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Medical degree gives Navy engineer new career by Cindy Abole Public Relations Six years ago, Rick Wall was considering what he would do for the rest of his life. Dr. Rick Wall at Trident Family Medicine Center. A Naval Academy graduate and career military man, Wall was 43 when he retired and felt he could devote another 25 or so good years to a second career.  Instead of continuing on his career path and finding success in civilian life, he opted for something else that was just as demanding, challenging and to Wall, even more fulfilling.  “I was looking for something that could motivate me and at the same time be something I could be passionate about everyday,” Wall said. “I  found that in medicine.” Trained as a fixed-wing and helicopter pilot, Wall lived a distinguished Naval career. He was an engineer in the Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps even earning his master’s in civil engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville. From 1993 to 1997, he served as deputy director for the Navy’s infrastructure in Europe, supporting more than 10,000 Navy personnel and their families, plus other multinational peacekeeping operations troops.  Prior to his retirement, he met College of Medicine’s Admissions director Wanda Taylor, to inquire about MUSC’s medical program and determine what he needed to fulfill his interests in medicine. Wall  prepared to take the MCAT, the medical college admissions test. He also began to volunteer at the medical center to gain exposure to the field and culture of medicine. To Wall, medicine offered the right mix of excitement and challenges, especially at this time in his life. “Rick is an amazing individual,” said Taylor. “He’s bright, disciplined and focused. What struck me was that he completed an amazing Naval career working and managing a wide range of people. Yet he didn’t mind the challenges and transition of starting over as a medical student.” About a year later, he applied to medical school and was admitted into the College of Medicine. “Rick possesses great leadership skills and qualities that are so unique,” Taylor said. “He wasn’t your typical medical student.” When it came time to choose a medical specialty, Wall picked family medicine. He had already gained key problem-based learning skills and experiences working closely with primary care preceptors and family practice physicians. He was motivated towards family medicine because of its reputation as a “be all” practice that is so broad when it comes to taking care of people. In addition, he was drawn to the opportunity of getting to know his patients by learning how to establish caring, lasting relationships with them and their families. “A lot of medicine is much like engineering,” Wall said. “Both can be applied to a linear problem-solving environment where the result is cause and effect. You may not always get the effect that you suspect for the cause, but you don’t in engineering, either. Perhaps the only real difference is that there are a lot more variables in medicine that one has no control over. That’s probably where the art of medicine takes over.” During his third year, Wall applied to the Accelerated Residency Program with Trident Family Medicine. MUSC’s Department of Family Medicine’s partnership with Trident Medical Center was founded in 1997, when the program was moved to the University Family Medicine building in North Charleston. As one of the country’s premiere family medicine programs, the program prepares residents to work in both a private and academic practice.  Established in 1991, this program allows a medical student to combine his/her fourth year with the first-year residency internship. Wall was one of three medical students selected for this residency in 2002. With time playing a big factor in his second career choice, Wall believed the combined program fit him perfectly. By the time he finishes his Trident Family Medicine Residency, he will be 51 years old.  “We believe we have a great, high quality program whose success is reflective of the type of applicants and individuals that are accepted into it,” said Peter J. Carek, M.D., associate professor and program director of the Trident Family Medicine Residency Program. “Rick focuses on the educational component. He knows what he needs to learn and goes out and works towards that.” Carek describes Wall as a serious student who brings a disciplined learning style in his pursuits.  “It speaks a lot of what Rick’s all about,” Carek said. “For someone to already complete a wonderful career and take a perfect 180 and change direction like he has—it tells a lot about Rick’s desire to practice medicine. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy choice.” Participants complete their final core courses and other requirements needed to graduate. As residents or house staff members, they participate in family medicine rotations and on-call schedules. Key to their experience is time spent in their inpatient family medicine practice and rotations in specialty areas including obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, emergency medicine and pediatrics. Despite his busy, non-stop schedule, he has learned to put aside his former hobbies and interests to concentrate any free time with his wife of 24 years, Marcia, and their 18-year-old son, Richard III.  “I feel very fortunate,” Wall said, with smile. “The advantage I think my wife and I have is that we have a well-developed relationship that has allowed us to work well under different conditions. For now we see this as our family’s short-term pain for a long-term gain.” Success of MUSC, Trident  Since 1999, the partnership between MUSC and the Trident Family Medicine Residency Program has flourished. Since its beginnings in 1970, the residency program has graduated more than 400 family physicians and recruits anywhere between 10 to 12 positions each year. There are 30 to 36 in the practice. Residents practice medicine in a multi-disciplinary inpatient training site complete with 18 exam rooms, state-of-the-art teleconferencing equipment linking them to educational seminars and other learning opportunities, computerized patient records, library and offices for support staff and faculty. The family practice clinic is open weekdays and on Saturday mornings.  “So far, it’s been a very good and successful program,” Peter J. Carek, M.D., associate professor and program director. “We hope to continue to foster interest in family medicine among medical students. Looking at it, it really is a win-win situation for everyone involved—the university, the residents and medical students. We see a lot of benefits not only for the program and university but for the state meaning a chance for our family medicine residents to remain practicing in South Carolina.”   Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.