Andrew Barker, a fourth-year medical student at the KU School of Medicine in Wichita, is one student who knows firsthand how critical hospital partnerships are to the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Barker, who plans to specialize in pain management as a physician, has been doing clinical rotations at Wesley Medical Center and Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita. He said he has been able to learn and perform countless medical procedures under the watchful eye of the doctors and nurses at the hospitals. He is also learning how to diagnose real patients with real problems, which is quite different from studying medicine in a classroom.

"When you do your rotations in the hospital, you observe patients who have conditions that are so much more complex than what you read about in textbooks,” said Barker. “I’m so glad we have the opportunity to experience that and to learn from the doctors here."

It is not an overstatement to say that the relationship between an academic medical center and its hospital partners is what makes medical education possible.

"The University of Kansas Medical Center could not exist without our hospital affiliations," said Barbara Atkinson, MD, executive vice chancellor of the Medical Center and executive dean of the School of Medicine. "It’s as simple as that."

The relationships between KU Medical Center and its hospital partners work on multiple levels. It obviously includes the education of medical students and residents, but also involves collaboration on research endeavors like clinical trials.

KU Medical Center has affiliations with a number of hospitals – Wesley Medical Center and the Via Christi Health System in Wichita and The University of Kansas Hospital, Saint Luke’s Hospital, the Kansas City Veterans Administration Medical Center, and Children’s Mercy Hospitals & Clinics in Kansas City, to name a few.

The most obvious benefit of these hospital relationships is the necessity of having a place where medical, nursing and allied health students can learn firsthand how to practice medicine.

Tammy Peterman, RN, MS, executive vice president, chief operating officer, and chief nursing officer at The University of Kansas Hospital, said everyone benefits from the academic environment.

"Our greatest contribution is that we are a strongly performing hospital," she said. "It’s a better place for a student to learn and for a resident to prepare because we hold such high standards in patient care."

During the third and fourth years of medical school, all students complete clinical rotations so they can be exposed to almost every department in the hospital. It’s the beginning of the transition from being a medical student to becoming a doctor. A typical third-year medical student will spend 36 weeks in the hospital.

Nursing students are also expected to complete their clinicals and practicums at a hospital. They do nine clinical programs in two years, as well as a practicum during their final semester of nursing school which allows the students to concentrate on a specific area of care at a hospital.

Kasey Bowden, a senior at the KU School of Nursing, recently began working as a nurse associate in Unit 43 – Family Orthopedic Medicine at KU Hospital. While most of her duties include making sure the families and patients are comfortable, she has also been able to insert catheters and perform blood draws.

"Getting so much experience at the hospital has allowed me to see some of the challenges I am going to face when I’m working on my own in a hospital," said Bowden.

Coordinating all of these students and doctors can be difficult, but the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Via Christi Wichita Health Network, Laurie Labarca, said the benefits of having students and residents around the hospital are enormous.

"As a physician, having residents and medical students by your side can make you a better doctor," Labarca said. "Students have a lot of questions and that forces doctors to be on the ball and up on the latest research. And that translates into better patient care."

"When you do your rotations in the hospital, you observe patients who have conditions that are so much more complex than what you read about in textbooks. I’m so glad we have the opportunity to experience that and to learn from the doctors here." Andrew Barker

Labarca said the merging of patient care and education is what the Via Christi network is all about. The hospital staff adapts their environment to an educational setting, including providing facilities where classes can be taught.

Another educational component of the relationship between KU Medical Center and its hospital partners is that fact that many of the doctors who practice at the hospitals also serve as faculty members in the School of Medicine.

Lisa Gilmer, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at KU Medical Center and a practicing physician who works at KU Hospital, said teaching future doctors while taking care of patients is an overwhelming responsibility, but a rewarding one.

"Patient care and teaching go hand-in-hand, and there isn’t a way to do one without the other," Gilmer said."They both take place in the same environment because the doctor and student see patients together and discuss problems and possible solutions"

While education and patient care are major priorities, KU Medical Center is also committed to research and developing innovative treatments for cancer and other diseases. Once again, the Medical Center’s partnerships play a major role in this mission. Gary Dolittle, MD, the medical director of the Midwest Cancer Alliance, said the relationship between KU Medical Center and its partners has been one of the keys to making new cancer treatments and research possible.

"By collaborating both in the lab and in clinical trials, we know we will be able to discover innovative therapies for patients who are battling this terrible disease," Dolittle said.

There is little doubt that the solid relationships KU Medical Center has forged with hospitals in Kansas City and throughout Kansas are essential to the growth of research and education at the University of Kansas. But the ultimate goal of this critical collaboration is ensuring a bright future for Kansas and beyond.

"We work every day to maintain, improve and expand these partnerships because they are essential to KU Medical Center and the future of medical education," said Atkinson. "But above all, they are important to our health." +