tor-in-chief of the school paper while balancing reactions in organic chemistry. When it came time to think about post-undergrad, she originally thought about attending medical school. “That’s what the smart girls did,” Sowles said. Without studying for the MCAT, she thought she’d just apply to become a physician associate, or PA, first. Getting it would mean only two years of school and about half the amount of debt that med school would bring, with a large amount of the same medical freedom. To her surprise, she was accepted. She finished her undergrad at Bethel University May 16, 2015, and enrolled in PA classes just two weeks later. Naturally, Sowles picked the area of medicine that many consider to be the most challenging. Her first job out of school was working in the emergency room. The learning curve was uncomfortable, involving trial and error every day. Her husband, Jared Nelson, has never seen her at work but was there to help her process during her first year on the job. Nelson recalls what Sowles was like during the first year of her career, while the two were engaged. “[She] would come home and just be in a rough state because [she] felt incapable or incompetent,” Nelson said.
But she wouldn’t let herself stay there. As time went on, so did Sowles’s confidence in herself. For three years, she worked in three different Twin Cities emergency rooms as a physician associate. In that time, she grew proficient in diagnosing patients, prescribing medications and dealing with the stress of work in a healthy way. Sowles and Nelson got married in 2018, and both picked up running as a way to exercise and connect. In their first year of marriage, they ran the Twin Cities marathon together, finishing in step. The couple also got involved at their church by being youth mentors for middle schoolers. By the beginning of 2020, Sowles actually felt like she had the work-life balance down. Then, on a grey March day, everything she knew flatlined. On day one of the stay-at-home order, Sowles was almost eager to go to work. A brand new virus, and not one she had learned about in school. She watched the movie Contagion to get in the spirit and was surprised to find the set very familiar. She spied the name of her emergency room on a badge of one of the doctors in the film. Little did she know, she would be fighting a real life contagion in that very ER for months following. “I went into healthcare to do exciting things, like help people to fight pandemics,” Sowles said.
Enthusiasm wore off quickly as reality took its place. With a new dress code including a full gown, gloves, face shield and N95 mask, Sowles encountered those most sick with COVID-19 who needed emergency assistance. For the first few months, ERs were relatively slow because people who would normally come in feared the new virus covering every surface of a hospital. By winter, the disease was so widespread in Minnesota that ERs didn’t have enough beds for the sick. Then the vaccines came. Finally, a breath of fresh air. Sowles was among the first to get the vaccine in December 2020, thinking it might finally be a turning point in ending the pandemic. She initially thought everyone would rush to get it so life could return to the way it was. When that didn’t happen, her attitude changed. Sometimes, she finds it hard to not be bitter towards those who refuse the vaccine for non-medical reasons, knowing that they’re a main barrier to ending the stress on the healthcare system right now. “I never thought it would be such a fight to end this,” Sowles said. Once the Health Department deemed it safe again to go out in public, Sowles noticed the ER beginning to return to what it was before COVID-19. She began seeing
Left: Sowles pictured outside the Fairview South Emergency Room while on shift during Thanksgiving weekend. In her profession, there is no such thing as being off for the holidays. “But holidays aren’t usually too busy,” Sowles said. | Photo by Hannah Hobus
Right: Sowles (middle) talks with her two mentee students at a Wednesday night gathering at Upper Room Church in Edina, MN. Sowles and her husband, Jared Nelson, have been involved in the group for the past few years, acting as mentors for some of the youth in the church. | Photo by Emily Rossing
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