Originally published Winter Newsletter 2024. Written by Mick Devanney, MBA, MHA, PA-C, Chair, ConnAPA History Committee.
Burdeen Camp was a founding member of the Connecticut Academy of Physician Assistants and the Connecticut Physician Assistant Foundation. She served as ConnAPA President from 1978-1979 and served as the Delegate to the AAPA House of Delegates in 1977-1979, 1981, and 1986.
Camp received her Bachelor of Arts from Clark University in 1970, graduating from Yale University School of Medicine Physician Associate Program in 1973. Shortly after graduation she joined Yale University PA program faculty until 1983, while also working clinically at the Yale New Haven Medical Center. Camp was a staff member of the Hospital of St. Raphael’s Section of Hematology-Oncology from 1983 until her retirement in 2011. She was the Manager of the Robert T. Beeman Hematology Oncology Infusion Therapy Unit from1988-2011. In retirement, Camp has turned her focus to a new passion, the world of intellectual and physical disability; she has served as a medical volunteer for the Special Olympics Connecticut since 1994, been on their Medical committee since 1996, and has been the coordinator of Medical Services since 1997.
Camp was received multiple awards throughout her illustrious career, including Outstanding Young Woman Award (1984), Jack Cole Society Award (1984), the AAPA 20-year Anniversary Award (1988), the ConnAPA President’s Award (1995), the Yale University Physician Associate Distinguished Alumna Award (1996), the Connecticut Special Olympic Unsung Hero’s Aware (2001), the Special Olympics Connecticut’s Shriver Society (2007), and the Hospital of Saint Raphael Department of Medicine Chairman’s Service to Mission Award (2008), and the Special Olympics Connecticut’s Sheila Schmidt Award for Outstanding Service (2014).
I was honored to spend some time with Burdeen recently to discuss her time as a leader, and her time as ConnAPA President.
What year were you ConnAPA President?
I was a founding member of ConnAPA and served as President in 1978-1979. I was also the founding president of the Connecticut Physician Assistant Foundation.
What were some challenges the PA profession faced during your term?
One of our earliest challenges was deciding what exactly we were going to be. We did not always even agree with each other about what we were going to be. There were five professional organizations at that time, and we needed to work to bring them together. There were a lot of building blocks of a profession that needed to come together before you could consider the scope of practice of the profession. We then needed to work to get people to accept that and know what it is we had done. Our biggest challenge was helping the profession to get through another year. It was knocking down roadblocks, working together to anticipate new ones, and helping the profession to survive.
What was your clinical practice as a PA?
I worked in medical oncology. I started at Yale at age of 16 in the research lab through a work study program to local high school students who excelled in medical sciences, and it was an eight-week cycle in the summer, and I kept going back. After that I worked as a nurse’s aide all summer and enjoyed the patient care.
What advice would you give to young PAs?
I think until PA is a more household word, and people are comfortable seeing PAs everyone needs to be involved. The profession is so much further along than when we started, but we aren’t a household word yet. We are not what people think of when they think of healthcare and until that happens, we need everybody involved. Bill Stanhope used to call it the healing arts; the art of medicine and the science of medicine, and what we need are real people who can meld the art and science of medicine. We must remember without people who sacrificed enough to get things going, we wouldn’t have a profession. We still need people to lead.
Is there something outside PA practice you are passionate about?
In 1994 St. Raphels was testing the triage system EMS planned on using for the World Games in New Haven. I medically covered the Special Olympics Invitational volleyball match and walked in and thought this was fun. I have been involved with the Special Olympics ever since. I currently coordinate and provide medical care for all state level competitions. Our role is to help separate a physical injury from an emotional need; to triage and to decide if this athlete needs a higher level of care. My other goal is to offer students the opportunity to do their community service at the summer games. I am working to get the students more comfortable caring for the intellectually disabled; to educate providers that these are people too, so they know how to talk to them; these are important lessons that need to be learned.
This article was completed using the AAPA Historical Society as a reference, as well as through interview with Burdeen Camp.