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A 50-year-old man complains of heartburn. A young woman copes with dizziness and fatigue. Health care professionals hear of these common ailments every day. However, medicine is constantly changing, and educators must continually identify new methods and tools for teaching and assessing students and residents.
Strong interpersonal abilities go hand in hand with appropriate diagnosis and treatment of patients. The OSU Medical Center’s Clinical Skills Education and Assessment Center, located in the John Prior Health Sciences Library, uses simulation to help students and residents improve their technical skills and develop a successful bedside manner. As part of this training, Ohio State medical students listen to actors, or “standardized” patients, who share their aches and pains.
Dr. LeRoy Essig of Fredericksburg, Va., knows the value of top-notch clinical training. A 1969 graduate of Ohio State’s College of Medicine and an oncologist in private practice, he said, “Most doctors in the United States are in the trenches like me. Those in research and teaching develop new procedures for us to use, but we need training to do them well. That’s where Ohio State excels.”
To support this hands-on experience and to honor his late wife, Ann, a nurse and breast cancer survivor, Dr. Essig created an endowment that benefits the center’s Patient Simulation Learning Lab. “My wife was a real advocate of patient care, so my goal was to fund an area that has to do with the interaction of the physician and the patient,” he said.
His investment in the Clinical Skills Center, which offers a Patient Simulation Lab and a Procedures Lab, makes an impact on medical students and residents while improving the quality of patient care and patient safety.
Dr. Essig, who has four children and five grandchildren, credits his father with lessons on sacrifice. His father grew up during the Depression era and, with only an eighth-grade education, saved to pay cash for nearly everything, including his son’s medical education. The Essigs’ son Dr. LeRoy Essig II, who’s on staff at the University Medical Center, brings the gift full circle: He will soon teach in the lab bearing his mother’s name.
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Ann Crowe Essig Patient Simulation Learning Lab
“Most doctors in the United States are in the trenches like me. Those in research and teaching develop new procedures, but we need training to do them well.”
