Dr. Mahawa Sam first became interested in medicine when her mother, who was a registered nurse, would take her to work on Bring Your Child to Work Day. “I didn’t know then that I would become a doctor,” she explains. “However, it was a great way to introduce me to the idea of caregiving and now I am really glad I chose medicine as a career.”

After graduating from her residency training, Dr. Sam decided to put her skills to work as a hospitalist. “What I liked about hospital medicine was that I could really have a positive impact on patients right away while at the same time being able to use and grow my knowledge of all the different subspecialties within Internal Medicine.”

Dr. Sam says that when she is communicating with a patient she likes to pull up a chair and be at eye level with them. “I like to make it seem like more of a conversation when I am communicating with them,” she explains. “I really enjoy getting to know my patients and their families as much as I can. I always strive to treat my patients as a partner in their care and help them understand what is going on with their health.”

One of the reasons Dr. Sam likes working at Reliant is that each primary care team has its own dedicated hospitalist to care for patients when they are hospitalized. “I like this model because it allows me to easily communicate with each patient’s primary care physician and allows great continuity of care.”

When she is not busy treating patients, Dr. Sam enjoys indoor gardening as well as reading and traveling.