SHARING GRATITUDE
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years passed in an instant , followed by four years in medical school at Weill Cornell University Medical College in New York City . There in the city , I felt energized and more motivated than ever to take on the world . Nothing was impossible , and everything felt within my reach .
I decided , though , to pursue a residency in a different part of the U . S . I wanted to experience something different than the hustle and bustle that I had learned to love . I matched in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University and moved to Nashville , Tennessee . Here , I discovered my passion for microbiology . I devoured Joseph B . McCormick ’ s Level 4 : Virus Hunters of the CDC . Everything started to fit together perfectly . I could return to Africa while I tracked the world ’ s deadliest viruses like Ebola . I continued my training at Vanderbilt through my infectious diseases fellowship . During this time , my perspective began to shift . I began to learn about infection control and hospital epidemiology and started to recognize the infection risks in health care . Caring for and protecting patients became my chief priority . The romantic notion of one day returning to Africa was replaced by a more practical and urgent need to protect patients from acquiring infections while receiving health care . Additionally , the idea of pursuing and working with the most virulent , transmissible and deadliest viruses became less appealing after marriage and children . transcend reality , with the certainty of what I wanted to do with my life . In residency , those interests shifted , and my circumstances changed . I will never know whether I would have helped more people and changed the world by pursuing my original dreams . The uncertainty sometimes is unsettling . However , recently , a conversation with one of my colleagues made me realize what a huge difference I have made here . In a decade , I created and developed one of the best infectious diseases departments in the city , helping thousands in our community . Efforts both locally and statewide have improved antimicrobial stewardship , infection control and infection prevention in our hospitals . For these opportunities , I am extremely grateful . I do not know if I will ever return to Africa . What I do know is that if I keep an open mind and heart , I will find possibilities and purpose wherever life takes me .
Dr . Hart is a health care epidemiologist and Medical Director of Infectious Diseases at Baptist Health Louisville . ( non-member )
My husband is the reason a girl from Warsaw , Poland settled in Louisville . We moved here after he accepted a job as a hematologist / oncologist at Baptist Health Louisville . Serendipitously , Baptist was also looking for an employed infectious disease physician . There were a few ID physicians in the city , but not enough for a city of this size . My practice initially was limited to inpatient consults for select patients , but even so , balancing family life with a newborn while being the only employed ID physician at Baptist was initially very difficult .
Thankfully , my services were in demand , and Baptist was able to invest further in the ID program . Within a few years , two new ID physicians were hired , allowing us to expand the inpatient consult service to cover the entire hospital and open an outpatient clinic . Because of this , I have been able to focus more attention on infection control and hospital epidemiology . A new passion for antimicrobial stewardship emerged . With a strong ID program at Baptist Health Louisville , we provided strong leadership for the entire Baptist Health system through the COVID-19 pandemic .
It is easy for me to get lost thinking about what could have been and how I thought my life would turn out . In Africa , I was confident where my life would take me . My dreams seemed to
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