Valentine’s Dr. Steve Senseney receives Koefoot Award

Steven Senseney, M.D.

Do and learn — a truer method of instruction may never have been instituted.

It’s a method that is commonly encountered by UNMC medical students as they do rotations in rural parts of the state.

Third-year medical student Adam Wells experienced it when he served a rotation with Steve Senseney, M.D., in Valentine, Neb. Wells learned a lot, too.

“He had the amazing ability to push me to the limits of my comfort zone until my comfort zone expanded, then he would do it again,” Wells said of Dr. Senseney. “This allowed me to become not only more comfortable in the clinic, hospital and ER setting, but it also allowed me to become much more confident.”

This baptism by fire left Wells confident when performing colonoscopies, suturing, excisions, joint injections and other tasks.

“He encouraged me to partake in everything,” Wells said.

Dr. Senseney has provided such experiences for students for more than 30 years. Such work led to his selection as the 2009 Marion D. and Theodore H. Koefoot, Jr. M.D., Outstanding Preceptor in Rural Family Medicine Award recipient.

The Koefoot award recognizes outstanding teaching and mentoring by a UNMC family medicine volunteer community preceptor.

“He had the amazing ability to push me to the limits of my comfort zone until my comfort zone expanded, then he would do it again.” Adam Wells on Dr. Senseney

Dr. Senseney has worked with medical students since 1978, when he arrived at the Cherry County Physicians Clinic in Valentine. The students, he said, present him with intellectual challenges and he particularly enjoys their thirst for knowledge.

His hands-on philosophy helps students see past their limitations, Dr. Senseney said.

“They underestimate their skills and their knowledge,” he said. “We try to advance them and let them see they can do more.”

While self reliance was stressed, Wells said Dr. Senseney was always on hand to answer questions and quell concerns.

“Working with Dr. Senseney … was always about education,” Wells said. “He would take extra time just so I could learn and feel comfortable with what I was doing, even though he could have just as easily done it himself and gotten out of clinic/hospital/ER an hour earlier.

“This did not just occur at three in the afternoon, but also at three in the morning after a long day. I always felt he was working hard to ensure that I got the most out of my experience in Valentine.”