Passion Follows Opportunity with Dr. Eduard Vasilevskis

Eduard Vasilevskis MD is the Chief of Hospital Medicine and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Vasilevskis completed his medical school at Oregon Health Sciences University followed by a residency and chief residency at the University of California San Francisco. He then completed a health services research fellowship at the Institute for Health Policy Studies UCSF. Dr. Vasilevskis has been interested in examining delirium as a measure of ICU and hospital quality. Dr. Vasilevskis has been interested in examining delirium as a measure of ICU and hospital quality and has developed a unique prediction model, the acute brain dysfunction prediction model, that predicts delirium for each day in the ICU. His most recent research focuses on polypharmacy and reducing medications in older patients. He's also the clerkship director for the internal medicine program for the Medical School at Vanderbilt. “Follow your passion” is great advice for those who know what their passion is. You follow your passion and create your own opportunities.  But what if you don’t know what sets your soul on fire? Today, Dr. Eduard Vasilevskis shares his belief that “passion follows opportunity, not the other way around.” It’s more common that an opportunity presents itself. Take advantage of it and then ask yourself, “Is a passion developing? Do I love what I’m doing?” If your answer is yes, you start a positive feedback loop: passion grows, you create more opportunities. If the answer is no, Dr. Vasilevskis says, just look for another opportunity! Pearls of Wisdom: 1. It’s not about when you make a decision, but that you make a decision. If an opportunity arises, and it aligns with your passion, forget the time clock and take the opportunity. 2. The second sentence of the history is about the patient’s usual state of health: who are they before and apart from this illness? It’s a way to develop a relationship with the patient and to have it in writing. 3. Passion follows opportunity. You may not know what you love to do. Take an opportunity and reflect on it. Here is where mentors can help: they might be able to see in you what you can’t see in yourself. 4. Be humbly confident. We need to commit and let our mentors know what we’re thinking, while at the same time staying humble and open to learning.