Match Day countdown: Charles Burkett

Charles Burkett

• Name: Charles Burkett
• Hometown: Bellevue

What key events in your life influenced your path to medical school?
Growing up, I never had aspirations to be a medical doctor. Neither my mother nor grandmother graduated high school, so I lacked direction for my future. The day after I graduated (also the day I turned 18), I moved to Greenville, Texas, to work for a defense contractor. My first year of adulthood was spent deconstructing airplanes and putting them back together. Fatigued with the woes of self-support, I enlisted in the Air Force so they could take care of me. Expecting to work on the flight line, I was quite surprised to be working in a hospital as an X-ray technician. As an X-ray technician and eventually an ultrasonographer, I worked with many great radiologists, and they demonstrated for me that being a physician was rewarding and something that is attainable.

How will your experience influence you as a doctor?
Seeing healthcare first as an X-ray technician has helped me in many ways. Primarily, it has given me a unique perspective concerning patient treatment that my fellow classmates may not appreciate. I have experienced what technicians go through in order to carry out the orders of the physicians. In my subsequent practice, I will be more cognizant of the procedures I order and ensure it is an essential part of the patient’s care.

When you went on interviews for your residency, what is the most interesting thing you were asked or asked to do?
During a certain residency interview, I was grouped together with three other interviewees and instructed to rank ethical situations by most unethical to least unethical. This situation was nerve-wracking, but the atmosphere was intensified all the more by the presence of a clinical behaviorist who I felt was examining our every move.