While some children dream of becoming the actors they see on TV, Paige Smith “had an inkling” from a young age that she would be like one of the stars from her favorite reality show.
“As a child, I never sat still,” recalls Dr. Smith, now chief resident for the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV's department of emergency medicine. “My mother hated that because my brother would sit there and read a book or play with his Legos, and I'd be running around. She could never get me to sit still except when I would sit down to watch this show on TLC called Life in the ER.”
This early interest in emergency medicine led Smith to work as a wilderness first responder, ski patroller, EMT, and emergency room scribe. She “loved every bit of” seeing emergency medicine in practice from these varied angles.
With professional experience under her belt, Smith earned a doctorate in osteopathic medicine from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. No stranger to high-intensity work environments, she joined the U.S. Air Force during her time in medical school and was accepted into its Health Professions Scholarship program.
As a fourth-year medical student, Smith had a significant say in where her rotations would be. After spending time rotating throughout the mid-Atlantic, she completed a stint at the University of California, Davis – drawn to their active duty emergency medicine residency program – and finally found herself at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine and University Medical Center (UMC) for the same reason.
The staff here attracted her to a residency in the Kerkorian School’s USAF active duty emergency medicine program. “It's nice working here because a lot of our faculty are prior military or are still involved, so there's a lot of good mentorship for the military residents to see where we want to go with our careers after graduation,” Smith says. “Having that mentorship is also really helpful.”
For Smith, another attractive aspect of the residency was its location. Having channeled her childhood restlessness into fast-paced work – “I don't know if it's adrenaline-seeking; I just like being on the go all the time,” she muses – the Las Vegas Valley matches Smith’s tireless energy.
Home to NHL, NFL, WNBA, and multiple minor league teams and hosting mass-attended events from the National Finals Rodeo to the half-a-million-person rave Electric Daisy Carnival, Las Vegas events attract millions of attendees, both local and visiting, each year.
Emergency Medicine program director Dr. Ross Berkeley notes, “These kinds of events have tens of thousands of individuals in the same location at the same time, potentially either with heat exposure, potentially with toxin exposure, possibly different drugs and alcohol, along with all their underlying medical illnesses.”
The emergency medicine department’s working relationship with these events – where residents and faculty are both given the opportunity to provide medical support – offers unique training opportunities. Regarding the National Finals Rodeo, Berkeley says, “People don't typically think of Las Vegas as a place where someone may get stepped on by a bull or thrown from a horse and end up with a shoulder dislocation or brain injury.”
Smith has taken advantage of these training opportunities. “We are able to attend any event at Allegiant Stadium, including the concerts and sporting events,” she says, adding that she had worked the Raiders-49ers game the week prior in an emergency medical services (EMS) capacity for attendees.
While participation in event medicine is not a requirement for residents, Berkeley notes that “this is a wonderful opportunity for both residents and faculty, for that matter, to diversify their experience and to help avoid potential burnout. It's an opportunity to find fulfillment beyond the care that we provide in the emergency department in a very different kind of environment.”
Las Vegas’s wide-ranging events are not the only touristic offering that require medical support; the many outdoor activities the Valley is famous for also need a medical infrastructure.
Berkeley and Smith, alongside emergency resident Dr. Ian Isby, have conducted research on fatalities at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Berkeley, who serves as the EMS medical advisor for Lake Mead, says that of the 423 sites that the National Park Service manages, Lake Mead is one of the top 10 most visited and also sees the most fatalities.
“A passion of mine has always been to try to find out how we can help reduce that [number of fatalities], and that starts by taking a look to see what the data shows, how people are dying,” Berkeley says. “One key thing that Paige worked on was geo-mapping to look at the location of each of these deaths. Then we tried to find patterns.”
Through their research, the team was able to pinpoint stretches of road that yielded the most fatal car and motorcycle crashes. “The goal is to get more signage in those areas,” Smith says. “That's what the research was used for, for analyzing the patterns of fatalities, and then hopefully providing resources for the public in the future to help decrease the number of fatalities.”
The research’s practical applications align with one of the department’s missions which Berkeley identifies: “Medicine is more than just a job, it's more than just a career, it's a life of service.”
As chief resident, Smith embodies this spirit of service and community engagement. Berkeley says: “She's always had an incredible amount of compassion and empathy, and I think those are absolutely essential components of not only being a great leader, but being a great emergency physician, as well.”
From Smith’s end, she feels that the department has allowed her to grow as a leader. “I was a very shy, introverted and nervous intern,” Smith recalls. “Now I feel very confident in my medical knowledge and skills. I feel like this place has really helped me develop and become a wonderful, confident emergency physician.”
