Why I Teach: With Dr. Blair Reece
Dr. Blair Reece spends most of her time in the classroom and clinical setting teaching medical students how to diagnose and treat patients.
However, her favorite thing to teach her students is how to talk to patients.
“I love teaching students how to have difficult conversations,” said Reece, an assistant
professor at East Tennessee State University’s Quillen College of Medicine. “I think
that’s a really important part of our job, especially as internal medicine physicians.
I have to have difficult conversations all the time, and you don’t just wake up knowing
how to have those conversations.”
Reece helps her students build the courage and obtain the skills needed to navigate
difficult discussions and she also encourages them to remember that patients are people
first – not a diagnosis.
A 2012 alumna of Quillen, Reece has seen many changes in the medical school curriculum
and technology at Quillen, but the commitment to serving rural and underserved patients
at the core of the college’s mission has remained.
“Quillen focuses on getting students out into the community, meeting patients from
day one, and that has a huge impact,” Reece said.
In this episode of “Why I Teach,” Reece discusses Quillen’s new curriculum, its emphasis
on interprofessional education, and her journey to become an internal medicine physician.
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Dr. Blair Reece:
Students don't want to come to class and be spoon-fed information. Students want to learn that information on their own. They want to learn the physiology and the pathophysiology and the pharmacology on their own time. And then they want to come to class and they want us to challenge them and to help them integrate all of that information and learn how to really truly be a physician.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them: Our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "why I teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Blair Reece, Assistant Professor in the Quillen College of Medicine's Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Reece earned her medical degree from the Quillen College of Medicine in May 2012. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Prior to coming to ETSU Health, Dr. Reece was employed as a hospitalist with Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She also worked as an assistant professor of medicine with the University of Florida and as a teaching assistant with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Reece is board certified in internal medicine and specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic medical illnesses that affect adults. She also serves as clerkship director at Quillen and has been nominated by her students and selected for multiple Caduceus Awards, which recognize those at Quillen, who consistently go above and beyond in medical education. Enjoy the show. Dr. Reece, welcome to the show.
I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member, and looking back on that day what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself?
Dr. Blair Reece:
Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on the show. It really is an honor. And I think for me, that first day when you're in front of students and they're looking at you to have the answers, I think I felt like I was supposed to have the answers. And and that's really not the case in medicine. As a physician, I often don't have the answers. I look things up every single day. I call consults. I call my colleagues every single day. And and whether I'm in front of students in a classroom or in an exam room with a patient, that's all still true. And I would have reminded myself that my job as a teacher, teaching future physicians, is to teach them what they don't know and how to find the answers, not to have the answers myself all the time.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
Excellent advice. And modeling that behavior. Yes. What inspired you to become a physician, and why did you choose internal medicine as your specialty?
Dr. Blair Reece:
So my grandfather was a physician. So growing up, I always watched him and admired him and wanted to be like him. I saw him helping people, helping our community. Former patients of his would come up to me randomly on the streets and tell me stories about my grandfather and how he helped them. And and that was very inspiring to me. And so from a young age, I always knew I wanted to be a physician. And then when I was in medical school at Quillen, that's when I decided that internal medicine was the field for me. I love taking care of adults. Adults have you know, they're so complicated and have so many different life experiences that that play into their health conditions. And so you can take a simple problem like high blood pressure, but it's different in every single patient that I take care of. They have different life experiences, different things that are important to them, different ways they want to be helped. And I love the complexity of that.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
It's wonderful. So you work in a college where you practice medicine and serve patients, but you also have the wonderful opportunity to teach and prepare future physicians. What do you enjoy most about teaching?
Dr. Blair Reece:
The students inspire me every single day, and the students are really why I'm here. They remind me why I wanted to become a doctor in the first place. Sometimes practicing clinical medicine can feel, sometimes it's challenging fighting with insurance companies, trying to get patients the medication they need or the tests they need, their paperwork. But when the students come into the clinic and they are bright eyed and excited, and and they remind me why I'm here, why we're all here. We're here to take care of the patients. And I can't imagine being a physician if I didn't have the opportunity to teach.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
What's your favorite thing to teach?
Dr. Blair Reece:
I love teaching students just how to talk to patients and how to, honestly even how to have difficult conversations. I think that's a really important part of our job, especially as internal medicine physicians. I have to have difficult conversations all the time. And you don't just wake up knowing how to have those conversations. You have to be taught. And I really enjoy helping students navigate those difficult conversations, helping them have the courage to have those. And it's hard, but it's inspiring.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
As a Quillen alumna, you have likely seen changes in medical education, right, while you've been practicing and since graduation. In fact, I know the college has recently introduced a new curriculum. Talk about some of the curriculum changes that have been enacted and how they're preparing our students to better meet the needs of patients.
Dr. Blair Reece:
So I think the students demand more of us as faculty members these days than perhaps myself and my older colleagues demanded of our professors. And I think that's really wonderful. Students don't want to come to class and be spoon-fed information. Students want to learn that information on their own. They want to learn the physiology and the pathophysiology and the pharmacology on their own time. And then they want to come to class, and they want us to challenge them and to help them integrate all of that information and learn how to really truly be a physician. And that's what the new curriculum is doing. We're bringing students together in smaller groups, talking through patient cases that may involve lots of different material that we expect them to have learned themselves, and we help them integrate it. And I really think that it's going to make them -- I know it is making them better physicians and it's a better way of education.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
So it's different than the curriculum you had, right, as a student?
Dr. Blair Reece:
Yes, it's very different. As a student, we came to class and we listened to lectures for 8 hours a day and were just sort of given the knowledge and then went home and tried to memorize it. But now we are expecting our students to come into class and apply the knowledge.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
Right. So it's a difference in pedagogy and not so much a difference in content.
Dr. Blair Reece:
Yes, exactly.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
Yeah. In the introduction, I mentioned that you've been recognized by your students for mentorship and teaching. What are some of the most memorable classroom and clinical experiences that you've had with your students?
Dr. Blair Reece:
So over the years, every year or two, there will be a time in the hospital where a student makes a diagnosis for a patient that none of the resident physicians or myself as the attending has made. And that is such an incredible moment. And oftentimes we encourage the students, go spend time with your patients. Our patients are our greatest teachers. And, you know, the students will really take that to heart. And the students typically have more time to spend with patients. They have fewer patients, and a few times a year, every year, a student will go and spend potentially an hour or two with a patient and just talk to them and collect more history. And something will come up in that conversation and they'll bring it back to the team and say, "Hey, did you know that this patient has X, Y, Z or was exposed to this or that?" and will make the diagnosis. And we say, "Oh my goodness, we did not know that." And, you know, to see a student who doesn't yet have M.D. behind their name to potentially save a life or at least impact the care that the patient receives is really an incredible experience.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
I bet. Quillen has become nationally recognized for its commitment to preparing physicians to serve in rural and underserved communities. What are some of the innovative ways that the college is working to do this?
Dr. Blair Reece:
So I think Quillen, from even as far back as when I was a medical student, really focuses on getting students out into the community, meeting patients from day one. And that has a huge impact. You know, when I look at my graduating class, just in my graduating class alone, when I think of the Quillen alums that are in our area -- internal medicine, radiology, dermatology, general surgery, multiple orthopedic surgeons, all practicing medicine here, taking care of patients in the Appalachian Highlands. And many of us didn't grow up in Johnson City. We grew to love this area during medical school, and that was through going to Rogersville, going to Mountain City, meeting patients in the Tri-Cities, doing health fairs. And and I think that Quillen does such a great job really fulfilling its mission. And it does that just by showing us the beauty of this area and the people that live here. And many of us want to come back and practice and give back to the community that taught us how to be physicians.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
Yeah. As you know, ETSU has a robust offering of programs in the health care disciplines, including pharmacy, medicine, nursing, clinical and rehabilitative health sciences, public health. In what ways do you see your medical students benefiting from this interprofessional collaboration opportunity?
Dr. Blair Reece:
Practicing medicine these days is a team sport. You know, it's not a doctor out in a clinic all by themselves, doing everything for the patient. And I depend on my physical therapy colleagues, my pharmacy colleagues, my nursing colleagues every single day. And Quillen teaches the students early on who all of the different players are and what their roles are in caring for the patient. And and I think that also encourages students to know, hey, I can just pick up the phone and call a pharmacist when I don't know, the medication interactions or a patient, you know, isn't responding well to this. And that interprofessional education really helps students hit the ground running in residency and then after to know how to take care of patients as a team.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
Mm hmm. Do you have the opportunity to work in Building 60 with some of the IPE collaborations?
Dr. Blair Reece:
I do, and that has been a really fun experience, getting to see students in those other fields. You know, I work with nurses and physical therapists and pharmacists every single day. I don't have a ton of opportunities to work with the students in those disciplines, except for my experiences in Building 60. And so that's really fun.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
It's great. We know that the best teachers are those who continue to learn. What are some of the most important lessons that you've learned from your students or from your colleagues?
Dr. Blair Reece:
My students challenge me every single day. The students say, "Oh, we're going to add this blood pressure medicine." And the students, the next thing they always say is, "Well, why?" And so I appreciate that so much. And sometimes I don't know the why right then and there. And so we'll go together and look up the reason. Or sometimes I do and say, "Okay, well, let's look at this trial. This is why we do what we do." And so the students are always keeping me on my toes, keeping me at the forefront of modern medicine. And and I think it's important as a physician that I do know the why. I know why we're adding medicines, recommending treatments, and the students are the ones really that that push us, all of us clinical faculty.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
So as a graduate of Quillen, you have the opportunity to work alongside some of your former faculty colleagues. Can you tell us what that's like?
Dr. Blair Reece:
It was a very strange experience when I first came back to Quillen, and many of them told me that I was supposed to call them by their first names now, since we were colleagues and not Dr. So-and-so. Five years later, and I'm starting to get the hang of that. But it's really been such a great experience for me. Many of my former faculty members were mentors to me during medical school, helped me figure out where I wanted to go to residency, what kind of physician I wanted to be. And they are still mentors to me today. I still will call them up and say, Hey, you know, I'm not sure if I should take this opportunity or that opportunity or I'm struggling with this item in the classroom. And to be able to go to them and still look to them as mentors has been such an incredible experience that I don't think I'd have if I worked anywhere else.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
What are your thoughts about the ways that students of today will be impacted by the role of advances in technology on the practice of medicine?
Dr. Blair Reece:
You know, I think we already are seeing advances right now that are really wonderful. You know, we're seeing telehealth opportunities. There are some artificial intelligence that we see in some fields of medicine that kind of lend themselves to that, such as, you know, radiology, to help pick up cancers. And and I think that students practicing medicine or when the students are practicing medicine 10, 20 years from now, I do think that things will look different. But I think that they'll be better for patients and better for patient care and hopefully will have even better outcomes.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
That's great. Earlier this year you became one of the inaugural members of the ETSU Health Professional Leadership Academy. Congratulations.
Dr. Blair Reece:
Thank you.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
Tell us a bit about that experience and why you chose to be part of it.
Dr. Blair Reece:
That was such a great opportunity and I'm really grateful to Dr. Block and Dr. Pierce, my chair, for giving me the opportunity to participate in that. It was an experience. We brought lots of different faculty members from different colleges together, and we had the opportunity to hear from leaders in our community, both at ETSU and the community at-large, and they really shared with us so many of their successes, but also maybe more importantly, their failures and what they learned from that. And it was such a powerful experience and to hopefully gain some wisdom from that. I also met a lot of colleagues in other colleges that I didn't know before this, and many of us have kept in touch and we've talked about, "Hey, how can we better collaborate?" You know, the Department of Medicine and Physical Therapy, for example, and other services. And so I think that just the networking part of that was also a wonderful opportunity and it's moving ETSU Health forward.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
That's great. Finally, what impact do you hope that you have on your students?
Dr. Blair Reece:
So I hope that my students remember always to put the patient first. Medicine, being a physician is a is a really hard job, and there are so many pressures that are put on us at all different times. But I hope that I have inspired them in some small way to remember, always remember the patient. It's not, you know, the this person in room seven with the diabetes. It's a person, and every person matters. And how they feel about their health, their ability to pay for medication-- all of those things are important. I hope that they always remember that and take the extra 5 minutes to talk to their patients and you know, what's impacting your health? Why are you not able to take your medications? Maybe it's money. Maybe they're taking care of a sick relative. Maybe they don't understand the importance. And if we all just take a few more minutes with each person, I really do think we can make a difference.
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle:
That's wonderful. That's a great lesson. And it reminds me of the campus read and some of the lessons there about building empathy and the ways that that will help our students and learning how to do that. Thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you, Blair. It's been a pleasure. Learning more about how you connect with your students and prepare them to continue. Quillen's mission to educate future physicians, especially those with an interest in primary care to practice in underserved, rural communities. Thanks for listening to Why I Teach. For more information about Dr. Reece, the Quillen College of Medicine or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at ETSU dot edu slash Provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to Why I Teach wherever you listen to podcasts.