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Eric Kramer ’88 doesn’t get much time to watch “ER” on television. He’s too busy living it. And now that he’s president of a medical staff, and serves as an adviser to the Republican National Committee, time is even harder to find.
Kramer says his road to medical school was a straight path after discovering he wasn’t cut out for accounting during his first year of college. Though he’s not the first psychology major to become a medical doctor, “in dealing with constant crisis situations, dealing with families and patients from all walks of life, a bit of psychology comes in handy,” he says.
It should also help him with the 250 physicians he represents to the administration of Rockingham Memorial Hospital in regard to creation and implementation of local health care and medical staff policy. He also provides “significant input” on plans to create a state-of-the-art medical center for RMH.
“After I got into med school, I quickly realized emergency medicine was my calling, based on my romantic views of the medical profession in combination with the type of personality I am,” says Kramer.
A rower at Lafayette, Kramer traded in his crew oars — “I definitely don’t miss the 6 a.m. practices,” he says — for the life of an emergency physician and father of two small children.
“I miss tailgating before home football games and All College Day,” he says.
One college highlight was provided by Alan Childs, professor of psychology, “whose class I took in social psychology and who let me assist in a research survey he was conducting on job satisfaction in a local hospital my sophomore year.”
Sounds like perfect training for his true calling in the ER.