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Show page 22 , Spring 2005 The Academic Physicians' Balancing Act BY KIRSTEN MONTAGUE PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN HOLT Every year, Americans surveyed by The Harris Poll© report what they feel are the most prestigious professions a person can pursue. For the last 27 years, little has changed in the minds of the American public: scientists are believed to be the most prestigious, doctors rank second, and teachers are fourth behind military officials. This consistent belief among Americans is nothing short of an enormous compliment to many university faculty members in the Health Sciences Center. Out of the top four most respected professional titles among Americans, an academic physician at the University of Utah could hold three of them at once. The term, "academic physician," is commonly used to describe doctors at the University Hospital who divide their time between seeing patients, working in labs with specimens, researching, and teaching medical students. In addition, many hold administrative positions within the Health Sciences Center. Clinicians can sometimes be outstanding teachers, because their curriculum is derived from real life, perhaps cases they are working on just minutes before they get to the classroom. Students get to see medical proceedings and complex, intense cases as they happen. Their courses aren't just textbooks; they're the real-world experiences happening down the hall. The instructors are able to prioritize and determine the things that would be the best to teach at that time. Researchers also are the most up-to-date on basic sciences and recent scientific findings. For specialists wearing so many hats, there may be arising obstacles that could stand in the way of efficient classroom management. Faculty members in the Health Sciences Center often find that their time is stretched between clinical responsibilities and the classroom. The two areas of their work is equally demanding, and an academic physician may find that she/he is doing the jobs of two professionals. When so much is being asked of faculty members, it is imperative that they establish priorities - especially if they want to prioritize teaching. However, research and patient care are more visible, noticeable, and can produce more tangible evidence of benefit. There are more opportunities for individual faculty members to appear productive - something many of them rely on to receive awards of tenure, promotions, or even to find jobs. Each faculty member's teaching is more difficult to monitor than research and patient care. Student evaluations may not always be fair or unbiased, and they can be difficult to find, making teaching difficult to assess. Because of the difficulty in providing direct evidence of productivity, teachers may fear that they will be under-appreciated in promotion and not as highly regarded by their peers. The more thankless responsibilities of their careers may be placed on the back burner. In addition to the challenges of extreme multi-tasking, another issue faced by administrative and educational officials in the Health Sciences Center is the application of pedagogy as the academic leg of the School of Medicine. Neal Whitman, professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, former Director of Faculty Development for the School of Medicine said, "The word 'doctor' is derived from the Latin docere, meaning 'to teach.' Physicians have always been and still are teachers of their patients and some of that educational process transfers to teaching medical students and residents." Granted, this is not limited to medical school teachers. Many professors of all departments on campus are experts in their fields, with related terminal degrees |