Name: Patrick Doherty, MD
Medical school attended: Creighton University School of Medicine (1988-1992)
Location of your residency/fellowship training: Creighton/Nebraska Universities Joint Pediatric Residency (1992-1995)
What residency/fellowship program at UNMC are you serving as program director for:
Creighton/Nebraska Universities Joint Pediatric Residency
Number of trainees: Currently, we have 39 categorical pediatric residents and are expanding to 42.
How long have you been the program director: 8 years
What made you chose to become the program director:
Over the years, I have discovered my passion for medical education. I have made multiple career changes based on increased educational opportunities. I saw the position of program director as the ultimate education position. I have the opportunity to develop curriculum that influences how pediatricians care for children now and into the future.
What challenges do you foresee in graduate medical education in the future:
Maintaining focus on primary care and the patient-centered medical home.
Continuing to be visionary by understanding how technology will change the way we care for children.
Modifying our training programs to adapt.
What are the strengths of your training program:
Being a combined program allows our residents to have access to every subspecialty in pediatrics.
We also have three primary educational sites, which lead to a very diverse patient exposure. Many dedicated faculty to educate our residents.
Wonderful support staff, in particular our coordinator, Cindy Colpitts, with 17 years dedicated to our program.
List some accomplishments that you are proud of:
Change over to "block didactics," which provided protected educational time for the resident. We have expanded the program from 12 residents per year to 14 per year and anticipate continued growth over the next few years.
Tell us three things about you that others may not know:
I’m one of 11 children.
I was born and raised in Wyoming.
I have way too many hobbies, including: home improvement of any kind; fly fishing and tying; cooking from scratch including sausage and cheese making; along with many forms of arts and crafts.