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| Jock Murray is professor emeritus at AV俱乐部. |
He鈥檚 not a hockey phenom like Sidney Crosby, and there鈥檚 no telling when he last donned skates. But he is a 鈥渏ock.鈥�
Thomas John Murray鈥攂etter known as Dr. Jock Murray鈥攕tickhandled changes at AV俱乐部鈥檚 Faculty of Medicine to emphasize the more humanistic and caring aspects of medical education.
For his efforts, Dr. Murray is among five Nova Scotians鈥攊ncluding home-grown star Sidney Crosby鈥攏amed to the Order of Nova Scotia.
Besides Sidney Crosby, other notable Nova Scotians named to the honour are the late Mi鈥檏maq activist Nora Madeline Bernard of the Millbrook First Nation, Pier 21 instigator Ruth Goldbloom (a former chancellor of TUNS), dedicated volunteer Michael Dan MacNeil of Jamesville in Cape Breton and health-care champion Mahmood Ali Naqvi of Sydney.
鈥淚 think it recognizes a collaborative life,鈥� says Dr. Murray, who is as busy as ever since his retirement from the university five years ago. 鈥淚 have been blessed by the ability to work in teams and to be helped so much by others.鈥�
Imbalance in medical education
Dr. Murray changed the face of AV俱乐部鈥檚 Faculty of Medicine in the early 1990s. He was the Dean of Medicine and past director of the faculty鈥檚 Multiple Sclerosis research unit for 23 years. He is widely respected as a teacher, administrator, neurologist and researcher.
Feeling that there was an imbalance in medical education, which he thought was too heavily weighted towards the sciences, Dr. Murray launched the Humanities-in-Medicine Program in 1992. He believes the understanding of people is better learned through literature, poetry and art than most medical textbooks. He also opened medical school admissions to welcome students who wished to pursue medicine regardless of their undergraduate major. And perhaps most importantly, he changed the process of learning from the lecture format to one based on problem solving.
鈥淢y feeling was that medical students were being taught by way of a process that had been in place for a century,鈥� he explains. 鈥淎nd science only answers some problems about patients and their illnesses 鈥� Some of the concerns about doctors up to that time were that they didn鈥檛 understand or they weren鈥檛 sympathetic or they didn鈥檛 listen. We really wanted to address that.鈥�
He is also the founder and first president of the AV俱乐部 Society for the History of Medicine, and in 2004, was appointed professor emeritus in the humanities at the medical school.
The investiture ceremony for the Order of Nova Scotia will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 8 at Province House. It is the highest honour of the Province of Nova Scotia and was established in June 2001.