Shawn Galin, Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, has been named director of the Clinical Skills Center in the School of Medicine, effective Dec. 1.In this new role, Galin will work with clinical faculty and staff to re-structure the standardized patient program. One of his immediate goals will be to develop a transition plan to move the Clinical Skills Center under UAB’s Center for Interprofessional Education and Simulation (CIPES) over the next year—a move that will allow the center to become a campus-wide facility providing the best standardized patient training for all undergraduate and graduate students pursuing health careers, including medicine, nursing and health-related professions.
“It is critical that we integrate clinical skills training scenarios into our overall education of health care providers throughout their training and to create Interprofessional educational experiences for students,” said Rick Kilgore, Ph.D., director of the Physician Assistant Program in the UAB School of Health Professions. “Dr. Galin’s reputation as an excellent teacher within the school and across the campus and his understanding of the importance of training a wide variety of health care providers makes him best suited for this role.”
“Shawn has a longstanding commitment to medical education, not just in the School of Medicine, but across the UAB community,” said Craig Hoesley, M.D., senior associate dean for Medical Education in the School of Medicine. “He has tremendous leadership skills and his staunch advocacy for students has led him to be recognized repeatedly by medical students as a top educator and course director.”
Galin has been consistently recognized for the past seven years as a top teacher by medical students in their annual Argus Awards, the highest honor medical students bestow to faculty.
Galin has led medical simulation immersion and interprofessional medical simulation courses for students in the in the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing the past two years. He’s directed the Endocrine Systems module in the Medical School curriculum since 2008 and in the Graduate Biomedical Science curriculum since 2011; directed clinical small groups in Endocrine Systems since 2008, and led the “Modeling Human Disease” graduate course since 2009.
An associate professor of Medicine, Galin joined the UAB faculty in 1996 after completing his undergraduate studies in biology/psychology (1988), master’s degree in physiology (1990), doctorate in physiology (1994) and postdoctoral training, all at UAB. He serves on the Admissions and Medical Education committees in the School of Medicine and on the Education Strategic Planning Committee and Pulmonary Fellows Education Committee in the Department of Medicine.
In his new role as director of the Clinical Skills Center, he will report to Marjorie Lee White, M.D., assistant dean for Clinical Simulation in the School of Medicine and director of the Office of Interprofessional Simulation, a division of CIPES.
“We’re pleased that Dr. Galin has accepted the challenge to lead,” said Ashley L. Hodges, Ph.D., assistant dean for Graduate Clinical Program in the UAB School of Nursing. “His understanding of the impact of clinical simulation labs can plan in health professional education will be a great asset as interprofessional simulation continues to grow at UAB.”