Nicole Karjane (center), professor and OB-GYN residency program director at VCU Health, is a mentor to resident Emily Barrows (left) and VCU Health assistant professor Sarah Milton. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Supporting and guiding young doctors is so important that many medical schools, including the University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University, pair students with mentors from the start.
Nicole Karjane, professor and OB-GYN residency program director at VCU Health, viewed Stephen Cohen, her predecessor, as her “work dad” and mentor.
“He is a caring educator,” says Karjane, who joined VCU Health as a resident in 2000 after graduating from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. “He makes sure young doctors learn about OB-GYN. He saw things in me that I couldn’t see in myself. Now I’m in academia, and I’m active in national professional medical organizations. I didn’t think it was a possibility.”
Because of Cohen, Karjane is also involved in pediatric obstetrics and gynecology, thanks to her experiences as a resident. “He told me: ‘You are so good talking to medical students. You have to stay,’ ” Karjane recalls. “I think it was a moment when I had a young patient, and I sat on her bed and talked to her, and she was comfortable with me.”
During the course of training that spanned pregnancy, labor, abnormal and normal deliveries, and office gynecology visits, Cohen always had high expectations of the residents and medical students.
“We never wanted to disappoint him,” Karjane recalls. ”He was just more nurturing and really cared about what we were learning. He stayed calm and made sure we were learning at every level without being mean. I felt like someone had your back all the time. He wouldn’t laugh, or sugarcoat. He wanted to make sure that you were being effective. It’s like parenting: You talk about improving a behavior, not that you are a bad person. He would take his time.”
When operating room procedures were rigorous, Cohen would come in and calmly tell Karjane and the other residents how to handle the situations. “The way he spoke, you didn’t think you were the dumbest person,” Karjane says.
Cohen, she says, influenced her to stay at VCU. “Now, I can’t imagine being anywhere else,” she says. “I am teaching students and training residents. It’s the ideal job. It’s so fulfilling. He was watching me on the career path, cultivating that in me. He has no idea the impact he’s had on people’s lives.”
Cohen’s positive and encouraging attitude lives on in Karjane, says Emily Barrows, a resident in VCU Health’s department of obstetrics and gynecology. “Dr. Karjane is uniquely optimistic and positive as a mentor,” Barrows says. “She is always eager to help people to pursue things they want to pursue.”
She adds that the medical field can be critical to those coming up in medicine, but not so in VCU Health’s department of obstetrics and gynecology, where the doctors are encouraging. “Dr. Karjane sets an example in the program in that direction,” Barrows says. “Her positivity helps when we’re struggling. Anytime a resident comes to her with a problem, she finds a positive solution.”
Karjane has been known to rescue residents caught in a housing crisis between apartments, even offering hospitality in her home.
“Being around her makes you want to be better; her energy is contagious,” says Sarah Milton, VCU Health assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology. She was a medical student and resident under Karjane and is now her colleague. “She’s like a little bright light. It only takes one mentor to change your whole career trajectory, someone who believes in you and what you do and influences your faith in what you can do. I’m following her career in pediatric and adolescent gynecology. She was quick to say, ‘You’re really good at it.’ ”
Karjane says she learned from Cohen the importance of lifelong learning in medicine and beyond; the importance of creating a positive learning environment where learners are engaged and feel safe to ask questions; and that asking for help when you are unsure how to proceed is a strength rather than a weakness.
Cohen says that in teaching, the job is to not let someone make a critical mistake, while giving them plenty of room to learn.
“I encouraged people to progress, working with them from nervous, anxious medical students,” he says. “I would teach them what they could do and what they couldn’t do, and teach them to practice the best they could. I operated with them, I delivered with them. Working with young people kept me current. I worked hard with students in a clinic and in labor and delivery. I got as much out of it as they did.”
