Kaelyn Mead, DC (’19) might agree with the saying, ‘When one door closes, another one opens.’
“As a student at a different chiropractic college, I was extremely interested in applying for residencies as part of my student journey,” said Dr. Mead. “Upon finding out that they would not be able to set me up for a clinical experience, I transferred to Logan because of their successful track record of students securing clinical integrated preceptorships and residencies.”
Dr. Mead recently completed an eight-month preceptorship at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, just before graduating from Logan in 2019.
At Walter Reed, Dr. Mead rotated through various areas of the medical center, including orthopedic surgery, radiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, where she helped with patient intakes, completed patient exams, created treatment plans and rendered treatments under supervising clinicians.
More importantly, Dr. Mead said began to envision her future in an integrated health care environment through opportunities to collaborate with other health care providers to achieve quality patient-centered care.
Now, after serving at the premier military academic health center, Dr. Mead has her sights on a residency within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “My experience at Walter Reed affirmed my goals for a career in an integrated health care environment, such as the VA, DOD or a hospital.” Dr. Mead said. “I loved being a part of the conversation when it came to triaging patients and treating low back pain.”
As Dr. Mead advances her career, she is also looking forward to beginning several projects in conjunction with Logan. Dr. Mead said she embraces the role of mentoring current DC students at Logan and shares the following advice that helped her career trajectory: get involved with clubs on Logan’s campus and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
“I feel that my student involvement at Logan was pivotal to my learning about preceptorship experiences in the very early stages. I understood how I could be the best candidate from when I first found out about the opportunity as a Trimester 2 student. Academics weigh heavily in those early trimesters, but don’t forget about opportunities to help develop clinical skills early on.”