5-25-10

SIU School of Medicine Graduation

Sixty-eight new physicians graduated from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine this month during the School’s 40th anniversary year.

Commencement exercises for the 36th graduating class of S-I-U School of Medicine took place this past Saturday (May 22) in Springfield.  Delivering the commencement address, Dr. J. Kevin Dorsey, dean and provost of SIU School of Medicine, told the Class of 2010 that they will be judged based on whether their patients think the new physicians care for them.

SOUND BITE: “ . . . when we are sick,  when every patient you see who comes to you needing something, care for them like you would care for your parents, your siblings, your children, your best friend.”

Dr. Dorsey advised the new physicians to always show up and be focused on the needs at that moment in time, including their own family activities as well as their patients.

SOUND BITE:  “Show up in the middle of the night when you get a call from a nurse about one of your patients and things just don’t seem right and you’re not sure what’s going on. If you can show that you care, you’ll make a difference in the lives that you touch.  And this will make you feel better than you could have ever imagined.”

The new SIU physicians will begin their residency training in their chosen specialty fields in July.  Two thousand, three hundred and thirty-six (2,336) physicians have now earned SIU medical degrees since 1975.  The School was founded in 1970.

This is Ruth Slottag, SIU School of Medicine in Springfield.