{"id":14383,"date":"2010-05-13T11:57:20","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T15:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=14383"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:42:33","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:42:33","slug":"class-of-2010-amy-kiraly-md-school-of-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/05\/class-of-2010-amy-kiraly-md-school-of-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of 2010: Amy Kiraly, MD, School of Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Amy<\/a>
Amy Kiraly. Photo by Janine Gelineau<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amy Kiraly made up her mind to become a doctor while sitting in a hospital. Kiraly\u2019s father had been diagnosed with kidney cancer and the surgeon who performed his procedure was explaining treatment options. He was not connecting well with her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was smart and did everything he was supposed to do medically, but I felt he missed the ball on the rest of it,\u201d says Kiraly. \u201cHe didn\u2019t pick up on the fact that everyone was frightened. Cancer is an intimidating thing. He was very hands-off and the interaction was just not very good. I remember sitting there that day and thinking \u2018I am smart enough to do this and I think I could do this better \u2013 that\u2019s when I decided to go into medicine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time Kiraly, a Watertown native, was a sophomore at the University of Delaware majoring in biology. She was always interested in science but wasn\u2019t sure what facet of it she wanted to pursue.<\/p>\n

During one of her summer breaks from Delaware, she spent some time at Hartford Hospital doing a research project. During her internship, she visited the UConn School of Medicine<\/a> for the first time. \u201cI liked the feeling of the school,\u201d she says. \u201cI had the same feeling with Delaware and it had worked out well, so I went with my gut.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Kiraly wasn\u2019t familiar with UConn\u2019s medical school, she grew up watching the UConn women\u2019s basketball team. Kiraly played basketball herself, as well as soccer, and she still plays both sports when she can. She has joined recreational leagues with some other med students, which gives her a chance to de-stress and unwind from her grueling schedule. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun until a teammate gets injured \u2013 then everyone looks to me for help,\u201d she jokes.<\/p>\n

Her decision to specialize in emergency medicine was not a surprise to her family. Her mother had been an emergency department nurse for years, and Kiraly had always loved visiting her mother at work and talking about specific cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked the pace and the variety. My personality fits well with emergency medicine. I will never be bored,\u201d says Kiraly.<\/p>\n

She also likes the flexible schedule that is typical with working in an emergency department. She hopes the rotating shift cycles will make balancing work and family life more feasible.<\/p>\n

For the next four years, Kiraly will be doing her emergency medicine residency at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University in Chicago<\/a>, but she can see herself returning to Connecticut eventually.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really close to my parents [her dad has made a full recovery] and older brother and sister-in-law,\u201d she says, \u201cso I won\u2019t want to be away from them too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Kiraly is ready for the next step. \u201cMedical school has been a real eye-opener,\u201d she says. \u201cThe most challenging thing has been balancing my emotions. You\u2019re so intimately involved with the lives of your patients that it can be a little overwhelming. You get to meet so many amazing people, courageous people, during happy and sad times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege being a doctor,\u201d she adds. \u201cYou should never underestimate the impact you have on your patients and that your patients have on you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Med school graduate Amy Kiraly likes the pace and variety of her chosen field: emergency medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-14383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 00:37:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14383"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37485,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14383\/revisions\/37485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14383"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=14383"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=14383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}