Recognizing the wonderful clinician educators

When asked to describe my career, I consider myself primarily a clinician educator.  Recently I have reflected on the influences that allowed me to have a successful career doing what I love.  This post is not meant to mention all those influencers, but just some that I recall often.  As I have thought about this post, I quickly realized that all the “heroes” that I recall focused on clinical education.  Students and residents show great respect and love for the great clinician educators, while too often these same clinician educators get less respect from medical school administration. When I started my 3rd year Internal Medicine rotation, I had no idea that I would become an internist.  That first rotation I had a resident who taught us to think.  He would present us patient cases to diagnose.  I fell in love with Internal Medicine that month. Dr. Orhan Muren was a pulmonologist from Turkey.  He taught me enthusiasm as key feature of teaching.  He taught us acid base (which to this day is a major teaching hobby).  As an intern in the ICU, he took me to the bedside and taught me the pulmonary physical examination. Dr. Alvin Zfass is a gastroenterologist.  I always remember the day on rounds we had a slow team, so we spent an hour discussing pathophysiology.  That session taught me the value of explaining how basic science can help us understand disease, diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Kelley Skeff is world renowned for his work on teaching the teachers. ...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs