Mastering Medicine: Dr. Gloria Laws’ Journey from Nursing to Emergency Medicine Fellowship

An Encouraging Tale for Every Medical Student

Dr. Gloria Laws has always wanted to be a physician, but getting there has been quite a journey! She started out as a registered nurse, and then a nurse practitioner for about 5 years in Texas before deciding to go to medical school. By this time, she was married with two young children, and her youngest daughter was only one year old. However, she was determined to fulfill her childhood dream.

Gloria transferred to Avalon University School of Medicine in 2019. A major attraction of Avalon was the fact that it has many clinical rotation sites at residency-affiliated hospitals where she could complete clinical rotations without interruption. This allowed her to complete her clinical rotations and successfully pass USMLE Step 2 in only two years. Thankfully, after graduating from Avalon, Gloria was fortunate to receive 20+ interviews for residency and successfully matched into her top choice residency program at LSU Shreveport -Alexandria Family Medicine Residency.

Gloria started residency the same year she graduated medical school in July 2021 and kept the same momentum to give nothing short of her best as a physician in training. In her intern year, she was named “most outstanding first-year resident” in her program. Fast forward now to her third year, she was elected chief resident, a leadership responsibility she did not take for granted.

In addition to being a family medicine physician, emergency medicine is a sub-specialty that was dear to her heart. Recently, she matched into her top choice emergency medicine fellowship at the University of Tennessee and will be starting her EM Fellowship after completing her Residency in 2024.

Gloria has received many questions from students regarding her journey. So, she started a YouTube channel to encourage and motivate other medical students like herself – to let them know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We determine how far we want to go by how much work we are willing to invest into this process.

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