UNMC inducted its newest class of Gold Humanism Honor Society members on Jan. 28 with 21 students, six residents and four faculty members being honored.
The Gold Humanism Honor Society each year recognizes third-year medical students, residents, and faculty members who use exceptional compassion and empathy when caring for patients. The inductees also serve as role models, mentors, and leaders in medicine. GHHS members are peer nominated and are the ones whom others say they want taking care of their own family.
“These people are just incredible,” said Allison Ashford, MD, med-peds hospitalist and program director, who is also co-advisor of GHHS. “It’s really hard to pick (who will be inducted) because the people are all awesome.”
Primarily, Dr. Ashford said, GHHS is a student honor society. Third-year medical students are nominated by their peers and then the top nominees are invited to apply by submitting a personal statement and a C.V. From there, a diverse selection committee chooses the inductees.
It’s a huge honor, Dr. Ashford said.
“First and foremost, being recognized by your peers that you provide compassionate care to your patients … there’s really nothing like that,” Dr. Ashford said. “To be recognized for something that is really hard to do in this day and age – to always provide compassionate and humanistic care – is an incredible thing.”
Founded at UNMC in 2015, GHHS began in 2002 by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, which was established by Drs. Arnold and Sandra Gold at Columbia University. Across the United States, 180 medical schools and residency programs have a GHHS, with over 45,000 members in training and practice.
Each year at UNMC, 15% of the third-year medical student class is chosen for GHHS. As fourth-year students, they are active in the society, which does things like Sunday Rounds, resiliency dinners and publishing a literary journal, Art in Medicine. Once a month, for Sunday Rounds, GHHS members visit hospital patients who don’t normally have visitors. Also, several times over the course of the academic year, a faculty member hosts a dinner at his or her home for about 12 or so students to attend. There, they talk about burnout and other real-life challenges.
Becky Brooks, a fourth-year medical student and GHHS member, said these sorts of activities are valuable.
“By participating in these activities, we hope that students feel encouraged and hopeful for their career and that ultimately, patient care and interactions are continuously improved to focus on all dimensions of a patient’s life,” Brooks said.
Being a part of GHHS is special, Brooks said, because it recognizes members’ efforts to provide compassionate and humanistic care.
Providing that sort of care on a daily basis can be challenging, Dr. Ashford said.
“It can be hard to do that all the time in this world where things feel hard more often than we would like,” she said. “It feels good to know you are still doing compassionate work even when the days are hard or the patient was hard or the outcome was not what you wanted.”
Dr. Trek Langenhan, MD, is the other GHHS co-advisor.
The Gold Humanism Honor Society Class of 2023 at UNMC includes:
Faculty members:
- David F. Mercer, MD, PhD, transplant surgery
- Andrea Jones, MD, family medicine
- Prasanth Ravipati, MD, nephrology
- Bryant England, MD, PhD, rheumatology
Residents:
- Andrew Nguyen, DO, pediatrics
- Jeremy Payne, MD, anesthesia
- James Fagerland, MD, internal medicine
- Jana Binkley, MD, general surgery
- Josh Lallman, MD, internal medicine-pediatrics
- Debra Wekesa, MD, internal medicine
Students:
- Laura Flores
- Safwan Eikhatib
- Maranda Thompson
- Jill Ziegenbein
- Sarah Sweeney
- Lauren Wegner
- Weston Ernst
- Nicole Kent
- Alexandra Hergenrader
- Bo Kitrell
- Osmaan Shokoor
- Sarah Mullen
- Katie Vanderzwaag
- Caroline Spethman
- Nicole Beckman
- Stacie Schlange
- Tazah Weinmaster
- Brian Smith
- Carmen Ochoa
- Anna Wilwerding
- Rose Nelson