Profiles in Professionalism: Paula F. Ciesielski, MD
Paula Ciesielski, MD, a general internist in private practice, encourages everyone – including those holding time-unlimited certificates – to consider ongoing certification, saying, “If we ask it of our younger colleagues, shouldn't we ask this of ourselves?”
Dr. Ciesielski recently returned to private practice after spending 17 years at the University of Oregon’s health center. Her practice is in Eugene, Oregon, a city noted for its natural beauty, arts and outdoor activities, located at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers about 60 miles east of the Oregon Coast. There, Dr. Ciesielski provides primary care to patients ranging in age from 17 to 100, treating them in her office practice and at a nearby community hospital. She works with a nurse practitioner and shares expenses with another private practice physician. At first glance, this hard-working physician may appear typical among her peers, but Dr. Ciesielski is, in fact, quite remarkable.
Though she holds a time-unlimited certificate in internal medicine, Dr. Ciesielski has taken the initiative to voluntarily renew the certificate twice, in 1997 and again this past year. When asked why, she readily provided answers, obviously accustomed to the question. “My family and colleagues ask me why I subject myself to this painful process since no organization that I work with requires it,” she laughed. “The truth is, I had several reasons: I wanted to be the internal medicine resource at the university’s health center, and I didn’t want the reading I was doing to be too narrow because I thought I might miss something,” she explained. “I was also on the university’s interviewing committee and felt it was unfair to expect recertification of colleagues and not myself.”
While the decision to recertify was not difficult, Dr. Ciesielski admits the time commitment was challenging. “Have you ever trained to run marathons?” she inquired. “The commitment to recertify is very similar,” she said. She said the self-assessment modules were pretty easy to complete because these could be done at home at her leisure, but preparing and studying for the exam took a majority of her time. She used every opportunity to study, on flights and even during weekends spent at her family’s cabin.
Through the Maintenance of Certification process, Dr. Ciesielski has had the opportunity to thoughtfully explore ways to improve patient care, read about new treatments and diseases that she has not seen as a way of keeping her differential broad, and direct patient care on evidence-based studies. “The benefit to me personally was that I felt confident that I was competent to work as a hospitalist while also working at the university health center and then have the option to make a career change,” she said, referencing the leap she made to private practice a year and a half ago.
Dr. Ciesielski’s current 10-year certificate in internal medicine is valid until 2017. At this point, she says her decision to renew again will depend upon her retirement plans.
