Vineeta Kumar, M.D., professor in the Division of Nephrology, faced an unenviable task each year as she stepped into a cavernous auditorium in Volker Hall. More than 170 medical students, their brains stuffed at the very end of a 13-month first year, are waiting to tackle a complicated and often-overlooked organ: the kidney. It is safe to say that many of these future doctors, dedicated as they are, would rather be elsewhere. Kumar invites them to change their minds.
Kumar, a renowned specialist in kidney transplantation, is a key architect of the record-setting, lifesaving UAB Kidney Chain. Alabama, where kidney disease is among the top 10 killers, provides endless clinical challenges. Kumar loves kidneys. And year after year, many of her students find that they do as well.
"This incredible superhuman did the impossible and made learning a challenging subject fun," enthused one medical student. "I have found myself loving renal because she loves renal," wrote another (using the medical adjective for kidneys). "This is my first time ever giving narrative feedback; I just want her to know how thankful and appreciative we are of her," added a third trainee doctor. These are just a few of the glowing appraisals that earned Kumar selection for the 2019 UAB President's Award for Excellence in Teaching in the School of Medicine.
Under her leadership with her co-directors, “the renal module was awarded the best module by the medical students for the first time in UAB history," wrote Department of Medicine Vice Chair for Education Lisa Willett, M.D., and Medicine Chair Seth Landefeld, M.D., in a letter of support. "Dr. Kumar is a true role model." A student shared the same sentiment: "She is one I want to be like when I 'grow up.'" (This is the first year that Kumar will not be directing the renal module, a role for which she has been mentoring the division’s junior faculty. She will continue to teach some sessions, however.)
| "This is my first time ever giving narrative feedback; I just want her to know how thankful and appreciative we are of her." |
What's her secret? Recommendation letters establish that Kumar has a deep feel for the material. "She has clearly gained national prominence for her teaching activities," wrote Anupam Agarwal, M.D., division director and Marie S. Ingalls Endowed Chair in Nephrology. He noted that Kumar was selected as chair of the education committee of the American Society for Transplantation, one of several national recognitions of Kumar’s teaching ability.
"Three years later, we have not forgotten any of her explanations and remain astonished at her ability to know and convey such minute details in a relaxed but effective way," said Adam Lucy, a fourth-year medical student. He shares a fellow-student's story of bringing Kumar a massive diagram that the student had made to help herself memorize the convoluted details of kidney function. "It was four posters taped together, with color-coded hormonal actions and a mess of notes scribbled in pen," the student said. "I was expecting for her to not be able to make any sense of it. Instead, she studied it for a few seconds and then proceeded to walk me through my own drawings and explanations. For over 30 minutes, she re-taught me renal physiology one-on-one by kindly correcting any mistakes and filling in the gaps of missing information."
| “She came in on a weekend when she found out that I was balancing being a medical student and a mom. The 30-minute appointment stretched into two hours and every one of those minutes, Dr. Kumar helped me move beyond understanding and begin to think analytically about complicated concepts and pathophysiology.... It is completely due to Dr. Kumar that I passed renal with flying colors." |
That story illustrates a consistent theme in appraisals of Kumar's teaching: a focus on each student, as an individual, and a desire to help them succeed. That, in turn, inspires students to reciprocate. Kumar and her co-directors reward right answers during lectures with pins and other kidney-related presents. "I still see many of my classmates wearing their 'Renal Whiz' pins on the lapel of their white coats like a trophy," Lucy said.
"I am so excited to begin third year and make Dr. Kumar proud on the wards," said Poojitha Balakrishnan. Balakrishnan credits Kumar with helping her get through a challenging first year of medical school. In addition to the academic challenge, "I was juggling coming off being hospitalized from complications from the flu and being a first-time mom to a one-year-old," Balakrishnan said. "I remember falling short on the renal midterm and thinking that renal was a discipline that I would never master. When I reached out to Dr. Kumar, she readily agreed to meet with me. She came in on a weekend when she found out that I was balancing being a medical student and a mom. The 30-minute appointment stretched into two hours and every one of those minutes, Dr. Kumar helped me move beyond understanding and begin to think analytically about complicated concepts and pathophysiology.... It is completely due to Dr. Kumar that I passed renal with flying colors."
"Teaching is at the intersection of Dr. Kumar's vocation, profession, passion and mission," Agarwal said.
| “As a teacher, it is my continuing adventure to make that invitation to relationship as compelling, engaging and persuasive as possible. And when the students respond with a yes to this invitation, there have been few moments in my professional life capable of approximating the fulfillment." |
Kumar said "teaching is my chosen calling" — and she is resolute that she herself always has more to learn. "I see no end to improvement, no arrival, no completion," she said. "I want to be that teacher who, even after decades in the classroom, still leaves each session asking how the next might be better, how to better engage and inspire this next unique set of students."
Kumar believes that teaching is "an invitation to relationship," she said. "If genuinely self-motivated, lifelong learning is to take place and students are to develop understanding and analyses of data, care, compassion that enable them to grow as critically informed and active citizens of their communities, then choice about whether to accept the invitation must always remain theirs. As a teacher, it is my continuing adventure to make that invitation to relationship as compelling, engaging and persuasive as possible. And when the students respond with a yes to this invitation, there have been few moments in my professional life capable of approximating the fulfillment."