Teaching Awards 2007

Surgeon teacher operates with openness

Learning how to tie a knot could be pretty dry, but not the way Sean Harbison teaches this critical surgeon’s skill. At a recent surgical simulation workshop for medical students, he told jokes and personal stories, while sharing tricks for maneuvering curved needles and burying stitches under the skin. The students grew comfortable and confident as they practiced for their first real surgery.

Harbison’s teaching style stands in stark contrast to that of the traditional academic surgeon. And its success contributed toward his winning a 2007 Lindback Award for Teaching Excellence.

“There’s a stereotype of surgeons as authoritative and aloof, possibly arrogant and caustic. I found that with some of my teachers and I didn’t enjoy it. So when I became a teacher, I made a conscious decision to be nicer and more approachable,” explained Harbison, a professor and vice chair for surgical education and director of the required clinical clerkship in general surgery in the School of Medicine.

“In the operating room, he is the surgeon that shakes a student’s hand on his first case, tells jokes to make him relax and then instructs him to pick out a CD from his own enormous personal collection, thus helping him relax and feel he is part of a special team,” a student said.

“He is one of the most approachable members of our faculty, relating to others in an easy, friendly, non-threatening manner but always professional and never compromising his role or expectations as an educator and physician,” said a colleague.

And that is Harbison’s secret. He helps students overcome the intimidating prospect of cutting into another human being by engaging and involving them right away. In fact, he is known for giving many students their first operating room experience. Yet at the same time he helps students understand the awesome responsibility and privilege that comes with being a surgeon.

As one former student recalled, “I remember my first case with him. He asked the nurse to pass the scalpel to me, and I thought there must be some mistake. But he readied the surgical field and instructed me how to make the incision and I made a smooth, even incision into the patient’s abdomen. How amazing that felt.”
Harbison, a Philadelphia native, graduated magna cum laude from LaSalle University, where he majored in biology and first set his sights on medicine. At Temple’s School of Medicine, he gravitated toward the immediacy and action of surgery.

After a surgical residency at Graduate Hospital, he pursued a fellowship in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and a fellowship in surgical education sponsored by the Association for Surgical Education.
He held appointments at Graduate Hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and MCP-Hahnemann University before deciding to return to Temple in 2003.

“Temple is unpretentious. I love working with the people here,” Harbison said. “I love that it’s in North Philly and the mission to help people not as well-off. I love the students. They are hungry and have a lot of energy.”

And the students love him right back.

“Upperclassmen told us to be sure to get as much time as possible with Dr. Harbison,” said one student, while another described lines of students forming at the scrub sink to spend an hour or two with him in the operating room.

One would think an award winning-teacher like Harbison had nothing left to learn about his profession, yet he’s currently pursuing a master’s degree in education at Temple. Once you hear about his family tree, however, this pursuit makes sense.

Everyone in his family, save his younger brother who’s an engineer, is a teacher, including his parents, three sisters and wife.

— Eryn Jelesiewicz