For Jamie Spears and her siblings, a medical clinic in Yates Center felt more like a playground.
They raced wheelchairs up and down the hallways, blew up rubber gloves like balloons and colored pictures with patients.
Their dad, Dr. Tim Spears, practiced medicine there before opening a clinic in Iola.
One day, a young boy came into the clinic with a head injury. Jamie, who was only 5 or 6 at the time, worried the boy’s brains would fall out of his head.
“And I remember my dad being so calm. He was just the calmest person in that situation,” Jamie recalled. “I was freaking out and I was amazed he could keep it together like that.”
Moments like those inspired Jamie to follow in her father’s footsteps and pursue a career in medicine.
She recently graduated from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in Sint Maarten, then completed clinical rotations in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Florida, and a surgical rotation in Washington, D.C. She has returned home to work at her father’s medical clinic before applying for a residency program.
Jamie, like her father, plans to become a family physician.
“I grew up following him around at the hospital before school and I’d hang out at his clinic,” Jamie said.
“I liked seeing him interact with his patients. He was helping people, not just with their medical problems but also making them feel comfortable and taking care of them. And when we’re out in public, I could see how much he is appreciated. He knows everybody by name and can tell you all about their family, almost like he’s part of the family.”
“I knew I wanted to help a community in a similar fashion.”
JAMIE graduated from Iola High School before attending Kansas State University.
“I realized I had a knack for biology and sciences. That solidified my decision” to pursue a career in health care.
“My thought process was always to be like my dad. Then I grew up and started to think, ‘Can I really do this?’ Yeah. I could.”
She graduated from K-State with a degree in life sciences with a minor in biology, then took a year off before applying to medical school. She job-shadowed a gastrointestinal physician at Garnett who told her about the school in the Caribbean.
