Family Medicine network welcomes one of their own

PLAINS – The Family Medicine network has welcomed one of their own onto their team.

Nick Lawyer, physician assistant, has grown up in this community and comes from a family with a history of medicine. 

His mom was a nurse for many years and his uncle is now a doctor. However, Lawyer said they are not what inspired him to get into this field. It may be in his blood but the thing that connected him to the medical field was his experience in emergency services. 

Lawyer joined the emergency service team while he was a premedical student. He fell in love with the line of work and pursued his paramedic certificate. He continued working that direction until he became a paramedic firefighter while he lived in Virginia. 

“There is something about working in the emergency service that I really connect with and I just fell in love with that,” Lawyer said. “It was a great job but after a while I realized it’s not a job I wanted to raise a family on. It’s a little more dangerous than you wanted, the hours are long, and it’s hard on the body.” 

After his family business came upon hard times, Lawyer returned to Plains to help with Lawyer’s Nursery. He spent four years working with his family at the nursery until it hit him – he had to follow his dream.

“In the fifth year, I kind of realized that working at the nursery was probably not the best decision I could make so I chose to leave the company after four years and return to what I love, which is medicine,” Lawyer explained. 

The draw back to emergency services was there, however, Lawyer knew that was a limited pathway. After talking with his family, it was decided physician assistant school was a good choice. 

The pathway has ties to the field he loves – the world of paramedics.

“(A physician assistant) applies a lot of the same thought processes and work experience,” Lawyer said. He explained the physician assistant profession originated from paramedicine during Vietnam. 

He began at the University of Washington and completed the physician assistant program this August, three years after he started.

The task involved a lot of hours away from home – a sacrifice that was hard on the family. Lawyer commuted to Spokane for school and would spend the week there. He would return on the weekends to be with his family.

“I had a two year old daughter when I went to school and it’s hard. You missed out on two years of her life. But hopefully the next 14 will be pretty good,” Lawyer said. 

He chose to go back to school to chase a life that would be more stable. 

The journey was a tough one and Lawyer said he would not be able to do it without his family and his community’s support. 

“I just am very grateful for everything this community has done, for my family and for me, going through school,” said Lawyer. “It was not just a family effort, it was everyone who helped.”

Lawyer said his wife deserves more credit than anyone. She took to single parenting their child so he could finish his school.

“I’m very lucky,” Lawyer said. 

Lawyer’s role at the hospital is to serve as a fill in while the other new providers get settled in.

“My job is to, among other things, float to Thompson and Hot Springs but I also came to establish a practice in Plains as a primary care physician assistant,” Lawyer said. 

Lawyer explained physician assistants in either primary care or emergency medicines are able to do most of what physicians can do.

“There’s a few things we can’t do but for the most part patients don’t notice much difference,” explained Lawyer. He went on to say he is unable to do surgery, although he is able to be an integral part of a surgical team. He also mentioned that many physician assistants do not typically prescribe cancer medication since many of the medications are toxic. 

Overall, Lawyer said his new team has been great. He completed some training at Clark Fork Valley Hospital and also trained in Thompson Falls with Jennifer Strine. 

“Again, I’m like the little brother here. Everyone has known me for a long time,” Lawyer said.  “Everyone integrates well and we just have these long relationships we can draw on.”

Lawyer’s goal is to help improve the health of his community one patient at a time. He wants to help people make good choices and be there for the good times, while helping with the bad times.

Five years from now, Lawyer sees himself at a basketball game surrounded by his family and the community that has grown to be considered as family.

He explained basketball is very much a family affair and Lawyer, along with his three kids, all play the sport. 

Lawyer also hopes to one day continue farming on a small, personal scale.

“You can’t take the farm out of the farm boy so I have some hopes for other future things,” said Lawyer.

He explained he is where he wants to be and he is not planning on going anywhere.

“I was born here, I was raised here, my family is here, my friends are here. This is my community and I want to be apart of it,” Lawyer said.