Family Medicine Clinician Spotlight: Christine Morley, MD
As faculty at Methodist Hospital Family Medicine Residency, Christine Morley, MD, advises residents and precepts in the clinic and hospital setting. Her primary role is working with family medicine inpatient and gynecology/OB curriculums, co-leading the CBME curriculum, and co-teaching the Women’s Health Course for the Family Medicine Clerkship for the University of Minnesota School of Medicine’s third-year medical students.
What brings you joy in practicing your specialty and why?
My interactions with my patients is what feeds my soul in my own practice and watching my residents grow in knowledge and confidence in my faculty role. Graduation is my favorite time, remembering how far these brilliant minds have come and to think I was a part of helping shape them.
Why did you choose family medicine?
I enjoyed all aspects of medicine, and on my family medicine rotation in rural North Dakota, I saw everything I wanted in my own practice someday. I went from delivering a baby, to well-child visits, to admitting an older adult patient who was in the process of dying from stage 4 cancer to the hospital. As I held her hand in the emergency department while she was waiting for her family to come, I knew family medicine was where I was meant to be.
What advice would you give to yourself as a physician just starting out?
Be kind to yourself and continue to ask questions to your colleagues and mentors as you will never know everything. Be curious and be open to change. Never stop learning.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Family time with my husband, my six-year-old and three-year-old children and dog Doug; getting lost in a book; and learning how to play piano.
What are your key messages when teaching residents clinical care?
Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to be perfect. You don’t come in to residency to prove yourself, as you have already done that, but come in to improve yourself.
What are you particularly proud of as you consider your clinical career so far?
I was going to be a math professor if I didn’t get into medical school. Once I realized I could teach and practice medicine, that combination was my goal at some point. To already have both aspects of these in my career has been such a joy.
What do you hope to achieve in the years to come?
Continue to grow as a faculty member, continue to enrich young minds, enjoy my clinical practice, and maintain good work-life balance to be there for my family, residents, and patients.
