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From Chicago to Cambodia: PA's Journey of Learning and Service

First of all, I wanted to share how ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ prepared me to be the clinician that I am today and opened a multitude of opportunities for me in my career. After I graduated in 2006, I started in emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, and shortly after transitioned to outpatient pediatrics at a small private clinic in the Chicagoland suburbs. In both settings, the populations I served were both diverse and underserved and helped provide a context for my current work.  

Presently, I am faculty at Rosalind Franklin University, serving as the PA Department Chair and Program Director. My foray into education came through invitations to provide guest lectures and mentorship by ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ faculty. I owe my success to the opportunities provided by my colleagues at MWU.

I have spent nearly a decade now as PA faculty and in this role have run a free pediatric community clinic through our university. This clinic served as a bridge to the community in many ways.  Successful integration into society was ensured by providing free school physicals, medical care, and providing referrals to families. On top of the medical care, my co-director was a child psychologist, and we structured the clinic in an interprofessional manner and as an integrated behavioral health clinic. This meant also screening every child that came through our clinic for possible mental health needs and providing free therapy services to those with need. The clinic has been on hold since the pandemic but will be relaunching as part of our Interprofessional Community Clinic, a student-run clinic staffed by all health professionals at our university and providing a wide range of free care for the uninsured as well as community members who are currently unhoused.  

Aside from this work, I have also had the privilege of participating in a medical and educational mission trip to Cambodia in 2016. This was in conjunction with a non-profit organization, Project Helping Hands, that provides health educational activities at universities, community health worker education, and healthcare services to rural communities in Cambodia as well as multiple countries throughout the world. I served as the Director of Education, developing curriculum to be taught at a medical school and nursing school during our time in Cambodia. We then took medical students out to various rural sites to provide medical care and screenings to those who otherwise have very limited access.  

To say that these experiences in my career have been humbling is an understatement. I am constantly learning from my patients and their lived experiences. I understand that while I may have medical expertise, I have the privilege of being let into their lives and being allowed to help in any way I can. I have also made it my mission to incorporate the value of service and the importance of population and global health into all aspects of my teaching to continue to pay forward what I have learned from my mentors.  

About Jason Radke, M.M.S., PA-C 

Jason Radke, M.M.S., PA-C, joined the PA Program faculty at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in 2014 as a Clinical Coordinator. During his time with the program, he has served as Director of Experiential Learning, Director of Didactic Education, and transitioned into his current role as Program Director and Department Chair in 2018. He continues to practice clinically as director of Healthy Families Clinic along with faculty from the Psychology Department in a pediatric integrated behavioral health clinic on the university campus.