Holly Weidner, PA
BS, Cornell University
MSN, Pace University
I am the product of the idealism of the 60’s, the scientific fascination of my rocket-scientist father and the community mindedness of my mother. I always dreamed of being in Africa doing Albert Sweitzer-type endeavors, but ended up in Maine via inner city Rochester, NY.
In 1981, I was lured to the residency program by the uniqueness of being able to have a rural family practice, no call (ah, the advantages of being a nurse practitioner) and teaching. But this was not just any residency program; it had an underlying philosophy of teaching service to community and consensus modeling from the faculty structure.
The residency also offered an opportunity to develop a particular medical interest or fill a void in the medical community. Initially, as one of the few female providers in Augusta (yes, the pediatricians and OB/GYN group were all males, contrary to present day); I served to screen sexually abused girls. Experiential, hands on teaching is what I love, so I also developed an experiential program for residents where they were diabetics for a week, managing their own 4x/day monitoring, injections , diets, and exercise while they maintained their call. My latest endeavors focus around GYN procedures with one on one teaching. My goals for teaching are to teach the detective model for out patient medicine (don’t assume anything and leave no stone unturned) mixed well with compassion for other.
Interspersed with my residency work, I was able to take a year off and work in an out-post in Nicaragua; we developed a cervical cancer prevention program on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. While in Jamaica and Dominican Republic, I also precepted medical and nursing students. In my free time, I enjoy teaching Sunday school at the local Friends meeting, working on the conservation commission and other town committees.