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Provider Pulse Ep. 18: Brandon Gim, RN - Finding your Why
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What does it really mean to find your why in medicine?
In this episode, registered nurse Brandon Gim joins the EthnoMed Podcast Provider Pulse series to share his nonlinear journey—from growing up in a Korean immigrant family in South King County to finding meaning in community health and mentorship at Harborview.
Brandon reflects on the pressures of expectation, the role of self-doubt, and how authentic mentorship helped him rediscover purpose in care. Together, we explore what it takes to sustain compassion in a system that doesn’t always make space for it—and why discomfort and uncertainty can be signs that you’re growing in the right direction.
For pre-health students, trainees, and anyone considering a career in healthcare, this conversation offers a grounded reminder: purpose isn’t something you stumble upon once—it’s something you build through reflection, vulnerability, and connection.
The Provider Pulse series is part of the EthnoMed Podcast which highlights the human stories in medicine that shape how we learn, teach, and care.
Visit EthnoMed.org for additional resources. Follow us on YouTube and Instagram @EthnoMedUW
Chapters
1. Opening Quote: "What's your Why?" (00:00:00)
2. Introduction: Brandon Gim's story and themes of purpose, mentorship, and growth (00:00:34)
3. Current Role with the Harborview Cultural Mediator Program (00:01:45)
4. Growing Up Between Worlds: Brandon reflects on his upbringing in a Korean immigrant family in Federal Way, WA (00:03:00)
5. Education and Emotional Literacy: The tension between academic success and emotional skills (00:04:32)
6. Questioning the System: Reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States sparks early questions about justic, purpose, and the utility of traditional schooling (00:06:32)
7. Faith, Friendship, and Identity: Brandon discusses growing up in a Korean Seventh-Day Adventist church and how community shaped belonging (00:10:57)
8. Depression and Support: Brandon discusses mental health struggles in high school and the mentors who helped him endure (00:12:08)
9. Choosing Nursing: Brandon defines his values - teamwork, helping others, doing no harm - and finds in nursing a path aligned with his values (00:13:45)
10. First Encounters with Healthcare: From CNA work to volunteering, Brandon sees the rewards and constraints of hospital-based care (00:17:33)
11. Discovering Public Health and Mentorship: A transformative population-health intership introduces trauma-informed care, mentorship, and systems thinking (00:19:20)
12. Lessons from Mentorship: Brandon describes mentorship - check-ins, partnership, curiosity, and genuine care (00:22:34)
13. Reality of INpatient Nursing: He recounts the pressures of bedside care, moral fatigue, and how systemic limits affect holistic healing (00:26:04)
14. Seeking Alignment and Change: A self-initiated project on skin-tone equity in wound care leads Brandon toward process improvement and advocacy (00:29:00)
15. Transition to Harborview and the Community House Calls Program (00:30:52)
16. Nursing Degree as an Entry Point: An essential step in creating his own career path (00:33:07)
17. Advice to Pre-Health Students: Investigate your "why", seek mentors, and define success through values (00:34:32)
18. Discomfort as Growth: Reframing uncertainty and tension as necessary ingredients for learning and alignment (00:36:28)
19. Authentic Mentorship and Vulnerability: the importance of debriefing, feedback, and mutual humility in healthcare training (00:39:41)
20. The Mud and the Flower: Buddhist ideas of how discomfort and difficulty are the soil for personal and professional growth (00:44:36)
21. Paying it Forward: Brandon recalls precepting students, creating space for curiosity, and reimagining how mentorship could reshape healthcare culture (00:45:41)
22. Outro: Building Purpose Through Connection (00:47:02)
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