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Baylor College
of Medicine
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Room 176B
Houston, TX 77030
Telephone:
  (713) 798-4712
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  (713) 798-3692
email: pa@bcm.tmc.edu

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A Matter of Health

A new generation

by Ruth SoRelle, MPH

A medical school is involved in many activities. Researchers busy themselves in a laboratory with a host of arcane equipment that delves into the very molecules of life.

Physicians, often the best in their fields, see patients with the most serious injuries, toughest diseases and difficult problems to diagnose. Their lives are busy insuring that others continue to exist.

A medical school is a community leader and as well as a source of care for those most in need.

Most of all, however, a medical school is about education. For example, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston educates young would-be physicians, physicians-in-training called residents, would-be scientists and those with their PhDs called post-doctoral fellows. Allied health personnel, including physician assistants, nurse midwives and certified nurse anesthetists are all part of the student body.

One of the most critical parts of education is mentorship. Year after year, good students enter laboratories only to leave as potentially great scientists. Their mentors are a big part of that. In a way, the students they train become part of their families. A scientist has a biological family and a laboratory family, and each becomes part of a lineage that goes through generations. Great scientists train other great scientists.

The same is true of physicians. A great physician with excellent clinical skills can pass those on to the next generation. A physician who truly cares for his or her patients, whose humanity stands out, can create a whole generation of students who follow in those footsteps.

Education occurs in the classroom. It happens in a patient’s room or in a laboratory. A moment of true understanding can be sparked by questions at the end of a seminar or by a particularly pointed slide.

The halls of a medical school are filled with cool green or blue scrubs and white coats. They mean different things and they reflect different degrees or standing. In the middle of the hubbub, however, one thing is held in common -- the transfer of knowledge from one generation to another.

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