Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to Optum's Off the Chart podcast, where we introduce you to Optum's nationwide family of dedicated clinicians by highlighting their human side.
Speaker: I'm your host, Dr. Kenny Poole.
Speaker: I'm a healthcare experience champion, and I'm also a general internal medicine physician.
Speaker: Today's guest is John Ponte, a nurse practitioner from Reliant Medical Group in Massachusetts.
Speaker: Here's what's on the chart.
Speaker: John earned a BS in biochemistry and molecular biology from Clark University, and then a BSN and MSN from the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions.
Speaker: He currently works as a hand and upper extremity surgery nurse practitioner at Reliant.
Speaker: John, it's a pleasure to meet you and thank you for joining us.
Speaker: Dr. Poole, thanks for having me on.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: So now let's go off the chart.
Speaker: Tell me about how and where you grew up and how you got interested in health care.
Speaker: Yeah, so I grew up in the Northeast, a small town suburb of Boston called Arlington.
Speaker: you know, fairly normal upbringing, nothing spectacular.
Speaker: I had a mother who worked as a staff nurse at the Brigham and Women Hospital, later went on to become chief of nursing at the Dana-Farber.
Speaker: I think that's probably where initially my interests lied.
Speaker: And then
Speaker: as I went through school and developed more of an understanding of what was going on, I started to delve kind of more into the world of nursing and then subsequently the world of medicine.
Speaker: And yeah, so that's kind of where it all stemmed from.
Speaker: So, I mean, did you always have a healthcare focus or was it something that kind of grew as you got older?
Speaker: Like you say, you went to college and whatnot, even though you had that,
Speaker: that family connection.
Speaker: Did you always know that you wanted to go that route?
Speaker: You know, it's a great question.
Speaker: I think I always favored that route and I didn't want to pigeonhole myself early on.
Speaker: But as I went through, you know, high school years, my undergraduate years, it was really a sense of was I going to be on a bench, you know, lab bench or was I not?
Speaker: And I think after doing some little bit of research with Dana-Farber and doing some research
Speaker: work with them.
Speaker: And over the summers as an undergraduate, I realized that that was definitely the route I was going to go.
Speaker: So then talk to me about the decision to become a nurse practitioner and then even more specifically being involved in orthopedics and hand surgery.
Speaker: How did you make that decision and get to that point?
Speaker: Well, it was interesting because I think there's a lot of similarities drawn between physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
Speaker: And, you know, it took some time for me to kind of break those two roles down to see what direction I wanted to go in.
Speaker: And I think I got some good mentorship through some of the advanced practitioners that I worked with at the Dana-Farber to help guide me.
Speaker: And that's how I was ended up leaning in the direction of nurse practitioner as opposed to physician assistant.
Speaker: And thereafter, when it came to specialty, it's interesting.
Speaker: I, you know, as I went through my rotations in school, I was exposed to a great deal of things, probably more briefly than I would have liked orthopedics.
Speaker: I did a little work in hemoc as well.
Speaker: And then coming out, it was a matter of my mindset was I'm going to take the opportunity that presents itself first.
Speaker: I want to get my feet wet.
Speaker: I want to get some experience.
Speaker: And interestingly enough, this job posting came up and I figured, you know, I don't have a great deal of experience, but enough where I think I would be a good candidate.
Speaker: So I applied.
Speaker: They took a gamble on me and hired me as a new grad.
Speaker: And so it was really just a matter of luck.
Speaker: and availability that I ended up in hand.
Speaker: Got it.
Speaker: So, alternatively, I mean, are there other areas of medicine that you're interested in?
Speaker: So, again, obviously, you're in the place that you're in and doing outstanding there, but are there alternative areas besides maybe even hemoc that you're interested in or that you were interested in?
Speaker: Yeah, so I actually have a small passion for this whole movement right now for regenerative medicine and improving and expanding the lifespan.
Speaker: I think I've delved into the research to better understand that.
Speaker: And it's been a little project on the side for me to get a better grasp on that world and the direction we're going in in the future and trying to help expand the lifespan as it were.
Speaker: So, I mean, with you mentioning hemat, regenerative medicine, looking at your undergraduate degree, is it safe to say, had you not done a career in healthcare, you'd be a researcher or are there other alternative careers that you may have been interested in?
Speaker: You know, I think it's hard now looking back because I have this exposure as a clinician and I don't see myself doing anything else, but I think that
Speaker: now understanding what I do, I probably would have pursued some type of science, probably in and around regenerative medicine.
Speaker: I couldn't see myself doing anything else.
Speaker: So going a little bit outside of medicine and work, describe to me your family or source of support outside of medicine.
Speaker: What does your life look like outside of the clinic and the operating room?
Speaker: Yeah, so I have a wonderful wife who's also a nurse practitioner.
Speaker: She works in a geriatric population.
Speaker: And I have a young daughter.
Speaker: She's going to be five years old.
Speaker: She's in preschool and a young son who's 10 months old.
Speaker: So that right now envelops just about all my free time.
Speaker: And I enjoy every minute of it.
Speaker: I think the pandemic, the silver lining with this pandemic was that there was...
Speaker: definitely increased time with the family that otherwise I wouldn't have had.
Speaker: And so I've really, really been fortunate to be able to spend as much time with them as I have in their formative years.
Speaker: And so that's how the family life looks.
Speaker: Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker: I mean, it kind of anchored folks to home and made folks kind of look
Speaker: a little bit more inwardly in terms of family and whatnot.
Speaker: Um, but still, I would imagine that you all have pretty busy lives with a 10 month old and a five year old and work.
Speaker: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: But all in all the best ways.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: So what, what about outside of families?
Speaker: What are, what are your, what are your hobbies outside of work?
Speaker: What do you like to do?
Speaker: So I'm a, I'm a pretty avid, uh, golfer, a pretty avid fisherman.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: I enjoy both things at what I'd like to think to be at a fairly competitive level, but there's always room for improvement.
Speaker: So those are two of the hobbies I enjoy most.
Speaker: But probably above and beyond that is I'm a busybody.
Speaker: I'm always exercising out in the yard doing something.
Speaker: So I find myself, if I'm not doing those things that I enjoy, I'm often getting in a quick workout first thing in the morning or doing something to stay active.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So describe your perfect day off then.
Speaker: If you're not called into work and you can do whatever you like, what would you do?
Speaker: Tough question to answer because I think let's assume the kids are going to school.
Speaker: You know, I was going to throw that part in there, but I didn't know whether or not I wanted to.
Speaker: So, yeah, since you gave me the green light, let's say no kids.
Speaker: I'm not going to touch the wife thing at all.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Fair enough.
Speaker: Fair enough.
Speaker: Fair enough.
Speaker: No children responsibilities, no work responsibilities.
Speaker: You give me your day off.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So perfect day off for me is I'm probably up early.
Speaker: You know, whether I'm local or I'm elsewhere, I'm getting in a good round of golf.
Speaker: I might, if I'm up at the lake, I might get in a couple of hours of fishing when the time's right.
Speaker: From there, I'll shoot home, grab a bite to eat with my wife, do something kind of relaxing, enjoyable that doesn't take a lot of work.
Speaker: Pick up a book for a good 30 or 40 minutes a day.
Speaker: I try not to miss that opportunity.
Speaker: And it's as simple as that.
Speaker: I'm not a very complicated guy.
Speaker: I think if I can get in some of that time, I'm very, very happy.
Speaker: What's your favorite golf course that you've ever played?
Speaker: I played out at Bandon Dunes out in Oregon.
Speaker: I played at their Pacific course, which was absolutely fantastic.
Speaker: But even better than that, as a honeymoon gift from my wife, and it was unexpected, I got to play at St.
Speaker: Andrew's Old Course.
Speaker: So we were we were in in Scotland for our honeymoon and we were going through St.
Speaker: Andrews.
Speaker: And, you know, she knew I wanted to stop by and see the course.
Speaker: And unbeknownst to me, she had set up a time for the two of us to go out and play.
Speaker: So I got to play on St.
Speaker: Andrews' own course.
Speaker: during my honeymoon, which is probably the highlight of my golfing days.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We may need to stop the interview and pull your wife in because she gets an award for that.
Speaker: I mean, like a guy whose wife lets him, and not only play golf on the, I mean, like that's enough, but to play golf at St.
Speaker: Andrews on the honeymoon and without you knowing it, thinking that you were just going to stop by and
Speaker: look and maybe grab a hat or a golf ball or something like that.
Speaker: And you got to- Listen, it was a victory that we even got to go to the golf course.
Speaker: I thought I was winning in that front.
Speaker: Right, right, right.
Speaker: The fact that I got to play, I mean, I was absolutely blown away.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: So a little bit more about medicine and we'll close things out.
Speaker: What's the best part about your job?
Speaker: What do you enjoy most about your work?
Speaker: So it's very much so the fact that I can impact people and their quality of life so positively in a short period of time.
Speaker: I think, you know, when it comes to hand and upper extremity,
Speaker: I think it gets overlooked just how complicated outside the medical world, just how complicated the hand is and how meaningful it is to people and their employment and their day-to-day lives.
Speaker: And when, when something's taking away from somebody like that, they don't, they don't get an appreciation for just how much they rely on their upper extremities until it's taken away from them and how much it impacts their hobbies and their, their essential daily activities in their job.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: And we're in a position, in a fortunate one, where we're able to provide high quality care and give back and improve quality of life in a relatively short period of time.
Speaker: And I think that's probably what I would say is the highlight of what I do.
Speaker: Got it.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: So, you know, to finish, you know, looking more comprehensively at the health care system,
Speaker: What would you change about healthcare and the practice of medicine to make it work better if you could do anything?
Speaker: Man, I wish I was more savvy in the world of politics.
Speaker: I think there's a lot that we can improve upon.
Speaker: from access of care to cost of care.
Speaker: And, you know, I don't know what the best answer is.
Speaker: And I wish I had it.
Speaker: But I think, you know, I've always toyed with the idea that maybe if we were to create more of a
Speaker: open, free, competitive market when it came to insurance and provision of healthcare that might allot some improvement.
Speaker: Oftentimes, I've done a few medical missions over my years and we see how there's such a high demand for care and these people travel for miles and miles and miles just to ask a question, can I be fixed?
Speaker: And then you look at a system like ours where people are waiting for
Speaker: four or five months to tell somebody that they have some arthritis in their hands.
Speaker: And then, you know, we're charging people $50 co-pays and hundreds of dollars for durable medical equipment.
Speaker: It's flawed.
Speaker: And I guess the short answer is I'm not savvy enough to know right now what the best answer is, but I think it's a combination of adjusting our policies, adjusting how we provide
Speaker: health care insurance and things along those lines.
Speaker: Got you.
Speaker: It's taking more of a legislative and high-level systems approach as opposed to just like a magic bullet.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Got it.
Speaker: Well, tell you what, that's a perfect way to end our discussion.
Speaker: I enjoyed it.
Speaker: And John, I thank you so much for being a part of our podcast.
Speaker: I really enjoyed it.
Speaker: Yeah, Dr. Poole, thanks so much for having me on.
Speaker: This was great.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: So that's it for this episode of Optum's Off the Chart.
Speaker: We want to thank everyone for listening.
