Cory Rohlfsen, MD, will be the recipient of the Innovative Practices in Education Award at the Impact in Education Awards March 6. The award recognizes ingenuity, creativity and innovation in teaching, including educational technology, experiential learning, simulation or other creative approaches.
- Name: Cory Rohlfsen, MD
- Title: Assistant professor of internal medicine, UNMC College of Medicine.
- Joined UNMC: 2018
- Hometown: Omaha
You are the recipient of the Innovative Practices in Education Award. How has innovation played a part in your teaching career?
I’m a much better educator when I’m having fun. The process of discovery always has brought me great joy. While it is personally rewarding to be creative, it also has allowed me to build visionary teams around focused and meaningful pursuits, such as e-learning modules, clinician educator community in GME, and AI apps. Solving a curricular problem or gap is the cherry on top. But it’s really the edges that excite me: gamification, teaching simulations or AI feedback. Innovation is not possible without pushing at least some boundaries. It just so happens the invigoration I feel when doing this makes heavy work feel light. Showing up is easy when you’re having fun.
Describe your proudest moment as an educator.
When I get to see internal medicine residents flex their full scope (so-called consummate internist skills), I am satisfied beyond belief. This happened a couple of months ago when I had the pleasure of attending hospital wards with a resident whom I’ve mentored in longitudinal, primary care clinic for three years. He saved someone’s life from hemorrhagic shock by quickly activating the mass transfusion protocol and subsequently guided resuscitation for 25 minutes before handing off to the critical care team. Watching him master the breadth of medicine, ranging from motivational interviewing skills in clinic to all-hands-on-deck emergencies in the hospital, has been a total joy.
What advice would you give other faculty members who want to make an impact on health sciences and professions education?
Invest in relationships. Health professions education is a team sport that demands ongoing, trusting relationships to be successful.
Do you have a favorite quote or philosophy on teaching?
Clinical teaching is a discipline of rigor and reflective practice, so I like this quote:
“Anybody who believes that all you have to do to be a good teacher is to love to teach also has to believe that all you have to do to become a good surgeon is to love to cut.”
–Adam Ubanski, PhD 1946