Where Are They Now: Brittney Hamlett, MMS ‘17

When Brittney Hamlett, MMS ‘17, was a student in Salus University’s Physician Assistant (PA) Studies program, she completed an elective rotation in the Emergency Room. That confirmed that what she wanted to do — be a Physician Assistant in the ER — was going to be the right choice. And, she’s been in the ER ever since.

“As a PA you have to re-certify every 10 years, so I knew that I wanted to do something really broad initially. Also, I get bored pretty easily, too, and that’s never the case in the ER. It’s always something different,” said Hamlett. 

After graduating from Salus in the fall of 2017, Hamlett moved back home to Maryland to wait for her credentialing to be approved and successfully complete her boards.

She eventually secured a job in the ER at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore. She started as a PA in the hospital’s new provider internship where she trained alongside a couple of doctors and PAs for three months before being able to work on her own. 

“I either work in fast-track, where I’m triaging low-level patients who you can see and discharge,” she said. “Then I have some shifts in our main emergency departments, which is much higher-acuity patients. There is a lot of autonomy in our ER, but I have a doctor there alongside me for the more complicated cases.” 

Hamlett works for a company called Vituity, which contracts her out to the hospital. Because the company has locations in California and the Midwest, that was an advantage, Hamlett said, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was very helpful because all the doctors are partners for the company and they really care,” she said. “And, so they were doing a lot of webinars for us and sending out a lot of helpful information about how to detect COVID. Everything from the PPE you’re wearing to how do you know it’s not the flu or something else, to how to treat it.”

Hamlett added that while dealing with COVID patients was scary at first, her hospital never had an issue having enough masks, gowns, and face shields and she always felt comfortable with the level of protection she and fellow healthcare workers were receiving. In addition, St. Agnes is a smaller, community hospital on the outskirts of Baltimore, so it didn’t have as many COVID cases as did the hospitals in the inner city. 

While at Salus, Hamlett was president of her PA class and participated in Student Council. Because of the vigorous 25-month training schedule, she said she spent a lot of her time in the library while on campus. 

“I believe Salus helped me prepare for life as a professional by being a multi-professional school where we were able to work alongside other health professionals such as optometry, audiology and speech-language pathology,” she said. 

For now, she plans to stay in the ER, but because burnout is high in that department, she’s leaving her options for the future open. She also wants to stay close to home in Baltimore. 

“I arrange my schedule where I know that I’m going to have like three days off in a row. That’s what I need,” said Hamlett. “I’m someone who actually doesn’t mind being at home, so this (the pandemic) has been cool for me in that regard. It’s also nice to have like-minded people in your life who are going through the same thing.”