Laurie K. Davies, M.D., recently spoke with us about her career with the University of Florida Department of Anesthesiology. She is a professor of anesthesiology, a joint professor of surgery, an affiliate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and medical director of UF Health Shands Hospital’s operating rooms.
Q: You completed your bachelor’s and medical degrees here at the University of Florida and stayed for a residency and fellowship prior to joining the faculty. Why did you choose anesthesiology as your specialty? Why did you decide to stay in Gainesville?
I started my college career up in a small college in Michigan, but I had never been up north in the wintertime, and it was miserable. The cold would have been OK, but the lack of sunshine is what got me. I grew up in Florida and knew I needed to get back down here.
In medical school, I was pretty convinced I was going to be a cardiologist. Cardiology back in the day was not what it is now; it was just chronic disease, and this was before angiograms and balloon dilation of arteries. None of the invasive cardiology even existed. I realized I didn’t really want to take care of hypertension and chronic disease and have nobody get better. Then I had a mentor who was an ICU doctor, and he happened to be an anesthesiologist. I said, well, I’m going to do anesthesia so I can become an ICU doctor, and so I went down that pathway where I got my fix for the ICU and the invasive and high-risk stuff, which I really like. I like being able to take care of somebody who’s sick and make them better.
I stayed in Gainesville after my residency because of the culture here. It’s the people. Everybody seems to be focused on the right things: giving the best care possible to the patient and trying to advance our specialty. We have a very curious group here always looking to advance care.
"I have the greatest job in the world, and I love teaching residents. My love language is helping people, and I'm very grateful that I've been able to do it here at University of Florida for as long as I have."
– Laurie Davies, M.D.
Q: You are a professor of anesthesiology in the Divisions of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology and Pediatric Anesthesiology. You also became an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in April. What does a day in the life of someone working across those areas look like?
I am very blessed that when I trained, I did a fellowship in cardiac anesthesiology with a focus on pediatrics because that was really my love. My extra-special training allowed me to sit for the boards even though I didn’t do an official pediatric anesthesia fellowship because they didn’t exist back then. A lot of the fellowships that we currently have didn’t exist, so I was fortunate to be able to design my own fellowship of the things that I wanted to learn.
I take a lot of general call, and when you take general call, you do OB (obstetrics). There are a lot of women who survived heart repairs as infants who are now pregnant and having babies, so the OB department sought me out because of my expertise in congenital heart disease. I enjoy that, and I’m on their cardio-obstetrics team where we review all the ladies that have heart disease that are pregnant and about to deliver. That’s how I ended up with the affiliate title with them, because it’s been a two-way street: I help them, and they help me. I also think the OR medical director part of it fits in there too because I’m always having to find them places to treat really complex OB patients that can’t be done up in the labor and delivery suite.
Safety is the number one thing in my life. I spend a lot of time trying to make sure that the OR is safe, that our patients are safe, and that our staff are safe. I also spend a lot of time helping to get the right staff for the right cases in the right place, so I do a lot of manipulation of schedules. That takes up a lot of my time. Then there’s other aspects of it like equipment and supplies.
Q: As the medical director of operating rooms at UF Health Shands Hospital, what makes Shands a particularly interesting place to work?
The collegiality. Everybody respects everybody else, and that’s something that’s hard to find in some institutions. Another thing that keeps me here is the residents and the teaching and being able to have the privilege of helping and watching people grow and learn. One other thing I would mention is our patients. We are in a unique place where we are actually a quaternary referral place, so we get folks from all over the country sent to us. Almost invariably we are in the top 10 for acuity for patients in the country. I like to do lots of different things, and I like learning something new every day. I’m not just in one place doing the same thing. I might take care of a one-day-old one day, I might take care of a 95-year-old the next day, and I might take care of a pregnant lady too in that time. It keeps it fresh for me to have really interesting patients and to have the ability to do different things. I really like that.
Q: You have been honored for over 30 years of service to the American Board of Anesthesiology, for which you have served as a Diplomate, Senior Examiner, and Associate Examiner. You also hold editorial board titles for several medical journals. What are some of the things you’ve learned about these aspects of a career in anesthesiology?
I have been very, very blessed. One of the things I tell residents all the time is when an opportunity is presented to you, grab it. Dr. Betty Grundy is the person who got me involved. I think I had only been a faculty member for two or three years, and she mentored me and sponsored me to become an oral board examiner. You know, many of us suffer from impostor syndrome. I didn’t think I had the chops to do it, but I did it anyway. Opportunities come up, and if you volunteer, do your homework, show up, and speak up, that’s the secret to a long, fruitful, satisfying career.
Q: In what ways have you seen the field evolve over the course of your career?
The constant evolution of technology; there’s no doubt about that. The technological and safety advances that we have, particularly in anesthesia that we have championed, are remarkable. Then there’s this constant evolution of the surgeries too. We would never have imagined the kinds of cases that we do now. There was no such thing as laparoscopy when I started, this minimally invasive stuff; none of that existed. You made a big incision in the belly just to get an appendix out. The good thing about anesthesia is we are constantly advancing the field to allow our surgeons to do more and more complex cases.
One of the things that I am sad to see is that people don’t actually read anymore. I think to develop a deep understanding of something, you have to read. On the other hand, I think it’s absolutely fantastic that I can look anything up on my phone. I used to have to go to the library at night when I was preparing to do my cases for the next day to look up the disease processes and so forth that the patient had because there were no computers; it was all in books and journals. So don’t get me wrong: I am very thankful for technology, but I’m also very thankful that I learned to make sure I was doing the right thing without it. I learned how to look at a patient, take their pulse, touch them, without having all the technology to depend on. I like to use technology to support what I already know.
Q: What do you do outside of work for fun and relaxation?
I think it’s very important that you take time off. You cannot be at work all the time. Reading is probably my best de-stressor. I love to read everything—well, I don’t like science fiction at all, but pretty much everything. I had a dean of students when I started as a medical student who gave us advice the first day; he said, “I want you to take 30 minutes at the end of every day and read something, something not related to medicine, just to clear your mind. It’ll help you sleep better.” So, I have always done that.
I like to take vacations. My kids live out west and I now have two grandchildren. I don’t want to miss that, so when I have time, I go either to Los Angeles or to Reno, NV, because that’s where they live. I have a dog named Jarvis who is a joy as well. I like to play with him. I also like to cook a lot. I learned how to make sourdough bread during COVID. It’s a labor of love, though, because it takes like two and a half days to do. It’s a lot of work with a tremendous learning curve to it. The first five or six loaves I made were just like concrete; they were terrible, but boy, the product that comes out once you crack the code? Then it’s like, “All right—now I have the secret knowledge.” That is the joy.
Q: Any parting thoughts before we let you get back to work?
It brings me tremendous joy to see and interact with all the people who I’ve had the opportunity to learn from and to help. When I go to meetings, it’s a blast because I’ll see people who were residents 20 to 30 years ago, and it just brings me joy. I have the greatest job in the world, and I love teaching residents. My love language is helping people, and I’m very grateful that I’ve been able to do it here at University of Florida for as long as I have.