“I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else,” Pembroke Pines Charter alumna and doctor Breanna Jomsky says. In her first year of Psychiatric (PGY-1) residency, she already sees various patients each day, treating them with care and medicine. No matter how hectic a day tends to be, Jomsky lives to work and is content with the career she has pursued.
Just three months into her routine, Jomsky wakes up every day with the weight of real responsibility. She gets ready to go to the hospital and arrives sharply to review charts and meet with patients. She then discusses with her colleagues in treatment team meetings before spending the rest of her day writing notes, following up on cases, and handling whatever emergencies arise. Some days she leaves around noon, other days closer to 2 p.m., but as she explains, “We can be [on call] until 5 p.m. if we need to do anything for any of the patients.”
Her love for psychiatric work dates back to 2014. During Jomsky’s sophomore year in high school, she took an AP psychology course with Mr. Lavoro, the school’s prior AP psychology educator. She learnt about regions of the brain and health disorders. It was the exploration of that science that ignited her passion for psychology.
The alumna knew she was the right person for this line of work. Being a psychiatrist requires a delicate trait: empathy. She proceeded to take her talents and empathy to Florida Atlantic University’s honors college in Jupiter, Florida, after graduating high school in 2016.
She spent 4 years as an undergraduate, majoring in neuroscience and psychology, and then proceeded to go to medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM). After medical school, Jomsky earned herself the privilege of calling herself a doctor, attaching the title to the end of her name. She expresses how being called “Dr. Jomsky” influences the way she is in and out of the hospital.
During medical school, Jomsky rotated between specialties. One day she was focused on psychology, the next day on surgery. That rhythm taught her how to adjust quickly and gave her an early sense of what life as a physician would require. Her years at LECOM built the flexibility that would later serve her well. By the time she advanced to residency, the transition felt more natural than she expected.
The experience of moving between specialties in medical school helped her settle into the unpredictable nature of residency. “LECOM really prepared me,” Jomsky explains. “I knew what it felt like to be thrown into something new, and that gave me confidence once I was responsible for patients every day.”
Another challenge came with the weight of responsibility that residency carries. Introducing herself as “Dr. Jomsky” was a shift, one that still feels crazy. The role requires confidence, yet it was easy to feel overwhelmed under the pressure of patients looking to her for answers. “There’s a moment where you realize patients truly depend on you, and that responsibility can feel bigger than yourself,” she says.
Jomsky is extraordinary in the medical field, but that’s not the only field she has excelled in. As far as she can remember, she has always had a knack for art. Both of her parents are artists, but her father had gone back to school to pursue medicine. Watching his path gave her a model of how creativity and science could coexist, but also a warning about relying on art alone. Her parents encouraged her to build a career in something stable before turning back to her creative passions. Jomsky says, “My dad is also a doctor, so that kind of influenced me to [take] the doctor route”
It was clear that if art was no longer a hobby, she would find herself miserable. To keep that creativity alive, she runs an Etsy shop selling trinkets and jewelry like earrings.
As the days go on and Jomsky continues residency, she dwells on what she imagines herself to be like in 10 years. She hopes that she’s a psychiatrist at a hospital, still living in Florida, and perhaps married to her boyfriend and with kids.
In the present, Jomsky is content with her career, envisioning herself where she is now, achieving her dream of being a psychiatrist.
