Stephanie Tran is a Dermatology Physician Assistant who has been practicing for five years. She graduated from UC Irvine in 2012 and from Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2019. She is now happily married with three kids working as a PA, a career that fits her like a glove. Let’s explore the life of Stephanie: the challenges she faced, the lessons she learned, and the mental health advice that helped carry her throughout her journey and that she hopes will resonate with you as a future provider.

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Q: What challenges did you face as an Asian American growing up? How did you overcome them?

“I actually started off as a pre-med, destined to become a pediatrician. It wasn’t until after my first year of college when my school counselor told me that I’m not going to make it in the real world. I met with my career counselor who had me take a personality test and mentioned Physician Assistant to me and I was like, ‘What the heck is a PA? I’ve never heard of one before.’ That’s when she said, ‘Go shadow one, see what it’s like. I think you would be perfect for this career path and still do what you love.’ And that’s how my passion to become a PA started, but it wasn’t easy convincing my parents. They wanted me to be a doctor. It was kind of all already written in the books. So when I told them I was switching my career path and I was changing my major to public health sciences, and going to start my pre-PA journey, they were like, ‘No, you're not. Why would you do that? Why would you not just go to med school?’ I actually had to do a PowerPoint presentation for them to convince them that I'm going to take this path and I still get to do what I love and I'll still be a medical provider. I just won't have a doctor in front of my name and that's okay with me because I'm not there for the title. I'm there to do what I love. It took a while for them to accept that, but now they are willing to see PAs – they just had to see it in fruition!”

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Q: How did you manage your school-life balance while you were a student?

“So in the beginning, I actually was not doing well in school at all, not doing well on my exams, and had a remediation. I got really scared that I was going to get kicked out of the program, a program I worked so, so hard to get into. I really felt like I was drowning. I decided to seek help from my school psychologist where he helped me integrate things that I enjoyed back into my life. The biggest thing for me was working out. I used to run half marathons every year, do heavy weightlifting, but at the time I felt like I was too busy, that I had to be studying all the time. But I couldn’t be more far from the truth. I started working out again, doing 5K/10K charity runs, half marathons. My classmates and I even created a little running club and did races together. I also started journaling and writing down my emotions and how I was feeling in that moment. Doing little activities like that, just to step away from school itself, but reflect, really helped me. So when I started adding that into my routine, I actually started doing better in school. I started remembering things more, getting happier, making friends and actually becoming who I am now and who I was before, too. But I had to first realize that I'm not just a student, I'm also Stephanie. So don't lose that part of you because you need that part of you even after. And school will work itself out because this is your passion, this is what you want, and you're not going to give up on that. But you can't do that unless you take care of yourself.”

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Q: Was mental health ever something that you had discussed with your parents?

“Never talked about it with my parents because it was always frowned upon. I remember growing up, even if I cried, if I was angry or anything like that, my dad always told me, stop crying, stop showing your emotions. So growing up, I always felt like I had to bottle it inside and just work through it. So if I had ever told them I was seeing a psychologist for something, they would be like, why? You're just doing this to yourself. You're overwhelming yourself. You don't need medication or you don't need therapy or you don't need this and that. And so I did not tell them. But I think that's also why a lot of us, in my opinion, especially in Asian culture, have a lot of anxiety. I think it's because we have high expectations for ourselves because our parents had high expectations for us. And we feel as though if we make them proud, then we’re making our own self proud.

As I got older, I realized that it's okay to say, I'm not okay and I need help or I need an outlet for my anxiety or my depression or those panic attacks or for whatever it is that you may be feeling in that moment. But also know that it’s okay to feel all of that, too. And it doesn't show that you're weak and it doesn't show that you're not going to achieve your goals. We're in this profession to help others, but it's okay to also get help from others, too. Just like the same advice that I tell my patients all the time, too. A lot of our patients are caretakers and it takes a burden on them. But I tell them if you can't take care of yourself and your health, who's going to take care of that person you're taking care of? So you have to put yourself first sometimes and that's okay. You have to be healthy yourself to take care of other people. And this is the same for us. If we're not healthy ourselves, how can we provide the care that we want to give to the world and make those changes?”

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Q: What is the biggest advice that you'd like to give to us future providers?

“To the future providers, I would say the biggest thing is to not get burnt out early in your career. The biggest way to do that is to understand that, unfortunately, as much as we are in this profession to help everyone as much as we can, we're not going to be able to. And that's okay. We cannot play God. We cannot make miracles happen, but we can do our best to do what we do and what we know to help everyone in this world. There will be times where we can't help everybody. And that's okay, we have to be able to accept that. If we keep striving to always reach for the top and want to help everyone and get disappointed when we can't, that is how you get burnt out in medicine very quickly. And also think about the good times in medicine as well as the bad times. I know there are going to be moments where patients yell at you, throw things at you, write a bad review about you, curse at you, but those moments are so far and few in between. There are hundreds and thousands of patients that you see and care for that appreciate you, that you saved a life, that appreciate that extra five minutes you gave to sit down and just ask them how their day was or if they're okay in their life outside of medicine. Or moments like saving a patient’s life by catching something during their appointment that they were not originally there for. For example, with a patient of mine that had acne, I discovered a lump and it ended up being early stage cancer, but they weren't there for that. It’s moments like that that will supersede all those bad moments. Try to think of all the good moments you have with your patients, your future patients, because that's what's going to get you through the hard times and not get burnt out in medicine so that you can continue in this fulfilling career.”