Alexon Munson-Catt, EVMS Med Student

Hospital/Affiliation: Eastern Virginia Medical School

What do you love most about emergency medicine and why did you choose it?

I love the diversity in patients, diseases, and acuity in the emergency setting. We get to see people of all walks of life — those of varying socioeconomic status, age, or gender, and all of this may play a role in patient health, risk factors, treatment compliance.

The conditions we see can range from mild cases of the cold to life threatening cases such as trauma, strokes, and heart attacks. I also like the procedural aspect emergency physicians get to perform, and especially the use of sonography to guide clinical decision making and procedure guidance.

What do you do in your free time outside of the ED?

I'm an avid outdoors person. I love to go hiking and camping when I can, and I recently picked up bouldering. My love for the outdoors has sparked an interest in wilderness medicine as well. The lack of resources, need for quick thinking, and creativity in an outdoor setting is an exciting challenge to me.

What motivates you?

Being a better version of myself compared to the day before. It is too easy to focus on negative performance and experiences or being complacent on responsibilities and activities. It puts you in a negative state of mind and fosters more negative results. As a physician, this can decrease quality of patient care and aid to burn out. Instead, I try to learn from my experiences and improve my performance for the sake of my mental health and those I'm responsible for.

What has surprised you the most about emergency medicine?

Positivity and politeness goes a long way. In a hectic specialty where you need to flexible, patients are grumpy due to prolonged waiting time, and health professional colleagues overworked, so being a decent human being to one another can dramatically boost morale.

Why did you join VACEP and ACEP?

I joined VACEP because I wanted to be more involved in emergency medicine as a student. I applied and am currently a co-coordinator for community engagement in VACEP and the Medical Society of Virginia, which is perfect, because now I get to find ways to help medical students across the state engage the community in emergency medicine related topics.