by Lois Bowers and George Stamatis

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."

Susan B. Shurin

Graduating medical student Joan Zoltanski cited this William Arthur Ward quote when she nominated Susan B. Shurin for a 2003 Kaiser-Permanente Award for excellence in the teaching of medical students. Shurin will receive the award at the medical school's diploma ceremony May 18.

"Dr. Shurin has inspired me, and I hope to one day emulate her by becoming a knowledgeable, responsible, empathetic clinician, an available mentor/teacher and a respectful, kind professional," wrote Zoltanski, the latest of several students to praise Shurin's efforts through the nomination process since her arrival on campus 26 years ago.

A professor of pediatrics and oncology at the medical school, Shurin lectures in the first-year molecular biology and development subject committee and teaches hematology to second-year students. She also is involved with the month-long in-patient training of third-year students on the pediatric hematology/oncology unit of Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital (RB&C), teaches an elective for fourth-year students and previously has advised master's degree and doctorate students.

Reflecting the value that the University administration places on quality teaching, in September Shurin was appointed to a new management position in the administration, vice president and secretary of the corporation. This position, which exists at other universities, was created at CWRU as part of President Edward M. Hundert's plan to more closely integrate the University's academic and administrative structures.

As vice president of the corporation, Shurin is a liaison between CWRU Board of Trustee leadership, individual trustees and the University president and advises the board and president on University governance and other issues.

She was chief of the division of pediatric hematology/oncology at RB&C for 16 years until accepting the new position.

Zoltanski, whose contact with Shurin came when she was a third-year student doing her clerkship at RB&C, said, "Through respectful, thoughtful exchange, [she] discovers what the student needs to learn and teach[es] by sharing her "real-life experiences."

Zoltanski praised Shurin for making students a priority.

Just as she considers students partners in the education process, Shurin treats pediatric patients and their families as partners in the clinical care process, Zoltanski said.

"I witnessed Dr. Shurin working with families whose children had a variety of life-altering/threatening diagnoses," she said. "I saw the intense trust that these patients place in her and how she respected that trust through hard work, honesty, study and compassion. For these families, her long-term, proven availability of intellect and spirit was essential to continuing on through the disheartening and confusing path of terminal illness.

"Her example has become a personal benchmark for me as I enter the practice of medicine," Added Zoltanski, who will serve her pediatrics residency at RB&C.

Shurin said, "It's fun integrating all of the aspects of patient care when teaching at the bedside. Sometimes, you're dealing with pharmacology, sometimes with physiology, with economics, with what it means to be a doctor."

CWRU medical students previously elected her to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society, and her abilities as an educator also were recognized by the clinical faculty at RB&C when she received a Golden Stethoscope Award a few years ago.

"I like helping not only students, but people at all levels," Shurin said.

She's taught residents and physicians through grand rounds, continuing medical education and other programs at RB&C, Fairview Hospital and MetroHealth Medical Center, as well as at national courses offered by the American Academy of Pediatrics and workshops through the Society for Pediatric Research and Ohio State University.

Her patient care efforts recently were recognized when her peers named her to the list of "Top Docs" compiled and published by Northern Ohio Live magazine.

Shurin has been teaching medicine since she was a student at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, but her experience teaching in general began at her small New York high school. During that time, Sputnik was launched, and many Americans felt that the country had fallen behind in the teaching of science. Shurin began watching college-level physics programs. Her teachers discovered that she knew more about some aspects of the subject than did they, so she started assisting with the instruction.

Shurin has been active in numerous professional organizations in the hematology/oncology field and has been a member of several committees at CWRU and RB&C. At the University, she previously chaired both the Faculty Council of the School of Medicine and, more recently, the University Faculty Senate. She also has served on several search committees for key personnel, including the one that ultimately recommended Hundert as president.

Her leadership experience and potential was recognized in 2000-2001 when she was selected to participate in the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program for women. The prestigious national program, for women who aspire to be deans or department chairs or to hold other senior leadership positions at academic medical centers, is a chance to learn new skills and meet similarly accomplished women.

Nominations for the Kaiser-Permanente Award were solicited from students, faculty and alumni of the medical school. A committee chaired by Murray D. Altose, associate dean for the Louis B. Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and consisting of 23 students representing all four classes, as well as Minoo Golestaneh, director of curricular administration in the medical school's Office of Medical Education, reviewed 34 nominations for clinical faculty members and 22 nominations for pre-clinical faculty members. The Kaiser-Permanente Award has been given at the medical school since 1975.

Zoltanski, who nominated Shurin, will herself receive the Albert L. Lewin Award for clinical excellence in pediatrics as well as a Harry Resnick Memorial Fund Award. She's one of six students receiving this award, which is given to students "deserving by virtue of unusual accomplishments."

Other award-winners

In all, seven medical school faculty members received special recognition at the medical school's 2003 diploma ceremony.In addition to Shurin, also receiving Kaiser-Permanente Awards for excellence in teaching are clinical faculty member Louis B. Rice, professor of medicine at the VA Medical Center, and pre-clinical faculty members George R. Dubyak, professor of physiology and biophysics at the medical school, and Thomas A. Murphy, associate professor of medicine at MetroHealth Medical Center.

Receiving Gender Equity Awards for exemplifying "the principal of gender equality in their teaching" and promoting "a gender-fair environment for education and training of women physicians" were pre-clinical faculty member Barbara Freeman, assistant professor of anatomy at the medical school, and clinical faculty member Michael McFarlane, associate professor of medicine at MetroHealth. Receiving the Health Care Foundation of New Jersey Humanism in Medicine Award, now the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award, for demonstrating "the highest standards of compassion and sensitivity in their interaction with patients" was faculty member Douglas Van Auken, assistant professor of family medicine at MetroHealth and a 1997 alumnus of the medical school.

Separate selection committees solicited nominations and determined the winners of each award.

 

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