Just as learning medicine never ends, it seems neither does teaching medicine.
Jonathan Byers graduated from Taylor University with a pre-med degree in 1997.
After his undergraduate studies, he moved to Washington, D.C., to further his studies at The George Washington University from 1999 to 2001.
Byers said his pursuit of pre-med studies came from his admiration of doctors growing up. It was a career that he aspired to go into before he ever considered teaching.
“The idea was to either go to medical school or physician assistant school,” Byers said. “There weren’t as many options at that time, and there’s been a really nice evolution of the department here in health sciences to develop students to go to medical school or other allied health professionals.”
Having an extensive background in emergency medicine, Byers’ first job after his education was to be a physician assistant (PA) at Parkview Hospital in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
He felt called to this role and believed his duty was to have a positive impact on the lives of his patients and overall community.
“I think it fits my personality well, because I like seeing immediate results,” Byers said. “And I mostly just really enjoy the human connection that I can have with patients on a daily basis.”
Byers said his career started out interesting but slowly began to feel more ordinary. There was always more knowledge to be acquired in the medical field, he said. To this day, he is still learning new material.
Byers added that while he was an undergraduate student at Taylor, his education allowed him to carry a sense of curiosity and humility along with his practice.
Compared to his experience, Byers said that medical students today have more accessible resources, making this an easier time for them to learn. Most of the learning techniques during his time as a student were lecture-based.
“I would say that today, there’s a lot more expected from medical providers, whether they’re doctors or physician assistants,” Byers said. “And so I think that students hit the job market with a lot more demands than they had when I started over 20 years ago.”
Later on in his career, Byers would have the opportunity to teach second-year PA students from other schools as part of his medical practice.
Through this experience, he felt called to invest in students he could potentially inspire to help others in medicine in service of Christ. He remembered this Christian approach to medicine while studying at Taylor.
Now that he has returned as a faculty member, he has also returned to this philosophy of education.
“I think that it was truly God’s hand at work,” Byers said. “The timing worked out great for me to come back to Taylor, because the group that I work with was willing to be flexible in allowing me to continue to practice on a limited basis, and still invest a lot of my efforts down here at Taylor. I have a daughter who is a freshman here, and it allows me to still remain better connected to her and really to the Taylor community in general.”
When he was a Taylor student, Byers said he viewed the university as a normal college education while teaching about God and other lessons normally taught at a church camp.
However, his view has changed since 30 years ago when he was a student.
“Taylor has a wonderful foundation of being a Christian liberal arts undergraduate school with a very strong servant focus,” Byers said. “Our program is well outside of that. It’s a master’s program. Most of our students will be commuters and we are more of a career-development program than a liberal arts program.”
Byers’ hope is to integrate Taylor’s liberal arts mission into its graduate medical program.
This desire began way before his time as a professor.
During the J-term of his senior year, one of Byers’ professors inspired him to remain curious throughout his career and always seek out knowledge. Byers has integrated this inspiration into his philosophy of teaching today.
“I would say that trusting God’s faithfulness to deliver the right opportunities at the right time would be my advice to undergrad students, whether they’re pre-med or any other major,” Byers said.
Editor’s note: Jonathan Byers is not related to Philip Byers, Halbrook Chair of Civic Engagement.
