He also shared life lessons. His first lesson was: “Lead from service,” something he learned from his mother, who, he said, “practiced servant leadership.” Servant Leadership, Straker explained, “is an influential behavior that places the well-being of others before one’s own self-interest. Servant leaders are attentive to the concerns of the community, the team, or ‘followers.’” PAs, Straker said, “can easily fit into servant leadership roles.”
Other advice Straker shared included:
“Recognize your privilege—use it help others,” pointing out, “your status as a PA gives you a societal privilege into the lives of your patients and their communities. Use this privilege to make changes to forward their lives.”
“Prepare yourself by being solid in knowing your values, creating a vision—a direction—in which to travel.” He also encouraged the graduates to continue gaining knowledge and acquiring skills.
“Be open to possibilities,” Straker said, explaining that unplanned opportunities “can change your planned trajectory for the better.”
“Find your voice and find a way to bring it to the table.” Straker then brought his voice to an issue that has centered his PA journey. He described how, “As the only African American in my class, I, along with our three Asian students, watched how racism was embedded in our medical system and medical education.” The only time a patient’s race was mentioned was when they were non-white, and, Straker said, “It seemed that being Black was considered a risk factor for every disease.” When he asked why, he said his lecturers replied it was probably genetic. Straker explained, “There was an assumption that race was biological.” While we now know there is not a race gene, he continued, “unfortunately, today many of those false underlying assumptions about race have been embedded in medicine, in our algorithms and guidelines, and we did not—do not—realize it.”
While there has been improvement, he continued, “medicine can be slow to change,” pointing out, for example, that there are still many PFT (pulmonary function test) spirometers that require providers to input race to receive a reading. “These calculations have deleterious effects. We have to be aware of these and other assumptions. We have undo, remove these assumptions from our daily practices so we can achieve health equity.”
He told the graduates that it is now their turn to be heard. “You are the recipients of rigorous education. You have skills others can and will depend on. Step up and be heard. You don’t need to be loud but you cannot be silent. For too long, PAs have been healthcare’s best kept secret.”
Straker’s final lesson: “It is not about me. It is about the patients, the community.”