Anneliese Trull at Digestive Medicine Associates

What does a typical day in your life look like? 

Yeah so, I’m a physician assistant in gastrology right now. So, a typical day in my life is waking up around 5:30 AM. I have a practice that’s just clinic so I don’t do any procedure and I will see about 20 to 25 patients per day, maybe, on my own. Typically, a couple days a week, the doctor is in with me so if there is any questions I do have a really good working relationship with him, but for the most part it’s seeing patients with heartburn, reflux, colonoscopies, screening prevention, and sometimes inflammatory bowel diseases as well. So I see all that.

What made you choose a physician assistant over a physician?

Good question. I actually had a physician assistant be my pediatrician and I did not know at that time that she was a PA so when I was going off to college and letting her know that I was leaving and will no longer be part of the practice, we, you know, referred to people as doctors. At that point, someone corrected me and told me that she was a PA so I looked into it and that’s why I started. So I went to the University of Florida for undergrad and I just looked it up and that’s the route I went from the get go. That’s why I finished pretty early because I was on that track instead of the medical track. Some people go towards medicine and then they end up changing their mind into PA. I’ve kind of always wanted to be a PA. I thought it would have a better work-life balance when I looked into it cause you finish sooner and I thought, as a woman, I did, personally, I wanted a family, I wanted to get married, I wanted children, so I thought it would be better for me.

What advice would you give to a high school student interested in pursuing your career? 

I would say get as much experience as possible and reach out to people that already did it. Most of us in healthcare that have done it were there. We were students, we were interested, we had questions, so if you ask, usually you will find someone to help you out. So just don’t be afraid to ask people, to ask your doctors, ask your providers, and there are a lot of websites. For example, for physician assistants, if you actually go to the website, they will find you, a lot of the times, mentors that are people that have already said that they’re willing to do that, and get as much experience on the field shadowing people, internships, and a little bit of everything so that you’re sure you want to go into it.

What qualities do you think are essential for success in your line of work? 

I think in healthcare in general, you have to be very determined, very organized. Organization is key, if you’re not organized, figure out a way to do that early on, and just be self motivated. You’re your own competition. It doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing. If you wanna get there, you will get there. It might take you longer, but really, the motivation is the thing. Just determining to do it, not giving up