Growing Up with Elders Inspired This PA’s Passion
Growing up in a South Florida community with no adults under age 50, Kathy Kemle, MS, PA-C, thought of older people as friends and peers. “I was incredibly spoiled by them,” she recalls. When she was in high school, she started working as an aide in a nursing home. Before long, she realized that geriatrics was the career path for her and that she could make a real difference as a physician assistant. “I’ve always had a strong need to do what I can to make things better. I like the challenge of dealing with complex medical problems. Here I have new challenges every day and opportunities to help people set and meet care goals.”
Today, working as a physician assistant and assistant professor in the Medical Center of Central Georgia/Navicent Health Geriatrics Fellowship Program, Kemle is delighted to be in a setting where, she says, “I get to use my brain…and I have wonderful, wonderful nurses I can trust and work with to solve problems.” She also is pleased to have the support of AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. “The organization has an intense clinical focus on long-term care patients that I don’t see in other professional societies.” She adds, “I’ve also been impressed with how welcoming AMDA is and has been to non-physician practitioners.”
From the Annual Conference to JAMDA, Kemle takes full advantages of AMDA’s tools and information to provide quality care to her patients. She is especially grateful for the Society’s effort to help members care for subsets of post-acute/long-term care patients, such as younger individuals—including those with traumatic brain injuries and illnesses such as Multiple Sclerosis and ALS. “I’ve also been using the Choosing Wisely materials,” she said. “I’ve shared the information about feeding tubes with several families to help them fully understand the actual risks and benefits. It also helps to clear up misunderstandings they have. For instance, some think they legally must place a feeding tube in certain situations. It really helps people make better informed decisions.”
Kemle is pleased to be a voting member of AMDA and aspires to possibly serve on the Board of Directors someday. “AMDA has raised the bar for professionals who work in long-term care, and I think that is the Society’s greatest accomplishment. I am eternally grateful the organization’s commitment to improving the quality of care for our most vulnerable citizens, and I look forward to working with AMDA in the future.”