At just 100 feet above ground in Afghanistan, making a split-second decision in an Apache helicopter leaves zero room for error. Inside a correctional healthcare facility, the stakes are remarkably similar: high pressure, complex systems, separation from family, and lives at risk.
For Daniel McConnell, M.D., and so many Americans, Memorial Day is the day we think of the people who didn't make it home. Veterans Day is the day we think of those who did. Each May and November, Americans celebrate these holidays with pride while acknowledging the sacrifice it takes for our servicemen and women to fight for our country and those waiting for their soldiers to arrive back home.
Dr. McConnell says, “I want to go to bed every night knowing that I did the right thing. I did what was right by the patient."
Sacrifice is a natural part of service, but as another Veteran’s Day approaches, we couldn't help but notice the strong ties between Daniel McConnell’s military service and his successful career in correctional healthcare with NaphCare. The habits built in uniform are the same habits that bolster excellence in caring for the incarcerated.
A Career Built One Rank at a Time
McConnell served just under 12 years in the United States Army, splitting his time between active duty and the National Guard, and he retired as a Captain. Today, he is a board-certified emergency medicine physician who works in correctional healthcare with NaphCare. His career has experienced various changes over time, but it’s the skills he picked up in the Army that have carried him through each one.
McConnell enlisted just after turning 18, as an infantry private. He had barely graduated high school and felt like the military was the only option available for him. McConnell stayed diligent as a soldier and worked hard to rise through the ranks despite some medical complications; first to private second class, then private first class, and finally sergeant. Soon after he was promoted to sergeant, he left the military with hopes of pursuing an academic degree.
A New Driving Force
At a young age, McConnell’s interests once focused on becoming an auto mechanic. He enjoyed working with his hands, diagnosing a problem, and watching life and purpose return. But the path wasn’t that simple. With a few years of military service under his belt and a deeper longing tugging at his heart, he started making plans for his life as a civilian.
One day, it occurred to him, “Working on people is somewhat similar to working on cars. You're a diagnostician. You're learning and practicing the same kind of stuff, just at a much more cerebral level.”
McConnell took steps to reclassify as a combat medic and attended Officer Candidate School in preparation to join the Army's Medical Service Corps (MSC).
September 11, 2001...plans changed.
September 11th reignited his passion for combat arms, and his focus shifted away from medicine once more and into aviation.
McConnell would spend the following months training at Fort Rucker in Alabama, flying Apache helicopters, and finishing his biology degree. He was accepted to medical school just one month shy of deploying to Afghanistan. With his medical school acceptance deferred and an unexpected injury, it seemed like his dreams were fading, but a year later, he attended day one of his official medical training.
McConnell went on to complete an internship in internal medicine and a three-year emergency medicine residency at Tampa General Hospital, a Level One trauma center, seeing high-acuity patients and the sickest of the sick. It was his experience in the emergency room that ultimately led to his current role as corporate medical director for the state of Florida with NaphCare.
Integrity When No One’s Watching
Asked what from the military comes back to him day after day, McConnell does not hesitate. "Doing the right thing when nobody's watching."
It is a principle the Army taught him, and he has carried it with him through college, medical school, and now correctional medicine at NaphCare. It’s a belief he shares with NaphCare, where doing the right thing has always been one of the company’s five core values. Many NaphCare patients have similarities to those who arrive in the waiting room of a level one trauma center emergency room. Many NaphCare patients are also veterans who once wore the same uniform as he did.
McConnell says, “I want to go to bed every night knowing that I did the right thing. I did what was right by the patient."
That standard shapes how he asks his teams to treat people in custody.
Leading With Intentionality
McConnell remembers a sergeant who once motivated him as a struggling private.
“Invest the time up front.” He recalls. “Take that extra five minutes to talk to the person, get them to do that right thing when you're not around."
He jokes that his goal is to have as little to do as possible, but he understands the long-term impact leadership has. The more directors he trains to make good decisions on their own, the better care is ultimately delivered to our patients.
The extra five minutes that that sergeant took with McConnell have shaped the physician and medical director McConnell is today, and continue to shape the future leaders of NaphCare through his leadership.
Calmness in Calamity
McConnell's career has repeatedly put him in high-pressure settings. The key is those settings have also come with high-level leadership that has modeled excellence for him to follow. In the Army, McConnell flew Apache helicopters and deployed to Afghanistan. In Tampa, he trained at a level one trauma center alongside special operations combat medics during their rotations.
In a role where the job is to keep care consistent and teams steady in austere environments, veteran and physician, Daniel McConnell has proven to be the man for the mission. Much like flying a helicopter in tumultuous territory, being a successful correctional healthcare provider calls for calm authority and direct decision-making.
Landing the Plane
McConnell’s career tells the story of a young private with diminishing hope but a strong example before him of excellence in character and intentional development and poise from leadership. His days as a soldier prepared him to be the diagnostician he once dreamed of, and his ER training prepared him for the range and urgency of what walks through a jail’s doors. The cockpit truly prepared McConnell for the correctional clinic.
