A Dose of Leadership training

A Dose of Leadership Training
by: Pamela Federline, MPH

Table of Contents

New Ventures in Health

Director's Corner

Looking Toward The Future

Adventures Excellence

Rural Health Scholars

Staff Notes

About the ECU Generalist

ECU Generalist Archive

Main Menu

"After

spending

time with

these future

primary care

physician

leaders from

across the

country,

I feel

patients

and

communities

will be in

good hands,"

states

Dr. Dona

Harris,

Director of

Academic

Development

at ECU.

1997 GPIT Leadership Institute
Participants.

East Carolina University in collaboration with the American Medicial Students Association (AMSA) hosted the Generalist Physicians in Training Leadership Institute during summer 1997. Seventeen students from around the country participated in a week of training and exposure to issues important to primary care and the development of generalist physician leaders.

The program was jointly developed by the Generalist Physician Program and AMSA. The GPIT Leadership Institute was originally created by a team of medical students in 1994, with the first course taught at Rush College of Medicine in 1995.

Students attended sessions which included service learning, facilitation and presentation skills and cultural diversity. They also had an oportunity to spend an entire day in Williamston, North Carolina with the University Family Medicine Center of Martin County.

Dr. Domingo Cue, Rural Site Coordinatior for the Rural Residency Program, showed students cutting edge medical diagnostic and treatment technology available through telemedicine, as well as a real-time computerized medical records system. Students found the presentation on "War Stories/Love Stories" from rural practice by Dr. J. Seaborn Blair "touching." Dr. Blair is a semi-retired family practitioner from Wallace,

North Carolina. One student noted, "My stereotype of rural family medicine was drastically changed. There are role models out there for us. We don't have to choose between holding onto the values we hold, and practicing medicine."

The intent of the program is to provide leadership development for a cross section of students so that they may share this information with peers at their respective schools. An added benefit for ECU is that 11 of the 17 students have requested residency information on generalist residency
programs at ECU.

The program was an overwhelmingly sucessful cooperative effort according to the students, faculty and staff who participated. Dr. Ann Jobe, Senior Associate Dean and a presenter during the program, said It's exciting and revitalizing to spend time with future generalist physician leaders. Their energy, idealism and willingness to learn from faculty and each other has refueled my commitment to generalism and leadership in medical education.

However, it is the student perspective which gives the best summary of what they took away with them after a long week of meetings. Chad Coleman, a fourth year medical student from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston said, "As a student in a school which has not traditionally stressed primary care, I found this week not only an incredible learning experience, but a rejuvenation and a reminder of why I came to medical school in the first place. Primary Care is no longer simply acceptable but is an honorable and noble profession."

For further information on the Generalist Physician in Training Leadership Institute, please contact the Office of Generalist Programs (919) 816-2291.