Teaching

As part of our training curriculum, pediatric residents at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital choose a special interest group (SIG) in which to participate. These groups allow us the opportunity to pursue other interests that may fall outside the everyday responsibilities of residency. Last month our global health SIG held a health fair for the Neighborhood House Early Head Start program. Neighborhood House, a nonprofit social service organization, provides supportive services to more than 18,000 low-income … Read More

Every day as I entered the doors to my medical school’s primary lecture hall, I passed a plaque on the wall displaying a quote attributed to William Butler Yeats. Apparently, there is some contention about whether the famous Irish literary figure actually coined the following phrase, but it remains a powerful statement for both learners and teachers. Printed on that plaque were the words, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting … Read More

No matter what we do in life, having our students follow in our footsteps is a sweet reward. One of the important missions carried out at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital is the education of the next generation of innovative, high-quality and safe medical and surgical practitioners. Indeed, the university has some of the leading training programs in the country in many fields. At a recent medical meeting, I spoke with the chairman of neurosurgery at … Read More

As a resident who works 80 hours a week at times, who would think: “What else can I do at the hospital?” As crazy as it sounds, I said that as I planned to specialize in pediatric emergency medicine and enter fellowship training. As a first-year resident, I thought about many specialties ranging from pediatric cardiology to neonatology. However, after a month in the OHSU Doernbecher Emergency Department, I fell in love with the procedures, … Read More

I am very proud of each and every resident trained in the neurosurgery residency program at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. Recently, we got some news that one of them will join us in the small but important specialty of pediatric neurosurgery, caring for children with surgical disorders of the brain and spinal cord. Dr. Eric Thompson joined the OHSU neurosurgery training program in 2005. Raised and educated in Nebraska, Eric was … Read More

One of the true challenges of neurosurgical care is that small details can have a big effect. In short, the central nervous system is one of the organ systems in the body least tolerant to irritation, injury, infection and other ill effects. While I was training in general and then pediatric neurosurgery, I was troubled that despite careful attention, very delicate and important drains in the fluid spaces of the brain sometimes fell out. This often … Read More

A confused 2-year-old sat on the carpeted floor, surrounded by three enthusiastic women with a bounty of toys. His mother was anxiously awaiting our assessment a few feet away at a child-size table. This is not how I envisioned my pediatric training to be, but this day was an unexpected gift. On that sunny Portland afternoon, I was at Early Intervention, a school-based statewide organization that provides free services to children ages birth to 3 … Read More

Caring for children is both a critical mission and a gift. Those of us privileged to work at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital are stewards of systems of care that are vital to the health of our children and the sustainability of our communities. Part of that vitality and sustainability are the training of the next generation of practitioners. Doernbecher partners with OHSU’s medical and nursing schools to train the doctors and nurses who will care … Read More

As a parent, I’ve always loved September. Meeting the new teacher. Dropping off one of my kids at a new school. The simple joy of new school supplies. In medicine, our “school year” is from July 1 through June 30. Each and every day there are patients who need care, and our students learn medicine by helping provide that care. There are no medical school “back-to-school” sales. But as a teacher, September never fails to … Read More

If this were Jeopardy, the question to that answer would be: “What is a person who has received a medical degree and who practices medicine under the supervision of fully licensed physicians, usually in a hospital or clinic.” Put in simple terms, a resident is a doctor in between medical school and his/her career as a pediatrician. Think of it as an apprenticeship of sorts, a specific area of medicine in which the doctor has chosen to … Read More