Des Moines University is dedicated to teaching compassionate health care professionals and is a proud chapter of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS), which rewards student leaders for their compassion.
Thirty-two Des Moines University osteopathic medical students were recognized for their leadership, compassion and commitment to service with induction into the honor society at a June 11 ceremony.
Selected students are entering their fourth year of education and have one year of clinical clerkships under their belts. Student interaction with patients, colleagues and mentors during the third year is one of the ways potential GHHS members are identified.
“It is a distinct pleasure to welcome our new inductees into the Des Moines University Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society,” said Gary Hoff, D.O., faculty advisor for GHHS and associate professor of Behavioral Medicine, Medical Humanities and Bioethics. “These new members have been nominated by their peers and faculty for the clinical acumen, dedication to the wider community and clear professionalism that all of us want our students to embody. As members of GHHS, these student physicians enter an elect group that will exemplify those traits for all of us, now and in the future.”
Two resident physicians were also honored at the ceremony. Laura Abels, D.O.’12, and Daniel Dodge, D.O.’13, received the Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award. Abels, a second-year family medicine resident at Mercy Medical Center — Des Moines, and Dodge, a first-year internal medicine resident with UnityPoint Health, were nominated by students for their compassion and a dedication to teaching that went above and beyond that of other residents.
“It is particularly gratifying to note that this year the recipients of the Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award are both graduates of DMU. Dr. Abels and Dr. Dodge, each in a special way, have been enormously influential in the education of year three students. Each exemplifies the best in our graduates and have been true role models in their education,” said Hoff.
The Gold Humanism Honor Society was started in the late 1990s by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and is designed to honor senior medical students, residents, physician-teachers and others for “demonstrated excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication to service.” DMU became the second osteopathic school to be granted a chapter in 2007.
For more information GHHS and the Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award, visit www.humanism-in-medicine.org.
