Member of the Week: Dr. Victoria Prince

Practice: After residency I moved to New Zealand and worked as a rural primary care physician. I loved practicing in a rural community in a country with universal healthcare, and New Zealand is a wonderful country. In 2019 I came back to America to take a job in Urgent Care for the University of Utah as they opened the new Sugarhouse clinic. It’s been fun to work in the system where I trained, and especially to be in a building where I know many of the primary care docs quite well. I’m also lucky to have the number of my own personal sports medicine consultant who is available 7 days a week- thanks Jordan!

Residency: University of Utah Family Medicine Residency

A bit about Dr. Prince: I grew up in New Jersey. Many people scoff at the nickname “The Garden State”, but I grew up in the north west part of the state where we have rolling farm fields and woods. I spent much of my childhood on the back of a horse or playing in the creek and woods around our house and it wasn’t until I went to college and medical school that I got to know the more urban parts of the state. I studied biochemisty at Rutgers University in New Brunswick New Jersey before heading to New Jersey Medical School in Newark for the MD/PhD program. My PhD was in the pharmacology and physiology department and I studied the effects of chronic alcohol consumption on signal transduction in the liver. Initially I thought I would pursue oncology as a medical specialty, as it seemed like the field where I could best practice bench top to bedside, but while I worked on my PhD I became passionate about preventive health and full spectrum medicine and I realized that family medicine was the only field that would let me see people through all of life- from prenatal (and preconception!) care to end of life care. During medical training I had to give up my favorite hobby of horseback riding (specifically polocrosse- think lacrosse on horseback). While in Utah I re-discovered a love of downhill skiing, continued to enjoy hiking and cross country skiing, and took up mountain biking. I’ve been doing these things a bit less than usual recently, having had a baby in 2021!

What do you wish you’d known when you graduated from medical school? Life isn’t going to go how you expect, but it will be beautiful.

What keeps you passionate about family medicine? I love the variety of patients and conditions I get to see as a family doctor, and that I can indefinitely continue to expand my knowledge and skill set. I also enjoy teaching when I get the change, and those not-so-rare interactions with patients that make you feel like you’ve really made a difference for another person.

Where will we find you on your day off? These days I spend most of my down time at home or out walking with my 1 year old.

What are you…
reading right now: A House of Trees by Joan Colebrook

watching right now: Taking a netflix hiatus, but recently binged “Call the Midwives”. There are so many seasons!

listening to right now: Written in My Own Hearts Blood (The 8th Outlander book as an Audiobook)