Teaching and Learning Beyond the Classroom Walls No two professors are alike. They teach differently, pursue different paths, and bring to their students different experiences. What follows is a small sample of the rich range of activity and interests that they bring to their students and to the school.
Using the Professional Melting Pot on New Scotland: Schools of Law, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy B Y P R O F E S S O R E V E LY N M . T E N E N B A U M
A lawyer, a doctor, a pharmacist, and a nurse walk into a classroom. The lawyer discusses a potential case in which a patient is denied a respirator during a flu epidemic; the doctor outlines how the hospital would mobilize if there were limited resources; the pharmacist lays out the difficulties in creating sufficient vaccines during a pandemic; and the nurse explains the dilemmas faced by medical staff concerned about transmitting influenza from the hospital to family at home. The students in each respective field gather around a prepared meal to debate the ethical, practical, and professional problems in dealing with the issues. Perhaps the lawyer can try on the proverbial stethoscope and the doctor can pick up a briefcase, and both can come away with new perspectives and strategies for dealing with problems faced in their own field. Food, laughter, and heated discussion ensue. Nestled together along picturesque New Scotland Avenue are Albany Law School, Albany Medical School, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Sage Graduate School of Nursing: almost an embarrassment of riches for a health law professor. The obvious question was how to take advantage of the educational opportunities this close proximity offered. This problem was answered with the introduction of an inter-professional seminar. The seminar gathers students and professors from each of these schools into a boardroom at the pharmacy school during the fall semester to discuss materials that the students are assigned to read over the summer. If the idea of a summer reading list makes you groan, don’t worry: the books that the students are asked to read are typically non-fiction, prize-winning best sellers. The assigned reading is used to focus discussion on a particular topic, give the students background on the topic being discussed, and help provide issues and concerns for each professional group to share with the others. Last year, the topic was flu pandemics. This year, the group discussed cancer research. The nurses described various methods for helping patients cope with cancer treatment; the pharmacists
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MAGAZINE Spring 2013
presented some of the reasons for current cancer drug shortages and brainstormed solutions with the rest of the group; the lawyers explained the legal quandaries related to the financial aspects of human cancer experimentation; and the doctors answered questions related to the medical information contained in the reading. The pharmacists, nurses, and doctors frequently collaborate on medical issues, but they rarely hear the lawyers’ point of view. There has historically been a distrust of lawyers by the medical profession. One of the goals of the seminar was to give the medical professionals a better idea of the many roles lawyers play in health care. Through their discussions, the law students also demonstrated their training in logically approaching multi-faceted issues and in seeing more than one side of a problem. Several students commented that they gained a new and favorable appreciation of lawyers through this seminar. As a professor at Albany Law School and Albany Medical College, I have also been able to help law students gain an inter-professional perspective by recommendThe pharmacists, nurses, and ing them for part-time jobs doctors frequently collaborate on at the medical medical issues, but they rarely school. Two law students hear the lawyers’ point of view. collected data for a research study at the medical school involving the interactions of family members and medical personnel when loved ones are in intensive care. Another student worked with a physician on a pharmacy textbook, a fourth helped with research on organ transplantation, and a fifth student helped create a course for disciplined doctors. The law school has a joint program with Albany Medical College that allows students to earn a Masters in Bioethics and a law degree in three years. That program will ensure that interested law students continue to have opportunities at the medical school. We hope to find ways to expand the course and the interprofessional experience so that we can give every student at Albany Law School who is interested an opportunity to participate.