Leading by Example & Adapting with Featured Faculty Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS

Featured ThriveAP Faculty Discussion: Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS

At ThriveAP we are honored to have an expansive faculty of expert speakers and APPs with impressive credentials and experience. Today we are talking with one of our esteemed faculty members to gain their advice for thriving in an advanced practice career. 

Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS, joined us to discuss what it means to be a good mentor, his advice for aspiring NPs and PAs, and his journey to where he is today- Director of APP Operations. Watch the interview below with Sarah Maxwell, Director of Marketing at ThriveAP and Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS, or read the transcript.

Meet Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS

Interview Transcript

Sarah Maxwell: Hello, my name is Sarah Maxwell. I'm the Director of Marketing at ThriveAP. At ThriveAP, we are honored to have an expansive faculty of expert speakers and advanced practice providers with impressive credentials and experience. Today I'm going take a few moments to get to know one of our faculty members a little bit better and gain some of their advice for thriving in advanced practice career. Please welcome Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS

Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS: Hi. Yeah, as Sarah mentioned. I'm Seth Hake. I'm a physician assistant and I currently work in the western Pennsylvania market - I have for the last nine years in emergency and hospital medicine. And I'm thrilled to be a presenter for ThriveAP.

SM: That's great. Seth, tell me a little bit what intrigued you to work with ThriveAP or drew you to the opportunity?

SH: Yeah, I always had the opportunity to work with students in some of my prior roles. In my current role, I don't have the opportunity as frequently to do  that as I would like. When I  heard of the ThriveAP opportunity, I saw it was a great opportunity to work with new APPs who are just kind of getting started. I can still remember being on my first day, fresh out of PA school, all the anxiety that kind of came with that. I feel like having a transition to practice program like ThriveAP really will help build their confidence and really turn them into a better provider earlier in their career to really impact healthcare as a whole.

"I can still remember being on my first day, fresh out of PA school, all the anxiety that kind of came with that. I feel like having a transition to practice program like ThriveAP really will help build their confidence and really turn them into a better provider earlier in their career to really impact healthcare as a whole," - Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS

SM: Absolutely. I'm happy to hear you say that. I think that's what we hear kind of often from our different faculty members. That transition is so jarring in many ways and something about the APP community I've really noticed is that desire to give back and to help support the next generation, which has been really rewarding to see. I don't think you always experience that in different communities.

So tell me a little bit about your practice. You know your day-to-day, where you live, and some of your background.

SH: I've practiced for the past nine years in, in Western Pennsylvania, which has been my entire career pretty much. And I've worked in both emergency and hospital medicine and I've done both simultaneously. So I have a different perspective I think than most. Where as I've seen a very roundabout kind of way of medicine. I've seen acute care, I've seen emergency ICU care. I've kind of seen a little bit of it all.

In my current role with my current company, I, again, work in multiple specialty lines, hospital medicine, emergency medicine, observation medicine, and I also have a leadership role within my company where I'm the Director of APPs and Observation Medicine as well.

SM: Wow, that's super exciting. I think that's one of the first times I've heard that. How did you get into that role? That's a very neat

SH: Yeah. Leadership has always been something that's interested me. And you know, nine years ago, leadership wasn't as prevalent in the APP space. I feel like as the APP professions, nurse practitioners and PAs have drastically grown even, just in the past 10 years, there really has become an opportunity for leadership of APPs both with healthcare systems and staffing companies. I really believe it's become paramount that they have leaders in these roles who truly understand these positions and can help build really effective teams.

"In the past 10 years there has become an opportunity for leadership of APPs both with healthcare systems and staffing companies. I really believe it's become paramount that they have leaders in these roles who truly understand these positions and can help build really effective teams," - Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS

SM: Absolutely. Having that person who's kind of walked in your shoes, so to say, and can help with that, I do think that's something that's more unique in the market these days than we have seen in the past. There are more and more NP and PA based leadership roles to help the growing and expansive growth behind the APP career.

So with kind of that in mind, talking about leadership, what would you say is your greatest passion in your role?

SH: I really, obviously there's we get to work with patients, but I also get to work with providers. We take care of patients on a day-to-day basis which is what we were all interested in doing. That's why we became PAs or nurse practitioners. But I really also enjoy working with the providers. I think it has a huge impact to be able to build good teams who can provide efficient and high quality healthcare which can impact many more patients than I can as a single individual.

SM: How, if you don't mind me asking, about how many different APPs are you currently over?

SH: I'm not sure the exact number. I work with several leaders at the site level and each leader has several other staff apps under  their structure as well.

SM: Wow, okay. It's nice 'because that's such a newer concept in the care model that when you  see it in action it's neat. It's exciting to start to see that really come to fruition for patients as well as for APPs.

So when we're talking about supporting APPs what do you think are attributes of a good mentor?

SH: Yeah, I think a good mentor leads by example, first and foremost, and I think they have to be very enthusiastic about their role. You know, obviously they have to be a good listener and they have to be able to provide constructive feedback. And I feel like everyone learns a little bit differently. So a good mentor needs to be able to adapt their leadership style to their mentee to be able to provide that appropriate and constructive feedback.

SM: Yeah, absolutely. We talk about that kind of often, that even within ThriveAP, we're all different learners. There's some people who are audio, some people visual, and I'm kind of a haptic learner, I have to be doing it all while I'm saying it out loud. So for mentors, that's a tough job. It's important that they are easy adapt to the different students.

And if you had to pinpoint one of your career accomplishments, speaking of being a leader and what is a typically newer model, what is a career accomplishment of yours that you would say, gosh, if I could really kind of put that one out there, pinpoint that one, that one really meant something special to me.

SH: Yeah. I never really envisioned the trajectory of my career going the way it has and into leadership the way it has. So I'd say kind of transition into formal leadership role with my company has been probably one of my most noteworthy accomplishments. I feel like this really gives me the opportunity to give back to a growing profession that has done so much for me over the past nine years, and as I believe I stated earlier, it allows me to work with providers who take care of patients on a day-to-day basis and can have an exponential impact to patient care.

SM: Absolutely. And thinking of your providers, are there any resources or journals that you specifically go to to make sure you're staying up to date, that you're practicing with, the best practices that are out there, the newest and latest that you would recommend  for maybe the folks underneath you or even just folks that are coming up in this space?

SH: Yeah, absolutely. Uptodate is pretty much my end all, go-to working in acute care medicine. In the emergency departments or on the floors or in the observation units, you're on the go. Having the ability to have something that's concise, quick, but also up to date and written by the experts in the field is nice to have. I also enjoy that it's available on tablet, on a phone, and on a computer, so you have it right there in your hand on the go if you need it.

SM: Yeah, I've heard that one before, but that makes perfect sense for the emergency setting. I mean, obviously ThriveAP moved into emergency fairly recently, so I'm still learning myself a little bit about some of the differences, but you have to be on the go, on the fly, quick. Being able to access information at an expedited rate, I'm sure is critical.

SH: Absolutely.

SM: Well, lastly, what advice would you give to apps of today so that they could prepare for a successful future? Like you mentioned, you could have never imagined the trajectory of your career. What's some advice you could give those folks so that they could f follow in the same path or create their own?

SH: Absolutely. I think what I would say is stay hungry, right? Consume knowledge, consume information. You should always be able to learn within the situation that you're handed. And it may not always be the situation you thought it was going to be, but if you can take something out of that you're going to continue to progress.

"Consume knowledge, consume information. You should always be able to learn within the situation that you're handed. And it may not always be the situation you thought it was going to be, but if you can take something out of that you're going to continue to progress," - Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS

I always recommend that people step outside of their comfort zone, try new things, try new specialties. The APP professions were started to help act upon these healthcare disparities we have in our country. By consuming knowledge, becoming well-rounded, exploring different service lines you can have such a huge impact on the healthcare system.

"I always recommend that people step outside of their comfort zone, try new things, try new specialties. The APP professions were started to help act upon these healthcare disparities we have in our country. By consuming knowledge, becoming well-rounded, exploring different service lines you can have such a huge impact on the healthcare system," - Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS

SM: Well, that's interesting because you said you kind of moved a bit around in acute, right?

SH: Mm-hmm.

SM: Yeah, I think that's so interesting to me. We actually had one of our other faculty members I spoke to, he started in family medicine, because his clinic had both acute and and primary, he moved around and now he's fully practicing in emergency medicine and urgent care. It was just a very different path to get somewhere, but that's where he found a lot of passion. So I think that's a good point, to keep experiencing different things and being interested, and take on new challenges because you might surprise yourself.

SH: Absolutely.  I feel like flexibility as a healthcare provider is one of the most important attributes you can have. And if you can figure out how to do that within your comfort level, you'll have a really strong career.

SM: Yeah. Well thank you so much for joining us today. I know this was quick - thank you so much for your time and and for joining us and letting us get to know you a little bit better.

SH: Absolutely. Thank you.

SM: Alright, folks, well thank you for joining us and we hope you'll join us for our next faculty interview. Have a great rest of your day.

More About Seth Hake, PA-C, MHS

Seth Hake attended undergraduate studies at Slippery Rock University, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in public health. Following undergraduate he attended South College in Knoxville, TN where he obtained a Master of Health Science in Physician Assistant Studies. Seth has clinical experience as a Physician Assistant in Emergency and Hospital Medicine. He is an experienced educator having precepted physician assistant students and as a clinical faculty member for a post-graduate emergency medicine program. He is currently licensed to practice medicine as a Physician Assistant in Pennsylvania and resides near Pittsburgh. 

We are truly honored to have faculty of Seth's caliber in our unmatched expert network. If you're interested in learning directly from experts, like Seth, apply for the ThriveAP program today!