DO - Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine

Second-year students Rachel Polinski, left, and Antwon Morton, right, listen to second- year student Victoria Tong, center, as she
relates one of her father’s experiences from World War II.
“Most of us don’t communicate mindfully; we just say what
we’re thinking and assume that there’s a shared meaning,”
Orbe says. “I teach receiver orientation, a concept that says
what’s more important is not what I’m saying, but how you
receive it.”
Investing in connecting
Burnett, Brieck and Thompson knew, from the overwhelmingly
positive response to the first seminar, that they needed to
do more. Orbe returned to speak to OU-COM’s incoming
first-year students in August 2006. They all participated in
Orbe’s four-hour presentation on intercultural communication
as it relates to medical practice.
Meanwhile, second-year students who had attended Orbe’s
winter quarter two-credit class and wanted more could
attend a refresher course. Both groups had the option to
attend three subsequent five-hour classes, but they earned
the certificate in intercultural communication only if they
attended all three.
About 50 percent of this year’s first-year class completed this
elective course. It’s no small feat considering the seminar’s
extensive reading list and the fact that sessions are often on
Friday evening or Saturday morning. This is in addition to
the students’ already rigorous medical training schedule.
“It’s a significant time commitment, but what you get out
of it is well worth the hours you give up,” Teagarden says.
“At medical school you’re so bombarded with the science
that you don’t take the time to appreciate how intricately
individual each situation is.”
Through Orbe’s seminar, students gain new levels of cultural
competency and mindful physician-patient communication,
but they also deepen their bond with one another.
Before bringing the final seminar class to a close, Orbe gathers
his students into a circle and tosses a colorful ball of yarn to
a young woman across the room. Still holding onto his end
of the yarn, he affirms the humanity of that student, who
tosses the yarn to another, and he to another. Soon multi-hued
strands, each representing gratitude, admiration or appreciation,
crisscross into an elaborate network of yarn.
“It is through communication that we establish this web
of dumela—of affirmation,” Orbe says. “Even though you
didn’t speak to everyone in this room, and despite our
many differences—look: we’re all connected.”
TODAY’S
DO
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