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Nurses save lives—and that simple truth reshaped Dr. Patrick “Dr. H” Hickey’s destiny five decades ago. Our conversation with Dr. H blends grit, humor, and deep professional insight to help you decide whether nursing is your calling and how to build a career that endures. We talk frankly about why motives matter, how to manage the emotional load of patient care, and what it takes to stand out when everyone has a strong GPA but little real-world experience.

We unpack nursing specialties in plain language—from Pediatrics, ICU, ER, and OR to Oncology and Advanced Practice—and clarify what credentials like CEN, CNOR, and CCRN actually mean for patient outcomes and career mobility. Dr. H breaks down education pathways with nuance: the speed and hands-on intensity of a two‑year ADN, the leadership runway of a four‑year BSN, and the bridge programs and tuition reimbursement that let you keep learning without drowning in debt. If you’re choosing your first unit or your first job, you’ll get practical criteria for evaluating hospitals: orientation length, preceptors, staffing ratios, infection data, turnover, clinical ladders, and the red flags buried in big sign-on bonuses.

A mentor at heart, Dr. H shares how to build a resume that speaks to hiring managers—service, leadership, nurse tech experience, study abroad, and even nonclinical work that proves you can multitask under pressure. We also explore global service learning and why supervised, international clinicals can transform confidence, empathy, and diagnostic thinking long before graduation. Along the way, we talk quality of life, faith, and the human touch—how a hand on a shoulder can calm fear and how boundaries protect both caregiver and patient.

If you’re curious about nursing in the age of AI, chasing your first offer, or debating ADN vs BSN, this episode gives you a clear map and the courage to follow it. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs clarity, and leave a review with your biggest nursing question—we’ll tackle it in a future episode.

Recommened Podcasts:

1. The Harlan Cohen Podcast
2. The Harlan Cohen Podcast (YouTube)

**This podcast was produced by Harlan Cohen ... to see it on YouTube access this link to Harlan's page: https://tinyurl.com/56zucsp2

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

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What if a single week abroad could change the way you practice medicine for life? We sit down with Naimick Patel to follow his journey from curious freshman to student leader to oncology clinical research coordinator, connecting vivid field experiences in Nicaragua and Guatemala with the everyday realities of patient communication and clinical trials in the United States. Along the way, we unpack the habits that build trust fast—greeting patients in their language, sitting at eye level, speaking to the person rather than the translator—and why those “small” choices can lower anxiety, reduce errors, and open doors to care.

We explore how thoughtful international service avoids the fly-in, fly-out trap by partnering with local hospitals, community clinics, and faith leaders for continuity and follow-up. Naimick shares powerful moments, from church-based clinics to community celebrations, that reveal how gratitude and empathy can cross any language barrier. He also offers a clear-eyed comparison of public and private systems across the US, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and India, highlighting a constant: provider passion is universal, but access and infrastructure determine outcomes.

These lessons now shape his work enrolling diverse patients into oncology trials, where clear explanations, cultural humility, and genuine connection determine whether a patient considers research as a care option. If you’ve wondered how study abroad translates into real-world healthcare impact, or how to communicate better with interpreters without losing rapport, this conversation delivers practical steps you can use tomorrow—grounded in lived experience, not theory.

If this episode sparks a new idea or nudges you to serve, share it with a friend, leave a quick review, and subscribe so you never miss the next story that helps you grow as a caregiver.

Recommended Book: 

1. Being Mortal - Atul Gawande 

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

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What if one week abroad could reset your definition of impact? We sit down with Olivia Albanese Gordon to map the winding road from pre‑med requirements and ER shadowing to trip leadership in Nicaragua, an MPH from Johns Hopkins, and a mission‑driven role directing public health programs for families navigating epilepsy, autism, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. The arc isn’t linear, and that’s the point: service learning didn’t just add a line to her resume, it rewired how she thinks about prevention, ethics, and sustainable community health.

We start with the origin story: high‑school service hours, a living‑learning community that prized mentorship, and the choice to major in public health with a medical humanities minor. Olivia shares how pre‑departure training lowered the fear of first‑time international travel, why journaling became an anchor, and how language barriers shrank inside a committed team. From maternal health clinics in the mountains to a hospital delivery room, the moments that stayed weren’t just clinical—they were educational. Teaching handwashing and brushing skills felt small, but the behavior change was built to last long after the pill bottles emptied.

Back home, the work expanded. Olivia translated lessons from mission sites to local needs: supporting Spanish‑speaking patients in dental clinics, serving in the ER, and building a high‑school health curriculum that touched every student. Graduate training during a pandemic deepened her systems mindset, and today she leads programs across New Jersey that help families access care, insurance, and medication while advocating for dignity and autonomy. For students weighing a service trip, she offers clear guidance: assess your readiness, seek mentors, don’t let language stop you, and remember that meaningful impact is just as available in your backyard.

If this conversation sparks new ideas about your own path, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s exploring healthcare careers, and leave a review with the pivot you’re considering next.

Recommended Podcast:

1. Public Health On Call - Johns Hopkins

Recommended App:

1. Duolingo

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

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A phone call with an acceptance to medical school. A night flight to a donor hospital. A child’s rash spotted during a game and treated just before the bus pulled away. This is how Shelby’s winding path—public health, Teach for America, transplant logistics, and a formative trip to Nicaragua—built the mindset and skill set of a future physician.

We open the curtain on organ donation and transplant coordination: what an OPO does, how multiple surgical teams align in unfamiliar ORs, and why precise preservation and timing mean everything. Shelby walks us through the roles you don’t see on TV—family coordinators trained for the most difficult conversations, the shift from old terms to respectful language, and the solemn ritual of an honor walk that honors a donor’s final gift. You’ll hear how packing protocols, cold ischemic times, and meticulous communication keep hope alive for patients waiting at home.

Shelby’s gap years add depth and heart. Teaching in a Title I school during COVID forced new ways to connect and lead under pressure, skills that power better bedside care. Her research on multilingual learners shows how culture and language shape assessment and access, echoing the need for cultural humility in clinics and hospitals. And then there’s Nicaragua: hands-on exam practice with local physicians, real diagnostic reasoning as a freshman, and the realization that education can be the most durable medicine where resources are scarce.

If you’re a premed, nurse, PA, or anyone curious about healthcare’s hidden teamwork, you’ll find practical insights on shadowing, service learning, and building empathy through experience. Shelby’s advice is a compass: do it scared, lean into curiosity, and let service open doors you didn’t know existed.

Enjoy the conversation, subscribe for more human-centered healthcare stories, and share this episode with someone who needs a push to take their next brave step.

Recommended Books:

1. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
2. Maybe You Should Talk To Someone - Loris Gottleib

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

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A few weeks in unfamiliar clinics can change a career. Emma joins us to share how three undergraduate service trips—Belize, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua—steered her toward osteopathic medicine, shaped her values in family practice, and sharpened the tools she uses daily with patients and students. We compare the realities of MD and DO training in the United States, spotlighting the additional musculoskeletal and osteopathic manipulative treatment skills that drew her to a more hands-on, whole-person approach.

We talk plainly about what global service actually teaches: resourcefulness when there are no labs, humility when culture and systems differ by country, and the power of house visits to reveal social determinants you’ll never see from a clinic chair. Emma reflects on language access—from the confidence of working Spanish in Belize to the limits of phone interpreters in residency—and why in-person interpretation restores nuance, trust, and clinical accuracy. She also explains how faith shows up differently abroad and at home, and how chaplains help patients navigate the hardest conversations with care.

For students mapping their path, Emma offers practical steps: how to seek shadowing, why rejection is part of the process, and how service—local or global—builds judgment and resilience. We explore the art of patient education in the age of search engines, the challenge of reassurance, and the grace of admitting what you don’t know while partnering with specialists. If you’re weighing DO versus MD, craving real-world experience, or seeking a more humane way to practice, this conversation delivers clarity and courage.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with the question you most want future guests to answer.

Recommended Books:

1. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
2. The In-Between - Hadley Vlahos

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

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What if the most important clinical tool isn’t in your pocket but in your posture toward people? We sit down with Dr. Katie Lucas, an OBGYN whose career was shaped by service learning in Belize and Nicaragua, and follow the throughline from open‑air clinics to private practice. Katie shares how she chose her specialty for its blend of surgery, continuity, and problem‑solving—and why true teamwork and strong mentors matter as much as any textbook.

We dive into language as clinical infrastructure. Katie explains how speaking Spanish transforms trust in women’s health, especially in sensitive exams and moments of crisis. She breaks down the realities of the patient‑provider‑interpreter triangle, offers practical tips for addressing the patient directly, and shows how small phrasing changes protect dignity. The conversation brings raw honesty about returning home after short‑term service, the discomfort of abundance, and the responsibility to translate that experience into everyday care. From free clinics to residency rotations, she shows how consistent practice and reflection make compassion durable.

For students and early‑career clinicians, Katie lays out a clear path: get your hands dirty in real clinics, learn the language your patients speak, seek mentors who model the values you want to live, and keep a journal so the lessons stick. We also share book recommendations on public health, equity, and the patient perspective to deepen your thinking beyond the ward. If you want to stand out in interviews and, more importantly, show up better for patients, this conversation is your roadmap to service‑driven medicine that lasts.

If this story moved you or gave you a new idea to try, follow the show, share this episode with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review with one lesson you’ll put into practice next week.

Recommended Books:

1. On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service - Anthony Fauci
2. Medical Apartheid - Harriet Washington
3. In Shock - Rana Awdish
4. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

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A house call in the morning, a hospital admission by noon, and a seminar on suffering by night—that’s the rhythm our guest lives as a family physician in direct primary care and a fellow with Duke’s Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative. We open the door on what happens when you shrink a patient panel, ditch the phone tree, and trade 2,300 names for relationships you actually know. The result is time to listen, continuity across settings, and space to ask the questions most clinical checklists skip: What is medicine for? What do you hope for when life narrows? Who stands with you when the news is bad?

We revisit a formative service learning trip to Belize and confront the uneasy line between formation and medical tourism. He shares how attention became his most valuable skill, how reflection and community keep the work honest, and why the real test of any trip is what changes back home. From there, we talk about faith not as a bolt‑on but as a way of seeing that shapes every clinical move—breaking bad news with spiritual hospitality, honoring a patient’s tradition without vagueness, and naming truths without hiding behind autonomy alone.

Burnout and moral injury thread through the story, reframed by a larger narrative that makes room for grief and meaning. You’ll hear about kneeling beside beds to shift power, holding tears as a disciplined form of courage, and building parallel communities where weary clinicians read, eat, and remember why they began. We close with practical book recommendations on death, beauty, and care, and with candid advice for students on the fence about global health: discern in community, go humbly, and bring the lessons home.

If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a review with one insight you’ll carry into your next patient encounter.

Book Recommendations:

1. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
2. Severe Mercy - Sheldon Vanauken 
3. The Anticipatory Corpse - Jeffrey Bishop
4. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

Send us Fan Mail

A young nurse fits an elder with her first pair of glasses, and everything changes—her patient’s world, and her own career path. That moment in a Guatemala clinic becomes the springboard for a wide-ranging conversation with Aubrey Hetland, BSN RN, PCCN, now pursuing her DNP-FNP, about why experience before grad school protects patients, how cultural humility improves outcomes, and what it takes to communicate clearly across language and culture.

We trace Aubrey’s journey from cardiac step-down to oncology, through national certification and two Daisy Awards, and into global service learning that reframed her goals around preventive care. She breaks down what nurse practitioners actually do, how state practice authority shapes access, and why application beats memorization when the stakes involve real people and real risks. The clinic days come alive—morning briefings, triage, translators at the table, and nightly reflections that turned emotion into insight and teamwork into safer practice.

Aubrey also opens the door on her new project: a training module that prepares students and clinicians to work effectively with medical interpreters. We discuss the triadic relationship, legal protections for limited English proficient patients, and the pitfalls of using family members or children for sensitive conversations. The result is a compelling case for language access as patient safety, not a courtesy. Along the way, you’ll hear practical advice for students on the fence about global health trips, plus reading and podcast recommendations that deepen cultural humility and clinical judgment.

If you care about prevention, equitable access, and becoming the kind of clinician who truly meets people where they are, this story will stick. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review to help more listeners find conversations that move medicine forward.

Recommended Books:

1. The Spirit Catches You & You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman
2. Everything is Tuberculosis - John Green

Recommended Podcast:

1. The Checkup With Dr. Mike

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

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A single sentence can change a life. For Blake Jones, it was a cold prediction at 16 that pushed him toward medicine with a vow to lead with skill and compassion. Years later, two service learning trips—first to Costa Rica, then Guatemala—turned that vow into a calling, as he learned to practice “medicine from a backpack,” partner with local physicians, and make focused decisions when resources run scarce. Those days in makeshift clinics didn’t just teach vitals and physical exams; they hardwired a mindset: do the most good with what you have, and never lose sight of the person in front of you.

From there, Blake layered in the discipline of research, the urgency of EMT training, and the realism of full-scale disaster simulations at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville. The Health Professions Scholarship Program opened a path to serve as an Army physician, blending a taste for austere medicine with a deep commitment to patients who run toward danger. Now at a Level 1 trauma center within a military-civilian partnership, he’s steeped in high-acuity cases, tough rotations, and the kind of repetition that builds judgment fast. Along the way, he shares two cases that still anchor his why: an elderly patient with a palpable abdominal aortic aneurysm who needed swift escalation, and a woman who needed a $20 antibiotic that changed everything when a student reached into her pocket.

We get practical and personal: what service learning clinics actually look like, how to think about research that opens doors, why HPSP may fit a mission-driven student, and how to face burnout without losing your center. Blake’s message is clear and hard-earned: if you’re chasing money or status, medicine will drain you; if you’re here to make someone’s life better, it gives more than it takes. For students nervous about cost or comfort zones, we talk scholarships, mentors, and why saying yes can reshape your career—and your character.

Subscribe for more stories that connect global health, medical education, and real-world emergency care. If this conversation sparked something for you, share it with a friend, leave a review, and tell us the moment that shaped your path.

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

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What if the most powerful thing you bring to clinic isn’t a medication but a moment of calm and a clear explanation? That question runs through our conversation with Maddie Huff, a recent public health graduate and future physician whose path was forged in service—from repairing ramps in Appalachia to leading medical mission cohorts in rural Guatemala.

We unpack the early sparks that made service feel inevitable, then trace how COVID forced a reset that ultimately deepened focus. Maddie explains how joining a pre‑medical fraternity created mentorship and momentum, and how taking on trip leadership taught logistics, cultural humility, and the art of building trust. Inside clinic days, she walks through a simple, repeatable model—three students per patient, clear roles, case presentations to local physicians, and a pharmacy loop—that turns learning into care. Then we sit with the moment a patient named Sarah asked for her racing mind to stop, and how ten minutes of shared breath gave her a tool she could carry long after the team left.

Through a public health lens, we examine social determinants of health, access barriers, and why education may be the strongest medicine in low‑resource settings. Maddie contrasts a UTI treated in an afternoon in the U.S. with months‑long symptoms abroad caused by distance, lost wages, and limited clinics, and makes the case for prevention, self‑management, and local partnerships. We also get honest about emotion: nightly reflection circles, walls coming down, and why tears aren’t weakness—they’re evidence of connection and growth outside our comfort zones.

If you care about global health, medical education, or how service can shape a career with purpose, you’ll find practical insights and human stories here. Listen, reflect, and share it with someone who needs a reminder that dignity, education, and presence travel with us wherever we practice. If this resonated, follow the show, leave a quick review, and tell us the one small tool you think every clinic should teach.

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort!