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Spotlight: Donald Nash, MD

 

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Donald Nash, MD

Amy Wang shares her experience:

"Dr. Nash is a brilliant and compassionate physician. He is selfless, both with regard to patient care and teaching. He loves teaching students, which is evident when he explains concepts and allows us first-hand experiences, whether in the OR or clinic. In the clinic, he allows us to interview patients and then present to him individually. He asks us essential questions and challenges us when thinking of a differential, next steps, and plan. He observes us as we perform physical exams in the patient rooms, pointing out vital maneuvers and findings. For in-house procedures, he explains them and then allows us to perform them as he supervises and guides us. Many of Dr. Nash's explanations are not just for us students but also for the patients, so they understand what is going on and are fully involved in the plan. Dr. Nash can be quite the jokester as well! He encourages us to consider surgery and teases lightheartedly about other fields we are considering.

He's also very well known for bringing in food, specifically fresh corn from his local farm! He passes onto us his wisdom- his tips and tricks for heating up and then eating corn! Dr. Nash is a brilliant and compassionate physician. He is selfless, both with regard to patient care and teaching. He loves teaching students, which is evident when he explains concepts and allows us first-hand experiences, whether in the OR or clinic. In the clinic, he allows us to interview patients and then present to him individually. He asks us essential questions and challenges us when thinking of a differential, next steps, and plan. He observes us as we perform physical exams in the patient rooms, pointing out vital maneuvers and findings. For in-house procedures, he explains them and then allows us to perform them as he supervises and guides us. Many of Dr. Nash's explanations are not just for us students but also for the patients, so they understand what is going on and are fully involved in the plan. Dr. Nash can be quite the jokester as well! He encourages us to consider surgery and teases lightheartedly about other fields we are considering.

I have an extremely high level of respect and admiration toward Dr. Nash and am grateful to have had him as an attending during my surgery rotation."

After her surgery rotation, Briyana Domjahn shares her thoughts:

"Dr. Nash is a phenomenal surgeon. He had me pegged within a day of working together and saw my lack of confidence, so he pushed me in clinic and the OR, telling me that I need to walk into a room with confidence to instill confidence in my patients. He’s a wonderfully supportive teacher who praised me and supported me and pushed me toward my educational growth edges in a way that only a truly gifted and practiced teacher knows how to do. He’s a treasure and we are very lucky to have him at RUSH!"

Maricristal Chan shares that she always felt welcomed and encouraged to challenge herself while working with Nash:

"He was genuinely invested in our learning professionally and got to know us. He made all of us students feel like we were a part of the team. It was such a great experience to have had the opportunity to share conversations about the places we loved, like New Orleans. 'Laissez les bons temps rouler' (Let the good times roll) is a great way to describe how it was working with Dr. Nash."

Rebecca Wornhoff felt that Nash was terrific to work with:

"I was intimidated going into my surgery rotation. He was extremely welcoming from the first day and gave me opportunities in the clinic, and the OR I never expected to have. What really stuck with me was seeing patients he had operated on years ago who was still following up with Dr. Nash despite being medically cleared. It was apparent his patients just liked to visit him. One of the main lessons he taught that stuck with me is to use all my senses to examine patients and emphasize using my fingertips as the most sensitive diagnostic tool I had."

Christopher Mestyanek states that in his opinion Nash is an exceptional educator and surgeon:

"He knows when to challenge his students to make decisions for their patients and never misses an opportunity to teach, even in the busiest moments of the day. He leads by example with each of his patient encounters showing his students how both the art and science of medicine are essential to patient care."

John Walton also loved working with Nash:

"I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Nash at RUSH Oak Park Hospital. He was an excellent teacher and mentor, always pushing me to do more as a student. My favorite quote from him was, 'If you don’t learn how to do it now, when will you learn?' Showing the compassion, he had for teaching and having students be involved with patient care and procedures. He was always a joy to be around, and everyone in the hospital had great respect for him."