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A house call in the morning, a hospital admission by noon, and a seminar on suffering by night—that’s the rhythm our guest lives as a family physician in direct primary care and a fellow with Duke’s Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative. We open the door on what happens when you shrink a patient panel, ditch the phone tree, and trade 2,300 names for relationships you actually know. The result is time to listen, continuity across settings, and space to ask the questions most clinical checklists skip: What is medicine for? What do you hope for when life narrows? Who stands with you when the news is bad?

We revisit a formative service learning trip to Belize and confront the uneasy line between formation and medical tourism. He shares how attention became his most valuable skill, how reflection and community keep the work honest, and why the real test of any trip is what changes back home. From there, we talk about faith not as a bolt‑on but as a way of seeing that shapes every clinical move—breaking bad news with spiritual hospitality, honoring a patient’s tradition without vagueness, and naming truths without hiding behind autonomy alone.

Burnout and moral injury thread through the story, reframed by a larger narrative that makes room for grief and meaning. You’ll hear about kneeling beside beds to shift power, holding tears as a disciplined form of courage, and building parallel communities where weary clinicians read, eat, and remember why they began. We close with practical book recommendations on death, beauty, and care, and with candid advice for students on the fence about global health: discern in community, go humbly, and bring the lessons home.

If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a review with one insight you’ll carry into your next patient encounter.

Book Recommendations:

1. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
2. Severe Mercy - Sheldon Vanauken
3. The Anticipatory Corpse - Jeffrey Bishop
4. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to not only share with you our guest’s introduction to international healthcare, but also to share with you how that exposure to international healthcare has shaped their future path in healthcare. As true patient advocates, we should all aspire to be as well rounded as possible in order to meet the needs of our diverse patient populations.

As a 45+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with my students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that healthcare focused students need, and greatly benefit from the opportunity to have hands-on experiential healthcare experiences in an international setting! I have seen the growth of students post travel as their self-confidence in their newly acquired skillsets, both clinical and cultural, facilitates their ability to take advantage of opportunities that previously may not have been available to them. By rendering care internationally, and stepping outside one's comfort zone, many more doors of opportunity will be opened.

Feel free to check out our website at www.islonline.org, follow us on Instagram @ islmedical, and reach out to me @ DrH@islonline.org