“Family medicine might be my baby.”

From learning outside of the classroom to building skills not taught in a book, Aliyah says the program prepared her for a life as a PA in practice.

Aliyah Bell is living the life she always hoped for but in a way she never imaged.

After graduating from the physician assistant (PA) program at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, she embarked upon a career in primary care. Now, she serves marginalized populations and advocates for those who need it most.

“Of course, to be a medical provider, you need to know medicine. But the things that some schools don’t talk to you about are those things that UC Davis harped on us,” the Class of 2023 graduate explained. “I feel like UC Davis prepared me well for that population and what I ultimately was going to do after graduation.”

“There are always areas of improvement that can be made with an outside perspective. Now my perspective is even more valued because I'm outside in the real world practicing.” – Aliyah Bell, PA alum

Bell works at the Sacramento Native American Health Center. A clinic in which she learned about during clinical rotations. A path that surprised her, as she thought a profession in sports medicine might be in her future.

At the heart of her approach as a PA is compassion, which, she says, UC Davis faculty nurtured in her.

“People want bedside manners. People want to feel supported and to feel heard. That’s something you can’t teach in a book,” she said. “The compassion that UC Davis taught me, I just feel like I make changes in my patients’ lives and it’s been beautiful. Family medicine might be my baby.”

PA Program Director Teresa Thetford says leading graduates to a career in primary care is part of the school’s mission.

“We want to improve access to health care delivery for everyone,” Thetford said. “When you look at our graduates who go to work in family medicine or primary care, we’re at 34% compared to 17% nationally.”

Bell’s dedication is both to patients and to her alma mater. For the past two years since graduation, she has served on an alumni panel event, “What comes next after graduation?” The event offers current students the chance to hear from those who walked the path before them. Future PAs can learn from those in practice.

“There are always areas of improvement that can be made with an outside perspective. Now my perspective is even more valued because I'm outside in the real world practicing,” Bell said. “It's good for me to tell them ‘Like, yes, you feel like this now, but you won't feel like this in the future.’”

As for Bell’s future, she credits the education and connections she made at UC Davis with her success.

“They always put you in the room with the right people. Whether it was volunteer work, student run clinics or community events, I felt like I was being set up for success for all the things outside of the traditional didactic or clinical rotations that you had to with school.”