Lessons from J. Richard Pittman, MD

Educational Landscapes

J. Richard Pittman, MD is Sub-Internship Director for Internal Medicine and Stanford Clinical Training Program Facilitator in Emory University School of Medicine. In this episode Richard talks about his journey in academic medicine (and his passion for technology!), starting from a primarily clinical role to a "teaching doctor". He talks about the importance of interpersonal communication and listening skills, continually cultivating one's own knowledge, and empathizing with learners as keys skills for an educator and education leader. His words of wisdom include: "the most important thing about being a teacher is to really be an enthusiastic learner." "...when you do to start, you're probably not going to be a good educator if you think, 'I don't educate until I know it all.' But really seeing yourself as a co-journey or a co-traveler. And I know enough or I know a little bit more than them and I give it a go, and then I'm willing to learn from my own mistakes as a teacher." and "my mindset about succession planning is, and again, I got this advice from Dr. del Rio who's leading figure at Emory, but it's like that most jobs have a cycle time of somewhere between seven and 10 years. And that at the end of that period, it's probably a good idea for another person to be able to take it forward. And so, I really do kind of believe that while I pour my whole self into whatever role I'm doing, that often... It might be like writing a paper, if you've revised it a whole bunch, that you get to a point where you can't anymore and you need someone else to look at it, and I think that that'd be the way I think about a program. And so, I very proactively am always thinking about that, even though I'm really happy in the role that I have."

Resources

• ACP Internal Medicine Meeting
• Society of Hospital Medicine
• About - AAIM: Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM)
• Stanford Clinical Teaching Program