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Join Harrison Reed, a physician assistant, as he shares his journey of discovering the superpower of writing. From defying childhood tasks to leveraging words to open doors to Yale and beyond, Harrison’s story demonstrates how writing can supercharge your career, establish expertise, and lead to unexpected opportunities in the health care field.

Harrison Reed is a physician assistant.

He discusses the KevinMD article, “3 ways clinicians can unlock their career potential through writing.”

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Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show. Subscribe at KevinMD.com/podcast and get CME for this episode by clicking on the CME link in the show notes. Today we welcome Harrison Reed. He’s a physician assistant. Today’s KevinMD article is titled “3 ways clinicians can unlock their career potential through writing.” Harrison, welcome to the show.

Harrison Reed: Thanks so much for having me. Happy to be here.

Kevin Pho: So first off, briefly share your story and journey to where you are today.

Harrison Reed: I’m a PA, a physician assistant, by training, and I got my education in medicine at Yale, but my story starts a little earlier than that. As you can tell from the title of the article, a lot of what I focus on nowadays is writing and publication, and that journey honestly started with being raised by an English teacher, who beat into my head the importance of clear communication and expressing yourself through writing, whether I liked it or not. It didn’t take long for me to realize that it was a pretty powerful tool. As soon as I got to college, I realized people were willing to pay me for my writing. I was writing for the college newspaper and then for public relations companies, that sort of thing.

Then I realized that if I combined this with the expertise, training and experience we have in health care, there was something really potent there. So for the last several years, I’ve used writing as a vehicle to complement my clinical career, but also to reach out and have a bigger impact through writing and publication, editing medical journals and helping other people along the way. It also broke me into a career in education. So I’ve seen it as more of a key to unlock every door there could possibly be, rather than just writing for the sake of writing, even though that’s something I really enjoy.

Kevin Pho: All right, give us some examples or stories about some of your writing and editing in the medical field.

Harrison Reed: The workhorse journal I’ve spent a lot of time with is JAAPA, the journal of the AAPA, the American Academy of PAs. I’ve served in a lot of editorial positions there, and it’s given me a front seat for viewing our profession and the interdisciplinary health care world. So I dabble in just about everything anyone would ever want to write about, because I’ve served as editor-in-chief and associate editor. Things I don’t really encounter in my practice in the ICU or the ER, I still have to get deeply involved in, including workforce issues and other things that affect the broader health care landscape, social issues, social commentary, that kind of thing. I’ve really found a home in being a jack of all trades, and I feel like I can bring out the best in other people, whatever their expertise happens to be.

It’s also helped my career. I was one year into PA school when I got an invitation to be on the editorial board of a journal. I had served on other editorial boards before, but that opened a lot of doors, because I was in my mid-20s and now had a seat at the table with people who had accomplished way more in their careers than I had. It gave me a voice far beyond anything I’d experienced working in a hospital, where I think other people probably feel the same way: You can feel a little like a cog in the machine. Having that broader platform, as I’m sure you know, really gives you reach beyond what you can do at the bedside. I got into research and have been able to produce original research myself, and a lot of the connections and mentors I made along the way would not have been there if I hadn’t been out in the world looking for other like-minded people who want to write and publish, and also just putting my ideas out there to see who picks them up.

Kevin Pho: What kind of formal writing training did you have before going into all of this?

Harrison Reed: I didn’t actually have any formal writing training at all. When I was at USF doing my undergrad work, I was a biomedical science major, which, as a lot of listeners probably know, means you take a lot of science classes, and that’s pretty much it. When I started working for the newspaper, I was suddenly working with all these people who were taking journalism classes, mass communications classes and writing classes. And a lot of what I realized was that you can learn through practice, and that’s what I did. I just worked really hard, wrote a lot, read a lot about writing and read writers I really admire. So it was definitely self-taught, an art, I guess, more than a science.

But there are ways you can pick up skills along the way. Things that really complement writing include statistical skills or research methodology, and if you’re looking to go that route, there is big value in formal training for certain things. But I think a lot of writing is about finding your voice, and not worrying about the technicalities as much as connecting with other people and being able to express your thoughts really clearly.

Kevin Pho: So let’s talk about your KevinMD article, “3 ways clinicians can unlock their career potential through writing.” How did your article come together?

Harrison Reed: I’ve always wanted to dive super deep into a topic. I want to talk about the nitty-gritty of the thing I love, which is writing and publication. But as I’ve traveled around the world and the country, gone to conferences and talked to people online, I’ve realized that a lot of people aren’t ready for that deep, niche, technical discussion about writing and publication. A lot of people are like, “Hey, how do I even get started?” or “Why would I even want to get started on this?” So that KevinMD article was a chance for me to take a step back and say, “This is why you’re doing these things. You don’t have to see it as a chore or as a homework assignment. You can see it as a vehicle to achieve things outside the world of writing and outside the world of publication.” The article was an opportunity to give people a little inspiration and a little motivation and say, “You don’t have to love writing, but you can love what writing can do for you, and what publication can bring to your career, your life and so on.”

And of course, I started the article with a little tongue-in-cheek story about rebelling against my mom, which is something I love to do, even though I love her very much. I’ve often used writing as a way to poke and prod her a little bit, because she loves writing too, so I wanted to share the story about being a rebellious little brat. You can read the article if you want to hear more about that. But really, I wanted to show people that there are doors just waiting to be opened, and I think writing is an excellent way to open them.

Kevin Pho: One of the things you mentioned earlier is that you wanted to make a difference outside of the clinical setting, perhaps going from one-to-one to one-to-many. Give us an example. Share a story about how your writing really did move the needle outside of the clinical setting.

Harrison Reed: I think in the past few years there’s been a bit more of a push from me to talk about the things that need to be talked about. I’ve done a lot more commenting on social issues I felt were important. It was back in 2012 that I realized, “Hey, I can actually speak about things other than pneumonia and UTIs and clinical topics.” Trayvon Martin had just been killed. I was at Yale University, I had a platform, and I wrote an editorial seeking justice for that murder. I took that as permission, maybe self-permission, to continue putting my values forward in my writing.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve touched on a lot of topics that really matter, especially in our profession, looking for ways to address diversity and equity in our profession, which I think is very important, and talking about mental health out in the open. One of the most recent articles I wrote was not a clinical article or an academic article at all. It was a personal essay about the things I struggled with during the pandemic, which included depression and drinking a bunch of alcohol just to get through the day. I think that kind of honesty is often missing from health care. We’re really terrified of putting ourselves out there and of discussing the things that affect a lot of us. Even though we’re all having similar experiences, very few people are willing to talk about the darker side of things, the more vulnerable side, the more personal side.

So I wrote an essay called “I’m OK,” and it addressed how we go through the world pretending we’re all right when we’re really not. If you could pull the curtain back, you would see how not all right so many of us are. That essay pulled the curtain back. I wanted to show people, “Hey, I’m strong enough to show you my weaknesses.” I’ve gotten so much feedback over the last several months, with people saying that it helped them, and that they hadn’t related to something in medical writing until they read it.

Kevin Pho: One thing you mentioned earlier really rings true: A lot of clinicians today have trouble finding their voice, and medicine in general isn’t a field that encourages individual clinicians to speak out against the establishment and go against the proverbial grain. So what kind of advice can you share with clinicians to break that mold, find their voice and have the courage to speak out?

Harrison Reed: I think finding a support network early on is really important. I was very lucky to get a lot of affirmation early in my career from very experienced people: editors at JAAPA, and people on the commercial side of writing and publication who gave me jobs as a blogger, as a writer or at their public relations company. So I had a lot of affirmation and a lot of support, and that allowed me to take some risks. It wasn’t permission to be foolish. You can still hurt your career. Things can obviously have a negative impact if you’re reckless, if you’re disrespectful or if you cross lines that shouldn’t be crossed. But it helps to have support around you that says, “Hey, it’s OK to take a chance, especially an artistic chance,” and also, “Hey, it’s OK to be vulnerable. It’s OK to talk about that subject that the whitewashing and sterilizing of our environment doesn’t allow for.” So I think having people who are a little further along in their careers, or in their areas of expertise, giving you permission is really important.

But I also think honesty, especially internal honesty and self-reflection, is important. If you feel like something really, really needs to be said, then be honest with yourself and ask whether you’ll regret not saying it. For me, especially when writing some of the more vulnerable things, I did think, “If I died tomorrow, I would regret not saying this. I would regret not putting this out there in the world.” That was the internal support I needed to find in myself. I think giving yourself a little of that grace and self-reflection, and saying, “Hey, is this important? Then go for it,” are two important things.

The rest is just putting the steps together. As soon as you get that first really meaningful piece published, it’s such an affirmation. I think people are just waiting to break through that first step of seeing that someone other than themselves, or other than their mom, thinks they’re good at this, or thinks their work is worthy of publication and sharing. I think that’s awesome, and it usually gives people a big injection of confidence.

Kevin Pho: So let’s talk about those next steps. Let’s say a clinician is listening to you now and is inspired to write and share their voice, but they may not have the resources you had when you were finding your voice. What would you advise as their next steps?

Harrison Reed: Well, luckily the odds are in your favor, because there are so many outlets out there that need your thoughts, your good content, your ideas and your expertise way more than you need them. I think we have this fear that there’s scarcity out there and that you can’t possibly find a home for your work, but the truth is that there are tons of homes out there, in a lot of different formats. There are more places for you to put your thoughts than there have ever been in the history of mankind. So don’t self-defeat. Don’t self-reject early on. Look out there and explore. I have a ton of resources on my website, if I could plug it very quickly: harrisonreedwriting.com has tons of free resources about the different places you can put your work.

Give yourself a little permission to color outside the lines as well. I think a lot of people think, “If I’m not publishing in the New England Journal of Medicine, it doesn’t count,” and that couldn’t be further from the truth. There are tons of really worthy places to put your work, even social media and websites such as yours, and blogs, that kind of thing. There’s a huge impact to be had there and a lot of people you can reach. Yes, it’s great to have a really traditional, classic publication pick up your work, but the real measure of success, in my book, is whether it’s reaching people, whether people are reading it, and whether it’s having an impact and changing their thoughts, their behavior or their lives. So give yourself permission to look broadly at where you can put your work.

Then it just comes down to focus. People usually say, “I have so many thoughts. I want to publish this article that says everything,” like everything about men’s health there ever is, or everything ever said about critical care, or everything about the social determinants of health. Those are huge topics you could never possibly encompass in one article. So what you really need to do is focus, drill down, have some patience and ask, “What’s the first step here? What’s the smallest thing I can achieve first to give myself some momentum?” Drill down to that tiny point you want to make, make it well, and then you can move on and start covering more territory.

Kevin Pho: And I want to echo what you said about starting small, because sometimes when you write for smaller publications, it’s not your final destination. Sometimes those smaller publications get noticed by television producers or mainstream newspaper editors, and that can act as a springboard to a much larger platform.

Harrison Reed: Right, you just need a spark. And the great thing is this: A lot of people think that when they put their thoughts out there, they’ve lost them, that it’s no longer theirs. It couldn’t be further from the truth. When you write something, that’s your first step. You still own all your ideas and all your thoughts. Even if you give someone the rights to an article or a book, you can go back to the drawing board and put more of your thoughts out there. You have an unlimited well of resources, that intellectual momentum, that intellectual ammunition, to share. So don’t worry, “Oh, I’m going to put this here, and then I can never talk about this topic again.” You can start to build a portfolio, a body of work. So start with those smaller things, let other people see them and notice you, and keep going.

You don’t put one thing out there and sit back and wait for the world to come and kneel before you, because it’s probably not going to happen. But when you take that second chance, or that third chance or that fourth chance, and allow the randomness of the world to bounce around a little, you increase your chances of something great happening. It might just be small. I’ve had awesome interactions where I put an article out there, posted it on LinkedIn or Instagram, and one person came forward and said, “Hey, I saw that, and I want to work with you.” It didn’t change my life, but it led to a great interaction I wouldn’t otherwise have had, and if you add enough of those up, you do change your life. You do have a big impact, and you do see noticeable change. That’s what you’re going for: slow, steady momentum building over a period of time. I think we have this urge for instant gratification, for things to blow up and go viral, but the truth is that you’re usually building momentum over years of your career. You can’t start building that momentum unless you do that first thing, or that second thing, or that third thing.

Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Harrison Reed. He’s a physician assistant. Today’s KevinMD article is titled “3 ways clinicians can unlock their career potential through writing.” Harrison, tell us some of the take-home messages that you want to leave with the KevinMD audience.

Harrison Reed: One point I would make is that I know a lot of you out there are feeling burned out, or you want to make a bigger impact, or you want some more diversity in what you do with your energy. You want to see it go further, and writing and publication is an excellent way to start to realize those things, to start to open other doors and to see an impact you might not feel in the daily grind, even though I know you are making an impact in your daily grind. So I want to encourage people that it can be the cure for what ails you, and that you have to give it a chance to work.

Another point I would make, again, is that you’re probably your own biggest critic, your own biggest opponent and your own biggest obstacle. In my profession, we see that a lot of people never publish in their entire careers, even when they hold faculty positions, and the fact of the matter is that most of them just haven’t tried. The bar is a little lower than you think it is, but you have to give yourself permission to try.

And the third thing is that I just want to thank everyone who writes and publishes and puts their thoughts out there. It’s a vulnerable thing to do. It’s really a difficult thing to do, but it makes the world such a better place. I love it when I read an article and think, “Wow, somebody put a lot of effort into this, and I loved it,” and it’s going to change my practice, or it’s going to make me think about it all day, or it just made me smile. Those things matter. So don’t give up, even if you don’t feel like you’re going viral or have a big swell of support behind you. You really do. The people who read it don’t always reach out, but it does matter to them.

Kevin Pho: Harrison, thank you so much for sharing your perspective, time, and insight, and thanks again for coming on the show.

Harrison Reed: Thanks so much for having me.