to know our patience.
- 04:38You know,
- 04:38on a human level and I remember
- 04:40one of my mentors at the Times that
- 04:42will think about you know what
- 04:43kind of patients who do you want
- 04:45to be sitting across?
- 04:46You know,
- 04:46in the room with and what kind of
- 04:48conversations do you want to be having
- 04:50and that really somehow just that stuck?
- 04:51And it's something I've never forgotten
- 04:53and I and I just realized that this
- 04:55is what I think I was meant to do.
- 04:58It's a privilege
- 04:59to sit across from a patient dealing
- 05:03with cancer. Absolutely. I mean
- 05:05it is such. It is such a privilege to to
- 05:09get to be involved in the medical aspects.
- 05:12Of course of what we're doing,
- 05:14but to also have people allow
- 05:16you to really enter their legs,
- 05:19meet their family.
- 05:20Cancer impacts people, of course,
- 05:22in on a day-to-day basis and how
- 05:24they are with their own family
- 05:26and their jobs. And it's it's
- 05:29really actually an honor that
- 05:31allow us to be involved in that.