Alumni Profile: Steve Floerchinger, WWAMI E-83

"It takes a special type of person to cut someone open," says Dr. Steve Floerchinger (E-83).

Floerchinger is a general surgeon at Providence Alaska Medical Center who performs a wide variety of surgeries, ranging from gallbladder and lung cancer to breast and thyroid cancer to bowel surgery. He is also often on-call with the ER where he never knows what to expect.

It's Floerchinger's passion for improving the health of his patients that drives his zeal for surgery. "Medicine is above all else an art of human activity. I couldn't see myself doing anything else." To better explain it, Floerchinger referred to the essayist, Richard Selzer, who described surgery as "the most brutal, yet loving act."

But when he entered the WWAMI program, he was unsure of what he wanted to specialize in, and was certain it wasn't going to be surgery. "There was no way I wanted to be a surgeon. But during my surgery rotation at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, I ended up being seduced by it," he says. "It wasn't at all what I expected it to be."

Floerchinger remembers his time in the WWAMI program fondly. "It's one of the best medical schools in the world."

When he took the Hippocratic Oath, Floerchinger promised to share his knowledge with others. "Doctor in Greek means teacher," he says. He kept his promise and occasionally teaches for the WWAMI program. "It's really important to give my time to those who need it, whether it's students, patients or family."

Floerchinger says, "If it weren't for WWAMI, I wouldn't have stayed in Alaska." He repeatedly encourages his students to come back to Alaska. He tells them, "We want you to work here. Alaska has a great need, so room will be made for you."