The Voices section is a place for physicians, staff and community leaders to share their perspectives on all things healthcare. Dr. Julieanna Sahouria joined Valley Children’s Specialty Medical Group as a pediatric emergency physician in September 2012.
MADERA, Calif. – Somewhere between chaos and quiet, between difficult conversations and small thank-yous, I found exactly where I am meant to be.
I am a pediatric emergency medicine physician. I work nights. I am a proud mother of two, a wife to a neurophysiologist, a chief of staff, a base hospital medical director and a children’s camp doctor volunteer. On paper, it sounds like a life of competing demands. And some days, it is. But it is also a life of extraordinary privilege.
Emergency medicine meets people where they are – on their hardest days, in their most vulnerable moments. There is no pretense in the emergency department. No curated version of life. Just truth, urgency and responsibility.
“Every patient is someone’s child – this truth transcends language, culture and resources.”
My pediatric background grounds me in that belief. From mission work in Armenia to nights at Valley Children’s Hospital, I have seen how universal a parent’s fear is – and how universal the trust that is placed in our hands can be. Working nights has sharpened my instincts: decisions are immediate, resources are more limited and teamwork is more essential. There is a bond among those who work through the night – a shared understanding that while the world sleeps, we remain.
Some of the most meaningful moments are the smallest ones. A child sobbing through a laceration repair, only to look up afterward – tearful but proud – and say, “thank you.”
“Trust can be built even in fear, and compassion is remembered longer than the pain.”
As chief of staff, I experience a very different side of medicine – there are celebrations and achievements as a medical staff member, but there are also difficult conversations around professionalism, patient safety and accountability. These are not easy discussions, nor are they meant to be. They demand fairness, clarity and the willingness to uphold standards even when it is uncomfortable. They are a reminder that caring for patients also means caring for each other and upholding the integrity of our profession.
As a base hospital medical director, I am connected to the very beginning of patients’ stories, reinforcing that medicine is not a single moment of care, but a continuum built on coordination, trust, and shared responsibility.
My work outside the traditional clinical setting has also shaped how I see my role as a physician. As a volunteer physician at a children’s summer camp, I have had the opportunity to care for children in an environment defined not by illness, but by growth, resilience and joy. It is a reminder that health is not just what we restore in the hospital, but what we help sustain outside of it.
At home, my life is just as rich. My daughter’s discipline as a gymnast and my son’s creativity and curiosity both remind me that strength takes many forms. When their music fills the house, they ground me. They challenge me (“Why don’t you call out sick, Mom?”). And they remind me why compassion and presence matter far beyond hospital walls.
There are hard days. Moments that stay with me longer than I would like. But there are also the moments that remind me exactly why I chose this path: a child who starts to breathe easier. A family that finds clarity in chaos. A quiet “thank you” after fear has passed.
“These are not small things. They are everything.”
I love what I do not because it is easy, but because it matters. Every shift, every patient, every decision is an opportunity to make a difference – sometimes visibly, sometimes not. And at the end of it all, when the chaos quiets, I know I have lived fully, loved fully and done work that will outlast me.
On this Doctors’ Day, I celebrate not just my own journey, but the countless colleagues who dedicate themselves to this same work – chaotic, challenging, sometimes exhausting, but endlessly meaningful. Happy Doctors’ Day to all of us who show up, care deeply and make a difference one patient, one moment and one thank-you at a time.
With Gratitude and Appreciation,
Julieanna
