The second talk of Careers Symposium Day 1 focused on what it takes to become a clinician educator or a clinician scientist.

The first speaker was Assistant Professor Kenneth Ban, who is a medical educator and Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, and a senior lecturer and Phase 1 director at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Many of us fondly remember his lectures in our pre-clinical years! Assistant Professor Ban also leads the development of a longitudinal Health Informatics track, empowering this generation of medical students with data science competencies.

He started off by sharing his own experience with becoming a medical educator. For him, he was influenced from an early age by family, as his mother was a teacher. Often, he could see the joy she had in sharing her knowledge with students, and during Chinese New Year, students would come over to their house by their own volition. As a result, he started to appreciate the bond between student and teacher.

Also influenced by his own education, he shared that he had a mix of teachers who helped him understand that teaching is a calling. Many of us hold teachers in high regard, particularly those who broke down complex things into something that was understandable. Thus, he started to look into education more seriously as a career.

I’m sure many of us have also been curious why some doctors return to the preclinical sciences to teach us during our preclinical years. Prof. Ban shared that not many doctors do it and those that do have different reasons for doing it. For him, it was because someone had taken faith in him previously, so he was determined to pay it forward. He shared that when he was a medical student, the school offered an intercalated year for students to try out science. He completed the program, and ended up with a science degree. After doing his house officer rotation for a year, the then-head of the Department of Biochemistry called him and asked him if he was interested in pursuing academic medicine. And so, off to Stanford he went for his PhD in cell biology. After returning to Singapore, he was required to work in a research institute, and so he applied back to NUS, doing research and also teaching at the same time. In his early years, he was assigned to teach the Krebs cycle, which he acknowledged was difficult for students to take in. Thus, he strove to teach in the way he wants to be taught, and reviews what he teaches annually.

He ended off by saying that teachers have an enormous responsibility to make learning easier or more fun, and that all of us, as clinicians in the future, will also be educators to our own patients, hence educating is very relevant to us. Furthermore, in academic medical centres, it is also difficult to divorce clinical work from education and research.

The second sharing of the talk was by Dr Raghav Sundar, who is a Consultant in Oncology, specialising in gastrointestinal cancers and practices at the National Cancer Institute, Singapore. He is an alumnus of NUS Medicine. His research interests are developing novel genomic biomarkers and precision oncology, and he is also interested in Med Tech and AI. He shared his journey to becoming a clinician scientist as well as some hacks so that we can do the same!

After finishing med school, Dr Sundar went to do basic training in internal medicine, before subspecialising in medical oncology. In medical school he did UROPS, but he started doing more serious research once he entered medical oncology. As the practice of medical oncology is intertwined with research, there are many clinical trials to give patients new drugs.

He shared that it has taken him 18 years since 2003 to become a clinician scientist. It has involved a fellowship at the Royal Marsden in the United Kingdom, a Masters of Clinical Investigation, and embarking on a part-time PhD. In the process, he came to realise that if we do cutting edge research, we may be able to reach out to a wider range of people other than our own patients.

Why are people pursuing this path even though it is so hard? For him, what is essential is finding your niche, finding your space, and finding what you want to do.

He also shared a few tips to becoming a successful clinician scientist.

Hack 1: Find a good mentor and team, as it takes many people to raise a clinician scientist.

Hack 2: Find an understanding partner, otherwise it would be impossible to find the time to do the things that he needs to do. He also urges us to refrain from thinking that working more means that there will be less life, encouraging us to balance both at the same time.

Hack 3: Find meaning in what you do. If you find meaning in what you do, you won’t consider this as work. He also admitted that spent a lot of time soul searching and thinking about what he wanted to do before going down this path.

Hack 4: Don’t hesitate to grab an opportunity. He shared that in Singapore, we are very fortunate as opportunities are easily available with relatively less competition than in other parts of the world.

Next up, was Associate Professor Suresh Pillai, who is a Senior Consultant in the Emergency Medicine Department of National University Hospital. He is actively involved in the teaching of undergraduates, medical trainees, and nursing students, and has been a strong proponent of medical simulation training. His efforts have been recognised with numerous awards, including the NUS Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Top Ten Tutors Award in Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

He started off by debunking the myth about clinician educators: “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach”. This is untrue, as many clinician educators feel that there is no better reward than educating. Many clinician educators join due to intrinsic motivation and interest and enjoyment in the task. Not many, however, do it for pay raises or bonuses. For those who want to become clinician educators, it mostly consists of intrinsic rewards, so we need to come in with the right mindset.

Another reason that clinician educators do what they do, is because they want to demonstrate what it really means to be a physician, as what we read in the books do not show the full picture. By the bedside, they are models for students to become knowledgeable healers and do their best for patients with kindness, compassion and a constant search for new knowledge.

So what does a clinician educator actually do? Dr Pillai shared that firstly, they should have a clear set of values. Secondly, they have the ability to overcome obstacles and show to students that despite obstacles, patient care can still be achieved. Thirdly, they should be selfless and accepting of others. Fourthly, they have a commitment to the community. Last but not the least, they have the passion to inspire trainers. Thus, a clinician educator does many things, including lecture, teach and facilitate.

Dr Pillai also shared some tips about how we can prepare to be a clinician educator. We should educate ourselves about educational content and pedagogy by seeking out experts and keeping ourselves up-to-date. We should also keep in mind that practice makes perfect. Through deliberate practice, everyone can be achievers if taught at their own proficiency. Thus, we should challenge ourselves with learners of different levels and vary our teaching strategies. Additionally, we should aim to use multiple different formats in teaching, as well as participate in educational leadership and scholarship.

Why become a clinician educator? Dr Pillai ended the talk by sharing that the job has intangible rewards, and provides us with the ability to inspire students and educate the next generation. Such a job will also give us a valuable opportunity to pay it forward.