Superwoman

Med student, wife & mother

She wakes up at 6 a.m. and gets ready for her day. She grabs a quick breakfast and takes a shower. She peeks in on her sleeping children, three-year old Elyse and 6-month-old Aiden; kisses her husband, Garret, goodbye, and leaves for school.  School, for fourth-year medical student Kara Johnson is a clerkship at MeritCare Hospital in Fargo.

She arrives at the hospital about 7 a.m. and spends her day learning the art and science of medicine.  At 5 p.m. she picks up her kids from daycare, where Garret left them before going to his job as a pharmacist, brings them home and starts dinner.  When Garret arrives home, the family enjoys dinner and some quality time. 

Soon it is 8:30 p.m. and time to put the kids to bed.  Kara spends the rest of the evening studying and goes to bed herself around midnight. 

It seems her life is pretty normal, but this remarkable woman has given birth to both of her children while attending medical school and will graduate in May at the very top of her class. 

She took the long road to medical school.  Kara met Garret when they were both in pharmacy school at North Dakota State University in Fargo.  After completing her doctorate in pharmacy in 1998 and working as a clinical pharmacist for a few years, she realized she was much more interested in what the doctors were doing. 

“I found myself wondering, what does that X-ray mean?  What makes that person sick?  And then I knew I had to follow my dream and apply to medical school,” she said.  “My husband has always been very supportive, and I have never regretted my decision.”

Still, her pharmacy education is not going to waste.  Pharmacology is one topic she already understands and the culture of the hospital wasn’t a surprise to her.   

“It’s nice,” she said, “because I already know the workings of the medical team:  what to do, whom to ask, what not to ask.” 

At the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences, medical students are graded against themselves, not against each other and they rarely know their rank in their class.  Some scholarships, however, are given to the top-ranking student in the class.  Last summer, Kara was informed that she was the top-ranking student of the UND Doctor of Medicine Class of 2006 and was awarded the most prestigious scholarship available to medical students: the Gustav Golseth, M.D., and Wesley Morrish Medical School Scholarship, worth $12,000.

Kara said she was shocked.  “I didn’t even know where I was in the class when I found out.” 

So, how does she do it?  Consistency, flexibility and dedication.

“I started studying from the beginning,” she explains.  “I was pregnant when I started medical school and I knew the only way I would be able to get through was to study consistently, not just right before exams.”

The family has plans and back-up plans to make sure the children are well looked-after.  “My husband has been wonderful,” she said.  “We have to remain flexible and he goes with the flow.”

Medical school requires a high level of dedication from all students, but Kara’s situation is extraordinary.  After delivering Elyse by c-section in the middle of her first year of medical school, she returned to school just two weeks later. 

“I was quite a sight, waddling around this place, running home for feedings,” she remembers.  “But I had to get back as soon as possible.  I didn’t want to miss anything!” 

“Sometimes I feel guilty,” admits Kara who realizes she took on a lot all at once.  “But I think that I will be a better mother because I am a career woman.” 

She is, no doubt, a strong role model for mothers and career women alike.

“I always wanted to go into health care,” she said.  “I couldn’t be happy if I wasn’t doing this.” 

Kara, who is originally from Fargo, N.D., is the daughter of Ronald Brakke of Grace City, N.D. and the late Jean Brakke.  She plans to go into internal medicine and hopes it will lead her back to North Dakota to practice. 

return to top