In preparation for the upcoming Match Day on March 17th, I sat down with Dr. Cheryl O’Malley, interim vice dean of academic affairs to discuss her path to academic medicine at the UA COM-P and how she finds balance in her life.
Dr. O’Malley was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and then moved to Arizona on her third birthday when her dad (a neonatologist) was in medical school. I asked Dr. O’Malley if she always wanted to be a physician. She said, “I always loved math, science, and service and all the things that typically are a part of the profession of being a physician, but I wasn’t quite sure from a lifestyle standpoint, knowing that I wanted to have children. I knew that I wanted to have kids and for that reason wasn’t sure if being a doctor was for me. So, in college, I first majored in engineering, and then I switched to biology, and considered becoming a teacher or a physical therapist . . . but I always wanted to understand the ‘why’ behind the pathophysiology.” After much exploration, she decided that only a career in medicine could satisfy her curiosity. At that point she told her future husband, “All right so I decided I’m going to do this,” and he said, “Ok, well, I never imagined myself married to a doctor.” Her response was, “Well, get used to it.” They have now been married for 20 years! Dr. O’Malley returned to Arizona after completing undergrad at Notre Dame. She enjoyed the time away but said, “There’s nothing like being in Indiana for four years to make you appreciate Arizona.”
The O’Malley family
When I inquired about an experience that has made an impact on her, she responded, “I’m most proud of the qualities of being able to be creative and continuing to find good in whatever the circumstance is. That means every moment has so much potential. One thing our students could identify with is my experience when I was applying for medical school. I had been a great student, had done well at Notre Dame, and had done a lot of things that I thought would be needed to have a competitive application, but I wasn’t accepted at U of A my first year. I was really, really devastated. It was challenging to overcome such a change in plans and the feeling of rejection. However, now I think that experience helped set me up for the perspective that things may not be exactly as you expect but somehow, it’s going to work out in the end.”
She was even more excited to be accepted at the The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson the next year (Bear Down!) and then marry her long-time boyfriend after her first year of medical school.
I asked Dr. O’Malley about her Match Day experience. “Well, I wanted to do combined Med-Peds and at that time there were only two programs here in Phoenix. They both shared the same pediatrics component, but one had the internal medicine side over at Good Sam (now BUMC-P) and the other one had the internal medicine part at Maricopa; I really liked both, and my husband had a job here and we really didn’t want to go anywhere else, so I only applied to and ranked those two programs.” This time, everything worked out as planned, and she matched at the Good Sam and PCH Med-Peds program.
Dr. O’Malley reflected on how she chose her specialty: “I imagined myself doing primary care because I wanted to take care of the whole family but because of the ‘I want to know it all’ mentality, I decided that I wanted to have more exposure to the sickest of the adults and kids in the inpatient and ICU settings. For me, that was part of the decision of selecting my specialty. There were also a lot of little things that made it right for me.”
To fast forward a few years, Dr. O’Malley told me more of what happened after completing residency: “I started doing more and more internal medicine. Once I became the internal medicine residency program director, I decided that my clinical work would be with adults, but there are still many times where I’m taking care of an adult, with cystic fibrosis, congenital heart disease or with hemophilia or sickle cell, where my pediatrics experience really helped me to better understand the disease and what their experience was like as a child.”
Regarding how she finds balance in her life, Dr. O’Malley said, “I’m pretty good at taking advantage of small moments and not thinking that it has to be this structured grand plan. I love the early morning for quiet time. I’m more productive in the mornings, so I try to get more done in less time when I’m at my peak.”
It is known that Dr. O’Malley enjoys being crafty, and she shared, “Yes, I do crafts. I love to do any kind of art and try new things. I learn by doing, and I’ll watch videos on YouTube. I like to learn how to do different techniques. I think I am best at mixed media and mosaic. I like to find stuff that I can repurpose or that I can make myself. My dad is a good woodworker so he has all those tools . . . he likes to teach me, and we make some things together.”
Artwork by Dr. Cheryl O’Malley
I asked Dr. O’Malley, “If given the chance, what would you say to your 28-year-old self?” Dr. O’Malley’s response: “Be patient with yourself. You cannot have everything all at once and be exactly who you want to be. Just keep learning and growing and reflecting on where you are. I think it’s hard to be a doctor, especially when you first start out, and then you look at people who seem competent and you think, ‘I will never get there.’ Even when you finish residency, it’s hard because you must make a lot of decisions and you doubt yourself and without having had that experience, you don’t yet have the confidence that some decisions are going to seem right at the time, but when you look back weren’t. Enjoy the journey, be patient with yourself at each phase, and just keep loving the people that you encounter along the way.”
For some final thoughts that she would like to share with her student, Dr. O’Malley said, “Your life hopefully will be really long, and you will have a lot of potential for impact, so stay in the game in whatever way you can. There’s going to be days and periods of time when you’re sprinting, but think about choices to help you make it sustainable over a long period of time. You will be able to learn and grow and have new opportunities as life changes. In the end, you will make a huge difference.”
Lisa Yanez is the Assistant Director, Curricular Programs in the Department of Academic Affairs at The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. She earned her Master of Business Administration degree at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. Lisa successfully defended her dissertation recently and will graduate in May 2017 with a Doctor of Education at Arizona State University. Her dissertation research focused on active engagement in medical education.