This interview is part of a series of interviews with ACGME volunteers during National Volunteer Month.
Dr. Kathy Andolsek is a long-time volunteer with the ACGME. She has served in various roles, such as associate editor for JGME and on the Board of Directors, and as an author of the Clinical Competency Committee Guidebook. Most recently, Dr. Andolsek has been invited to work with the Center for Professionalism and the Future of Medicine.
Dr. Andolsek’s first faculty role started the year the ACGME was “born,” in 1981. Dr. Andolsek is a family physician who sees patients at a residential facility for individuals with substance use disorders who are often incarcerated. Additionally, she does work with medical students who are also getting their Master of Public Health during their research year, and serves as the chair of the MD Promotion Committee at Duke University School of Medicine. She works with three family medicine residency directors.
ACGME: Why did you decide to volunteer with the ACGME?
Dr. Andolsek: To me, graduate medical education (GME) is the most formative stage of the medical education continuum. Selfishly, I love learning more about teaching and assessing competence in an authentic and less-burdensome way!
ACGME: Why do you feel this work is important or rewarding?
Andolsek: I love being part of the journey of the next generation of physicians (and the next ones after that). I became the doctor I am through GME, and I have always wanted to make it even better for future residents. One of our four children became a physician, and I felt I got a chance to experience so much of medical education through their perspective. It’s been my honor already to have residents (and former residents) care for all members of my family, my children, parents, spouse, and in-laws. I am curious about how we can do things “better,” “smarter,” and in less burdensome ways… I am concerned about improving all patients’ health outcomes, especially for those who seem to have been left behind.
ACGME: Is there a memorable story from your volunteer work that you would like to share?
Andolsek: I’ve discovered the very best professional development opportunities; found new friends and dear colleagues, shared the most remarkable highs and lows, gained trusted counselors and near peer mentors!
I’ve been intimidated in every meeting thinking that I wouldn’t know enough or contribute enough, and have felt a remarkable caring, committed open group of people all committed to similar ideals even when we had different perspectives of strategy.
ACGME: What advice would you give to someone considering volunteering?
Andolsek: Do it. There is never the “right time.” It has been so helpful for me to get out beyond my own program and institution and discover what others see.
ACGME: What motivates you to continue volunteering?
Andolsek: Joy. Meaning. It’s a way that I may be able to make a difference.
ACGME: Can you share a little bit about your background, personally, and anything else you’d like to share about who you are?
Andolsek: Living half of each year in a town of 1,200 on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota, 100 miles from Canada (without a hospital, and with just one doctor), and the other half of the year in District 8, Washington, DC—still an area challenged by poorer health outcomes—has taught me how very different people lived experiences are.
My Minnesota experience was in a multigenerational household with grandparents who had immigrated to the US leaving two children in their country. Like many immigrants, they planned to return there after making some money to improve their financial stability. My dad and his sister were born in the US, and my grandparents never were able to return home. They kept the same language, customs, etc. Their life was not any better… but their sacrifice made it possible for me to have the life I have lived.
ACGME: Anything else you’d like to share or mention?
Andolsek: It takes time. If “now” isn’t a good time, revisit in six months, and six months after that. It does take time, and like many things of value, the time invested has an immense return on investment.