Publication Date
10-1-2023
Abstract
Dr. Blair Reece spends most of her time in the classroom and clinical setting teaching medical students how to diagnose and treat patients.
However, her favorite thing to teach her students is how to talk to patients.
“I love teaching students how to have difficult conversations,” said Reece, an assistant professor at East Tennessee State University’s Quillen College of Medicine. “I think that’s a really important part of our job, especially as internal medicine physicians. I have to have difficult conversations all the time, and you don’t just wake up knowing how to have those conversations.”
Reece helps her students build the courage and obtain the skills needed to navigate difficult discussions and she also encourages them to remember that patients are people first – not a diagnosis.
A 2012 alumna of Quillen, Reece has seen many changes in the medical school curriculum and technology at Quillen, but the commitment to serving rural and underserved patients at the core of the college’s mission has remained.
“Quillen focuses on getting students out into the community, meeting patients from day one, and that has a huge impact,” Reece said.
In this episode of “Why I Teach,” Reece discusses Quillen’s new curriculum, its emphasis on interprofessional education, and her journey to become an internal medicine physician.
Document Type
News Article
