As an emergency department physician, Elizabeth Anderson, M.D., brings her faith to work.
Although the emergency department “tends to be a rough environment,” in “every patient, I have to see Christ in that person,” Anderson said.
In her job, Anderson splits shifts between the emergency departments of St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison and Upland Hills Hospital in Dodgeville, both part of the SSM Health system.
Anderson also serves as the president of the Catholic Medical Guild of the Diocese of Madison.
Anderson said she sees patients with every type of ailment and outcome, patients “coming in intoxicated or high, somebody who’s dying, or somebody who’s there for something they shouldn’t be,” she said, but in every person she’s “striving to see Christ”.
Anderson’s background
Anderson is a lifelong Catholic, raised in Sun Prairie, who attended Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church and School there.
Anderson attended Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio, and said that she was considering teaching or entering the medical field after college.
Upon graduation, Anderson returned to Wisconsin having accepted a job to teach high school biology in “little old Columbus,” she described, and after a few years, went on to obtain an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) license.
“Once I started doing the EMT stuff, I found I really liked the medical thing,” Anderson said.
That enjoyment pushed Anderson to later apply to medical school; she was accepted at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
In 2005, Anderson completed medical school there, and in 2008, she completed residency.
Since then, Anderson has worked with Madison Emergency Physicians, “which I love,” she said, saying that her EMT background has helped her succeed.
As a wife and mother of three, Anderson has been able to balance work life and family life by working in the emergency department.
When the Anderson’s youngest daughter was born, “I went part time, which is nice for emergency medicine,” she said.
“It’s very easy to say, ‘I’m going to work seven or eight shifts per month,’ because that was really important for us to have one of us home with her,” Anderson explained.
Anderson’s husband, who was a paramedic, now works as a nurse educator.
Franciscan spirituality
A “very grounding part of my faith,” Anderson said, has been her promises to live the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi in the world.
As a secular Franciscan, Anderson has “that grounding of ‘what are the most important things,’” she said, which helps her be a better physician.
“Poverty, chastity, obedience,” can sometimes place her opposite fellow physicians “because [there are] physicians in my group who are very money-oriented,” she shared, but Anderson knows “that’s not what it’s all about”.
Instead, “I love the spirituality and that idea of living simply, joyfully,” Anderson said.
“Bringing that into your work, having that foundation that it’s not about the money, [instead] it’s about being able to truly care for that person and see Christ in each person.”
A vivid image Anderson described was “seeing that leper on the road, embracing them.”
“Bringing that [perspective] into work, and life in general, has been huge for me,” she continued.
Anderson said that image has helped her with some of the hardest cases, especially drug addicts.
She also shared two stories.
Anderson remembered “a long time ago, we had an incident where one of the providers had prescribed contraceptives.
“The administration came back and said, ‘We do not do that. We’re a Catholic healthcare system.’”
It’s “been nice to know that I can tell patients, ‘I’m sorry, we don’t prescribe that, that’s against religious beliefs,’” Anderson said.
Examples like this have helped grow Anderson’s confidence to be “that positive influence” with difficult pregnancies, where the mother considers abortion, she said.
In those situations, Anderson orders an ultrasound and points out the child’s heartbeat.
On the other hand, “end of life is another hard one,” Anderson said.
“I love it when I have patients who come in and they’ve got the Miraculous Medal or the Scapular on.”
Anderson said that she’ll pray with them and if the case is more serious, she’ll ask them or their family if they’d like a priest to come.
Anderson remembered a patient in this scenario.
The patient was dying and “could have hours, she could have days,” Anderson recalled and said that by looking in the patient’s chart, she could see if the patient was Catholic. The patient was.
The patient’s family was present, trying to make difficult decisions on end-of-life interventions, and Anderson remembered asking the son, “Would you like to have the priest come for Last Rites?”
“He immediately was very excited and said, ‘Yes, she would want that.’
“Father came and gave Last Rites and you could tell there was some peace then in making those decisions,” Anderson said, “even if you can’t necessarily fix the medical issue”.
Anderson and her family attend St. Maria Goretti Church in Madison, part of Divine Mercy Parish.
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