Lifelong learner gearing up for new adventures
PA F. Keith Stirewalt was drawn to medicine out of a longstanding desire to help others. Being a lifelong learner, after completing his PA degree in 1984, he returned to academia (while working as a PA) to complete his MBA. Stirewalt married both skillsets when he helped start an occupational medicine program that paired with four pre-existing urgent care centers. As he was working in corporate medicine 60-80 hours per week, he says he realized that he had lost his initial vision somewhere along the way. “I remembered a call to the ministry that I had long since put to the side,” he reflects.
Leaving corporate medicine, Stirewalt returned to Wake Forest Divinity School, completed a three-year M.Div. degree, became an ordained Baptist minister, and completed two years of Chaplain Residency. He spent three years in the pastorate but began to miss the medical environment. “I was fortunate to be able to take a journey to Israel during my time as a minister. While on the trip, as I was looking out over the Sea of Galilee, I felt a call back to my healthcare roots, where I would be able to blend my call to medicine with my call to ministry,” he says.
Soon afterward, Stirewalt encountered an opportunity to return to healthcare, fulfilling his intersecting calls of the “ministry of medicine.” He currently focuses on medical education, ethics, and spiritual care for healthcare workers. Keith serves as a resource, creating a safe space for providers to share difficult experiences. “With organizational support, we have been able to implement Schwartz rounds, where all of our providers can share experiences and are safe to be vulnerable,” he says. “I have seen a need for this throughout my entire career, and it is rewarding to be able to provide this type of service to my fellow providers, whether nurses, PAs, doctors, and chaplains — we all need a safe space.”
Stirewalt is completing his Doctor of Medical Science degree at the age of 61 and is energized about the program expanding his knowledge of global health issues and access to care issues. He reflects, “I can look out the window where I am sitting right now, and see the need right here in my community. My goal is to be able to touch as many lives in this community as possible through education, mentoring, and being a resource for my fellow providers.”
Stirewalt attributes much of his success to having a supportive family. His wife, Margaret Norris, is completing education to become a minister in the Moravian tradition. “At this point in our lives, where others might be thinking of slowing down, we’re gearing up! We both look forward to these new adventures.”
