A UNMC memory from Dr. Greiner

At the annual faculty meeting on Wednesday, UNMC will recognize 15 faculty members who have worked at the university for 40 or 30 years.

Among those who will be honored is Carl Greiner, M.D., professor of psychiatry, who has been at the university for 30 years.

Below Dr. Greiner shares a memory from his time at UNMC.


In my career here, the thing I’ve most enjoyed is bedside teaching.

Text books are great but it’s not the same as when a student talks to a suicidal patient and sees the profound sadness that some people have.

picture disc.
Carl Greiner, M.D.

Bedside teaching shows students the reality of mental illness. When a student sits across from a patient who has true delusions that the mob is after him, it provides a powerful example of why psychiatry is relevant to the usual practice of clinical medicine.

I’ve also enjoyed being part of specified projects such as an ethics in transplantation group that led to an international conference at UNMC in 1990 and in helping to lead the College of Medicine’s Enhanced Medical Education Track on humanities with Dr. Virginia Aita of the College of Public Health.

The development of the humanities track at this medical school was something that was really needed.

The breadth of knowledge acquired from experience in the humanities helps us understand the variety of the human experience in a very deep way and that understanding is very important for physicians.


Read UNMC Today on Wednesday to hear from another faculty member who will be recognized at the annual faculty meeting for 40 or 30 years of service.