Teaching Clinical Skills and Mentoring Future Generations with Dr. Bruce Glassman

Today on the CapYear Cast, we talk with Dr. Bruce Glassman of Capital Dermatology, a subsidiary of Advanced Dermatology in Alexandria, Virginia. Dr. Glassman talks about the benefits of hiring pre-health graduates as medical assistants. They bring an energetic and enthusiastic work culture to the office and provide opportunities for education and mentoring by experienced providers. Over the last twenty years, Dr. Glassman has led by example, providing mentorship and helping build the buy-in of other providers into the program. The students have the chance to learn clinical skills, and while there is a learning curve, outgoing students share what they have learned with the incoming class. Hence, mentorship and teaching are instilled and reinforced as core healthcare values even before medical school begins, encouraging a desire to learn and mentor future generations. Great stuff!

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Transcript below:

John: Hi, and welcome back to the CapYear Cast. Today we're joined by Dr. Bruce Glassman of Capital Dermatology, which is a subsidiary of Advanced Dermatology. Dr. Glassman, welcome, and thank you for joining us on the CapYear Cast.

I what to start with the inspiration behind your practice: hiring pre-health graduates as medical assistants.

Dr. Glassman: Great question, John. We do it because it provides a tremendous amount of energy into the office that we just found to be very infectious from a provider's standpoint and a patient's standpoint. The providers come to work, we have eight providers in our office, and they are engaged in teaching and mentoring these young students, which sets a tremendous tone for the office daily.

Secondly, it provides us an opportunity to give back to these students in education. It really is something that when you go through your medical training, you're being taught by so many that the chance to give back in a teaching experience is really very rewarding. So, those are the two main items that really make this program extremely worthwhile and make it continue to run year after.

John: Let me focus on the first part of that, which is the benefits to the practice. I'm curious, you mentioned they bring this energy, they bring this enthusiasm, but there's also that mentoring aspect. Does it feel like an extra layer of work for the physicians in the practice? And, if so, how do you get that buy-in that's needed to keep this going year to year?

Dr. Glassman: It all starts with leadership, and I am 100% focused on providing mentorship for these young students. And again, the positive rewards are just limitless. Years and years of relationships and kids grow. It's really wonderful. So by leading in that way, I get the other providers to pay in because they see how hard I work at it. And ultimately, they see the benefits in the future as well when they see these kids grow up and become PAs and doctors later in their careers.

John: Right. Let’s focus on the graduate side of the folks you're bringing in.

And obviously, there are some benefits here, which is you're getting the, the clinical experience, which is really difficult to get, you're getting that right out of the gate. But the sort of logistics and the practicality aspect of it, I mean, a lot of it, you just have to learn by doing. And I'm curious, was that a bit of a stumbling block for some folks coming in? Or is it the kind of thing that the students pick up relatively quickly?

Dr. Glassman: One of the features that we have in the program is that the people who are leaving one year teach the kids to come in the next year. That's chapters seven and eight in the program manual for what you're going to get out of the program. And part of that is the ability to teach others what you've learned, and that's a skill. And they really do take that seriously and embrace that whole experience.

There's a huge learning curve with this whole process. It takes about a month or two to get the kids up to the standards we're looking for them to have. And, again, that one to two months gives you 10 to 11 good months, and that's really invaluable to the practice and makes everything well worthwhile in the end.

John: So is it fair to say that if you're nervous coming in, starting day 1 of June, that, June, July, you're going to be learning, but by August, don't worry about it, you're going to be a pro?

Dr. Glassman: Well, as you know, only death and taxes are guaranteed. The rest of it, you never know. But that’s the model we shoot for.

John: Right, and what's really curious is it's almost like you're instilling this mentorship and teaching idea even before the med school process starts.

So even before you have those didactic years where the information is just pounded into you, you've got that desire not only to learn, but you're being taught by others as you go through this process. I can imagine that that feeds on itself, so when you are a PA, or you are a physician yourself, and you're bringing in students, you've already got that background and that desire to mentor.

Dr. Glassman: Yeah. See one, do one, teach one. That's something we learn in medical school, right? And exactly. The same thing happens here. So hopefully we're instilling that for future generations.

John: Right. And let’s talk about those future generations that are looking to do this in this year, next year, in the coming years, from your standpoint now. You were a pioneer in this, you've been doing this for almost 20 years now. When you are sitting in your seat, you’ve got a view of the incoming candidates, what is it you're looking for? What sort of thing makes a candidate stand out?

Dr. Glassman: A couple of factors. Number one intellectual curiosity. That ability to ask why? Just that sense of, astonishment at what you're being exposed to and then figuring out what it is and trying to make sense of it.

Number two is being good and kind to people. That's really critical when it comes to providing care and having empathy for the patients.

Number three knowing when to say no and/or when to ask questions. So never make believe you think you know what you're doing. So somebody who can take constructive criticism and understand. They need to absorb information and know when they're out of their strike zone, and those are all inherent features that people need to be successful in this type of position because there's so much that they don't know, and they really need to be confident with what they're doing. So they've got to ask questions and feel comfortable asking those questions. So those are a number of the factors that we look for.

John: Interesting. You have the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns, and it's always the unknown unknowns that are going to get you in the end,

Dr. Glassman: Well, you’ve got to be able to have that sixth sense to understand that those are unknowns, you know?

John: Right. Are any of those teachable? Maybe the question is, are there any of these that are less teachable than the others? What do you just really need to have as a basic thing?

Dr. Glassman: Yeah. I mean, if you're a nice person, you're a nice person, right. You can't teach that. You know, the curiosity part, you can kind of trigger that a little bit in the right direction and you can also trigger the ability to kind of get a sense that something just isn't right, so I better ask a question. So those two things, you can kind of work on a bunch. You can even teach people how to make small talk and how to get through that part as well.

John: Yeah. Well, I know for a lot of doctors, making small talk is sometimes the most difficult part of the job.

Dr. Glassman: If it doesn't come naturally, it's a challenge sometimes. Yep.

John: Right. I know we're running short of time, so I want to focus on any advice that you might have.

Let's start with advice to pre-health graduates today who are looking for placement in medical offices as medical assistants. What sort of advice would you give them?

Dr. Glassman: I would say one of the benefits of our practice is that we're a large practice. I always am very pro on finding a program where there are multiple people, not just one or two people shadowing one doctor, because that can get pretty intense, and you may not get along with that doctor or person you're working with.

There's a huge benefit I find in being in a large group, which is what we have. You want to have a tremendous amount of patient exposure. You know, the beauty of this experience is that you have a lot of hands-on experience, and our program definitely is focused on patient exposure and getting that hands-on exposure. So those are, those are the two things I would suggest looking for it.

John: Right. And the last piece of advice I'd ask you for is for practices who are thinking about, or even may not even consider the idea of bringing in pre-health graduates as medical assistants. What sort of advice do you have for practices who are considering that approach?

Dr. Glassman: Make sure it's for you. You know, make sure that you really want to buy into the concept. Because if you just do it halfway, it will be a detriment to everyone involved. You don't want to think of it as just a job. You want to think of it as an educational experience. If you think of it as just a job, you might as well go hire somebody who's looking for a job.

My feeling has always been that with the students who are applying and who want to get on with their careers, you're not doing them any justice by just having them write in a chart. You have to engage them.

We meet with each group of students after every clinic to make sure that they are able to discuss the day's work and make sure that they understand that. You know, they saw X patients with X conditions, and give them some of the knowledge base that you have acquired over the decades that helps to explain a lot about the medicine they saw that day.

So it's not just a job, it's an education.

John: Right. And that hearkens back to some of the main benefits which you said come to the practice, which is the energy and enthusiasm. Because you're not hiring an employee, you're basically teaching someone how to do the job, and someone who is thankful for that position. It's a win-win process from our standpoint, at least.

Dr. Glassman: That's correct.

John: Well, Dr. Bruce Glassman, I do appreciate your time. Thank you for joining us on the CapYear Cast, and we will catch you next time.

Dr. Glassman: Thanks, John. Have a good day.

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