Dr. Raina Burke Remains In Love With Emergency Medicine

By DEREK REDD, The Intelligencer, Wheeling News-

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WHEELING — Emergency medicine is a high-stakes, high-intensity field

in which seconds can be crucial to a patient’s outcome.
 

Dr. Raina Burke of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital has been in love

with the field since medical school and has spent nearly two decades in

practice in the Friendly City. She has seen plenty in those 17 years, but

loves having the ability to help those who are suffering through their

most critical moments.
 

It was something that intrigued her even back in her teenage years.

Burke said she long has had an interest in helping those who needed it

immediately.
 

“I knew if somebody was really sick … I always wanted to know what to

do,” she said. “Even when I was in high school and when I did my

undergrad at WVU, I was always like, I want to be that person that, if

there’s some kind of disaster, I want to know what to do.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree at West Virginia University, medical

school came calling, first at WVU and then at Wayne State University in

Detroit, Michigan, where she moved with her husband Steve right after

the two married. At Wayne State, Burke said she got hands-on

experience in an emergency room, and that’s where she was sold on it

being her career.
 

The Burkes loved Detroit, but when they wanted to grow their family, it

was back to their hometown of Wheeling, and Burke began her tenure at

WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital. She serves as one of the night

emergency doctors there, and said it is very fulfilling to be there to help

others in one of their greatest times of need.
 

The injury doesn’t need to be catastrophic, she said. Just being able to

comfort someone and lessen their pain is a satisfying feeling.
 

“What gives you the most satisfaction is when you find that you really

help somebody,” she said. “It may be a simple thing. Someone’s got a

kidney stone, and it’s like the worst pain they’ve ever had. So we get them

some pain meds, and I can’t tell you how thankful they are for that.
 

“So it’s just little things like that,” Burke continued. “Diagnosing a heart

attack, just holding someone’s hand before they go to the cath lab. Those

little things are just sprinkled in through things that might not be so

satisfying for me, but probably it’s really satisfying for the patient and

their family.”
 

That mindset has influenced other parts of her practicing medicine.

Burke said she always wants to make sure her patients receive as

complete a battery of medical care as possible. She doesn’t want to miss a

diagnosis, especially in an emergency situation. So she makes sure that,

with whatever the patient’s chief complaint may be, she orders the

imaging or the lab test that could rule out a diagnosis.
 

She also makes sure to call at least one patient she has seen on each shift

to check on their progress, especially if it’s someone she was significantly

concerned about.
 

With the stress that comes with the job, Burke said she has found ways to

relieve it. She and her husband are now master gardeners. The family

also enjoys traveling, not just around the country but across the globe.
 

That’s a piece of advice she’d give a young woman entering the

emergency medical field: Find time to enjoy life outside of the hospital.
 

“I would say that you definitely have to carve out some time for yourself,

because otherwise you would get very overwhelmed. And then I would

say just believe in yourself and everything will be OK.”