Motivation of university surgeons to achieve excellence in teaching

In view of the recent focus on the accountability of their commitment to teaching, university surgeons will have to rearrange their academic priorities to place teaching at the top of the list. Since excellence in medical teaching appears to be directly related not only to the motivation of the educator but to knowledge of the subject, we must retain our superiority as clinical surgeons and continue to pursue new scientific information by investigation. Inasmuch as the major reason for the low priority of teaching in our busy academic schedules is the difficulty of quantifying teaching excellence, I hope that the members of this Society will direct further attention to developing new evaluative approaches. The worthiness of our efforts toward motivating university surgeons of achieve excellence in teaching will be rewarded by the enhanced quality of the students into whose hands we place the future of surgery. I greatly appreciate this opportunity to express some of my concerns about the teaching effectiveness of university surgeons and hope that it may stimulate and challenge you to give a new vitality to teaching and to consider new approaches in surgical education. I believe that we should inspire each other to strive for excellence in education as well as in research and clinical care and to develop a deeper commitment and genuine concern for assuring that our students and residents learn what we have to teach.