Dr. Pyke Has Great Advice for Early-Career Hospitalists

Q & A with O’Neil J. Pyke, MD, MBA, SFHM, chief medical officer, Jackson North Medical Center, Jackson Health System, Miami

Dr. Pyke became a hospitalist when the specialty was new and still quite unknown. His experience and insight are invaluable to The Hospitalist’s editorial board.

Choose empathy. Yes, it’s a choice. For some, it’s a bit more natural, but for all, you must embrace it. Empathy might very well be the next imperative [once AI takes over clinical decision making].

Q: Why did you choose a career in hospital medicine?

My career in hospital medicine was somewhat by default. I could not find a medical sub-specialty that I liked enough to commit a career to, and I did not enjoy the pace of outpatient clinical practice.

Q: What’s been your biggest success?

My biggest success has been raising two daughters and watching them become increasingly more independent women who are contributing members of our society.

Q: What challenges have you overcome?

Insecurity and self-doubt…not at all unique to me, but were a huge challenge in the early part of my career.

Q: What do you enjoy most about your work?

Teaching younger professionals in the hope that they use my experience to the benefit of our communities.

Q: Why did you join SHM?

I joined SHM when it was NAIP back around 2001, 2002 when I was still young in my hospital medicine career and just seeking a community to vet some of my ideas. I needed to validate my experience since, back then, hospital medicine was new and very much unknown.

Q: Why did you become an editorial board member?

A wanting to reconnect with my old community, now that I have stepped away from active/direct patient care. I miss the bedside, but need to stay connected. Also, I have valuable information from my journey to now that will be helpful to others. It would be rather selfish of me to just walk away with information that I know will be value added to the society that gave me so much!

Q: What’s the first page you turn to when you get your copy of The Hospitalist?

In the past, the jobs page. Now, I start from the front page and essentially go through the entire issue.

Q: What topics would you like to see more of in The Hospitalist?

Career development and the profiles of careers as examples of what’s possible. Clinical cases from community hospitals.

Q: What’s your best piece of advice for new hospitalists?

• Own performance improvement at your respective hospitals. This is a journey to better—we are in a space where better is the ever-elusive target. We must embrace that.
• Share information about your experiences. We can accomplish more when we use our collective experiences and grow, together.
• Enjoy your work or choose something else. Hospital medicine is too hard and we spend way too much time doing it to not enjoy it.
• Be present in each patient interaction. This might be your 15^th patient that day, but this patient (and family) has been waiting on pins and needles for those 5-10 precious minutes with you. Own each moment and choose your words wisely; patients hang on to your every word.
• Choose empathy. Yes, it’s a choice. For some, it’s a bit more natural, but for all, you must embrace it. Empathy might very well be the next imperative [once AI takes over clinical decision making].

Q: What’s something someone would be surprised to know about you?

I love being alone more than I might seem.

Q: What do you wish the world knew about hospitalists?

We are the foundation of all modern U.S. hospitals.

Q: How do you stay motivated during stressful days?

I hear my mother’s voice reminding me that this is a person (not just a patient).

Dr. Pyke is the chief medical officer at Jackson North Medical Center, Jackson Health System, in Miami. He earned his medical degree from The Ohio State University, College of Medicine and Public Health in Columbus and completed his residency at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State University in Hershey, Penn.