Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
Learn something nonmedical related about every one of your patients. It’s some of the best advice I ever got from a physician while in school.
What began 20 years ago as one-month rotations in Phoenix for Creighton medical students has blossomed into a health sciences campus, a centralized medical quarter and a robust four-year medical program, which celebrated its first graduates in May 2025. In recognition of this milestone, we profile the experiences of four of these graduates.
By Glenn Antonucci
When Nadia Khan, MD’25 was completing her undergraduate years at the University of Arizona — and before collecting dual degrees in biology and political science — it was her sister who first tipped her off that Creighton University School of Medicine was coming to Phoenix.
Considering not only location but Creighton’s reputation, it quickly became an obvious choice for the Phoenix-area native, especially after meeting with “the nicest” interviewers from the admissions team.
Another deciding factor was Creighton’s connection with St. Vincent de Paul. She’d volunteered there since age 13; it’s where her passion for service to others began.
It was important for me to be (in Phoenix) and also be able to have that community service impact.
— Nadia Khan, MD’25
Diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at 12, she had an interaction with a medical student back then that left a lasting impression: The student pricked her finger to check her blood sugar and did so with extra kindness. In one of Khan’s most memorable experiences as a student herself, she had a chance to return the favor for a clinic patient.
“I said, ‘It’s going to be OK. We’ll figure this out together.’ It felt so good to pass that on.”
Khan also organized an event in which both classmates and physicians could share their grief experiences as healthcare providers. The point, she says, was to “make grief a communal experience.”
She picked up a tip along the way: “Learn something nonmedical related about every one of your patients. It’s some of the best advice I ever got from a physician while in school.”
Khan also had the opportunity, as hoped, to expand her service commitment at St. Vincent de Paul. Early in her Creighton days, she created an activities program in which she and fellow students organized activities for the children served there — building all kinds of inventive crafts, from pumpkin volcanoes to marshmallow catapults.
“Service is important. These people you serve become family,” she says.
Post-graduation, she’s embarked on an internal medicine residency at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. She looks back at her Creighton experience a bit wistfully and still stays in touch with the physicians and fellow students.
“The people at Creighton are so kind. I miss my years there,” she says. “Those people became like family to me. Cura personalis — it’s more than talk. It’s backed up every day.
“My mom says, ‘Creighton was the best thing that happened to you, and you didn’t even see it coming.’ God works in mysterious ways.”
