Dr. Tyeese Gaines
Tyeese Gaines didn’t set out to be an ER physician.
She figured she’d be a community doctor in the inner city, treating patients and delivering babies.
But as she progressed through medical school, Gaines saw that the people she wanted to care for weren’t making it to a doctor’s office; they were coming into the ER. To take care of this population, she needed to be where they were.
There were detours on the way, including a leave from medical school to get a master’s degree in journalism. Working in news was so enjoyable that she questioned whether she’d go back.
Gaines resolved her dilemma by combining her two loves: she’s now a practicing ER physician, the health editor for theGrio.com and appears as a health expert on MSNBC.
For Dr. Ty, “where they are” is no longer just the ER. It’s the whole world.
Popsicle Sticks and Tape
Gaines always knew she wanted to be a doctor. She remembers being fascinated by the body and how it worked. “I used Popsicle sticks and tape to splint people. I don’t know where I got the notion to do it.”
While her desire to become a doctor was set in her mind, her path was not. She wanted to do more and often got sidetracked.
“When I talk to my mentees,” she says, “I tell them that as far back as I can remember I wanted to be a doctor, but my road was very squiggly.” The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Minority Medical Education Program (MMEP, now SMDEP) helped prepare her for the medical part of the journey.
Gaines applied for a spot at the MMEP site in Chicago. At the time, it was a consortium of four medical schools—the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Rush Medical College of Rush University, and Loyola Stritch School of Medicine.
“It was awesome,” she says. “Here I am with 90 kids, all coming together with this fire and passion to learn what we can about being a doctor. It was amazing to be surrounded with that type of energy.”
Gaines had chucked the idea of a major in physical therapy and chosen biology for premed. By the time she graduated, she had taken all the prerequisite classes to attend medical school. She went straight into Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
Right Place, Right Time
Gains returned to Northeastern University before completing her Doctor of Osteopathic
Medicine degree to get a master’s in journalism. Medicine took a temporary backseat.
“It’s a lifelong commitment, and you have to absolutely love it,” she says, recalling the rigors of trying to become a doctor. “I won’t say that I didn’t love it, but it gets tough along the way.”
Her solution gives her the best of both worlds. As a doctor, Gaines is affiliated with three hospitals in New Jersey and is a clinical instructor in the department of emergency medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. She plans health coverage and writes stories for theGrio.com, a news and opinion website geared toward African Americans. She also appears frequently on MSNBC and the greater New York metropolitan area’s NBC affiliate.
It all makes for a very busy schedule, which inspired her to write a guide—The Get A Life
Campaign—on how women can make time for themselves.
Constellation of Events
MMEP was the right place at the right time for Gaines. The program provided her with mentors and shadowing experiences, taught her how her learning style affected her study skills, and primed her to take the MCAT just weeks after she left the program.
“I came back different, and I don’t mean that in a dramatic way,” Gaines says. “There was something about the constellation of events—the people and the mentorship and being exposed to medicine. I had never been exposed to anything like that.”
