David Rainey was a nontraditional student in the 糖心vlog视频鈥檚 Master of Education program. Most M.Ed. students are teachers. Rainey was a medical student at UW Seattle.
He specifically wanted to attend UW Bothell to add a master鈥檚 in Education to his medical degree, said Brad Portin, who was Rainey鈥檚 faculty adviser and now is professor emeritus in the School of Educational Studies. Rainey received his M.Ed. in 2014 and M.D. in 2015.
鈥淚t really served me well in terms of giving me more of the academic language and background in how medical education has evolved over the last century in the United States,鈥 said Rainey, who works as assistant director of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency Program at Harvard鈥檚 T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Wearing many hats
Rainey also is an instructor at the Harvard Medical School and consulting medical director in occupational health at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He said he 鈥渨ears all these hats鈥 out of his primary job at the Cambridge Health Alliance occupational health clinic in Boston. He spends about 80% of his time in the clinic seeing patients and training medical residents, the rest of his time teaching or doing administrative work.
The M.Ed. gave him the 鈥渢ools and framework to evaluate how medical education is being done and what aims and goals we鈥檙e serving and not serving,鈥 Rainey said. The knowledge of curriculum design and learning environments was really valuable, he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something I鈥檝e been able to put to use.鈥
The master鈥檚 degree started him on a career path into academic medicine that led to his current position, Rainey said.
鈥淭he things I learned through the M.Ed. at UW Bothell help inform how I teach my own class and also how I look at global issues around education reform.鈥
Research and education
Occupational medicine doctors specialize in workplace health and safety. Rainey鈥檚 own research has been in firefighters鈥 health and nutrition.
鈥淭he No. 1 cause of on-duty death is not the fire, not injuries, not smoke inhalation; it鈥檚 sudden cardiac death,鈥 Rainey said. 鈥淎 lot of it can be mitigated by reducing firefighter risk factors for cardiovascular disease.鈥
It鈥檚 more challenging than telling firefighters they need to eat healthier and exercise, Rainey said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really a cultural issue, and the senior officers set the tone in terms of what鈥檚 for lunch and what鈥檚 for dinner. We鈥檙e trying a lot of educational initiatives.鈥
Rainey retains his interest in medical education reform and how schools balance physician training with research and clinical enterprises.
鈥淚鈥檓 interested in having the best medical instruction available to all students,鈥 Rainey said. 鈥淚 would like to see content between medical schools shared more universally and a greater emphasis placed on simulation, skill development and clinical training locally.鈥
Boise to Bothell
While Rainey was a UW Bothell student, he was living in his hometown, Boise, Idaho, with a young family. Portin was supportive and flexible in customizing courses with independent study in the areas of medical education and education technology. Rainey would travel once or twice a month to Bothell and stay a week or more. It helped that his wife鈥檚 family lives in Bothell.
Portin said having a medical student in the M.Ed. program showed students issues in both fields.
鈥淢edical and education quality and access share many elements,鈥 Portin said. 鈥淲e were fortunate to be able to work with Dr. Rainey.鈥
Rainey valued his one-to-one meetings with Portin and fondly recalls discussions with Professor Wayne Au and Senior Lecturer Karen Gourd, who has since retired.
鈥淎nother thing unique to UW Bothell was the strong emphasis on social justice in education,鈥 Rainey said. 鈥淎 lot of things that I read 鈥 that I might not have otherwise come across 鈥 were very enlightening and helped shape my perspective.
鈥淭hey also opened my eyes to issues in medicine, such as the selection process for students in medical schools, and helped me think about the ways we institutionally discriminate against people of various backgrounds and how we might go about changing that,鈥 he said.
M.Ed. moves forward
The School of Educational Studies has recently completed the redesign of its M.Ed. program, offering a newly enhanced course of study. The goal is to maintain a top-tier academic program that better meets the needs of educators in a diverse array of disciplines in an accessible, affordable and inventive way.
Applications for the M.Ed. will open in autumn 2019 with the first cohort of the updated M.Ed. program beginning in autumn 2020. Learn more about the UW Bothell Master in Education program.
