 Modern-Day Medicine Woman
Kay Bradshaw-Smith is the first to admit she is an overachiever. She is also a trailblazer. In her 22-year career as a physician assistant, she has led the way in several areas of health care. She was the first physician assistant in San Diego County to open a private practice, the first physician assistant to be appointed hospital privileges, and one of seven U.S. physician assistants to be part of the first medical delegation to Brazil in 2003.
“I feel so very fortunate to have reached my goal of establishing my own practice, which allows me to provide the high-quality, comprehensive medicine in a caring manner that I had always envisioned,” she says.
Bradshaw-Smith is also a medical expert witness in lawsuits, a preceptor for Stanford University’s Physician Assistant and Family Nurse Practitioner programs, and a volunteer for local schools performing athletic exams. Given her busy lifestyle, it is no wonder Bradshaw-Smith dreams about building a home in the mountains and becoming a “backwoods medicine woman who is paid with chickens and pies” after retiring.
Bradshaw-Smith graduated from California State University, Chico in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences and obtained her primary care physician assistant degree from the University of Southern California School of Medicine in 1982. While she was at CSU, Chico, her biology professors told her she should go into medicine. “They gave me the self-confidence to know that I had a lot to offer in that field,” she says. But Bradshaw-Smith says it was not until her father, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, echoed her professors’ advice that she knew in her heart that medicine was the direction she wanted to go.
In 2002, Bradshaw-Smith invited her sister, Maureen Fleming, who is also a physician assistant, to join her practice. “I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to work with my sister, who shares my same philosophies,” she remarks. “What better way to provide family medicine than with your own family!”
Of all her accomplishments, Bradshaw-Smith says a milestone was earning the respect of physicians in her community. Her true passion is women’s health, and she is currently writing a pocket survival guide for women on nutrition and exercise, due out this year. She practices what she preaches with outdoor activities such as hiking, swimming, and golf.
With all that she does in her community, Bradshaw-Smith epitomizes a true humanitarian. “That’s what my dream of medicine is all about,” she says. “I have plenty to give, and I figure while I have the energy to do all of it, I will.”  Emily Battaglia, Tehama Group Communications |
