Name: Christie Barnes, M.D.
Medical school attended: Creighton University
Location of your residency/fellowship training:
- Residency, Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery- University of Vermont Medical Center
- Fellowship: Rhinology and Skull Base Surgery- The Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center
What residency/fellowship program at UNMC are you serving as program director for: Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery
Number of trainees: 14
How long have you been the program director: Eight months (assistant program director for three years prior)
What made you chose to become the program director: I have a passion for education — training residents is one of the most important aspects of my job. I also feel a tremendous amount of allegiance to this exceptional department and want to see it thrive. Our team of like-minded faculty and leadership is constantly striving to improve and move this department into regional and national importance, and I simply want to do my part on the residency front.
What challenges do you foresee in graduate medical education in the future: Our medical training numbers have not kept pace with our needs as a society, nor has funding for these programs. Simultaneously, the training hours have decreased for good reason. I think we are going to face shortfalls. We will have to be creative going forward in how we train our residents. Residency training may not, and probably should not, look anything like what we are currently doing. We will need to train residents faster, more thoughtfully, with more integration of technology and utilization of advanced practice providers.
What are the strengths of your training program:
Our dedication to resident education is one strength. We provide an unprecedented four-five dedicated and protected surgical/procedural courses to our residents annually. We boast a young and enthusiastic staff who are fully committed to training our residents. We have many meaningful collaborations with other subspecialties resulting in collective opportunities to provide exceptional care for our patients and conduct meaningful research endeavors.
Tell us three things about you that others may not know:
- I grew up hunting and fishing, My two young children, eight months and two years, have made it difficult to do that the past few years, but it is still a love of mine.
- I have twin sisters who are Olympic athletes (that’s right I’m the black sheep of the family) who were in a Guinness commercial.
- My husband is a pediatric GI doctor at Childrens Hospital & Medical Center, so our dinner table discussions get real interesting.