Heather Lynch
The University of Ottawa’s Excellence in Education Prizes recognizes educators of exceptional quality, who provide outstanding teaching while maintaining a solid research program. Profiles of each of the nine prize winners in 2007 will appear in the Gazette over the coming months.
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This fall the University of Ottawa will honour Faculty of Medicine professor Dr. Janet Nuth with an Award for Excellence in Education.
An assistant professor in emergency medicine with the University since 1989, Dr. Nuth is renowned for her in-depth mastery of her clinical domain and for her dedication to teaching excellence. She is committed to enhancing patient care through the advancement of medical education.
Nuth’s teaching philosophy is partly based on her medical school experience where, she recalls, “quizzes were often in front of a group of peers and senior physicians and if a student didn’t have the correct answer, they were shamed in front of everyone.” She encourages teachers and students to work together to support learning. “Teachers must show their students that they are genuinely interested in addressing their learning needs.”
Balancing the needs of students can present challenges for a professor who teaches more than 200 medical students and residents each year, both in the classroom and at the bedside. “My classroom is often the emergency department which is an extremely busy and chaotic teaching environment. It is sometimes difficult to balance the demands of patient care and the learning needs of our students and residents,” says Nuth.
She manages the demands of teaching with a quality she believes is the most important for an effective teacher: enthusiasm. “I love emergency medicine and love sharing the wealth of learning opportunities with my students. Seeing their excitement always reminds me that emergency medicine really is cool!”
In addition to her role as a teacher, Nuth has been instrumental in developing a number of courses and programs. She has co-developed a national course for emergency physicians teaching in the high-pressured emergency department, as well as a four-week emergency medicine rotation for third-year medical students.
A passionate educator at all levels, she also helped to develop the P.A.R.T.Y. (Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth) program. This injury prevention program, held weekly in local area high schools, is an opportunity for doctors to share their experiences and to offer students a reality check. “We try to get students to think about the choices they make so that they don’t end up in our emergency department,” says Nuth.
Dr. Nuth believes that “by investing in clinical medical education, we ensure that we develop the finest physicians for the future.” As a physician with numerous teaching awards and the most nominations by medical students for the annual Emergency Medicine Teacher of the Year Award since its establishment in 2003, she is an exemplary role model for her students.
