When Dr. Daniel Grushka was completing a
surgical rotation as a clinical clerk, he remembers seeing a quote of Mark
Twain’s posted outside one of the operating rooms that stayed with him, "It is
better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid, than to open it and remove
all doubt.” While this may seem like common sense to many inexperienced and
unsure medical students, he disagreed with the novelist’s advice, "I always
opened my mouth and have encouraged all my students to do the same. We learn
from talking through our clinical dilemmas and through our mistakes.”
Born and raised in Montreal, Dr. Grushka attended McGill University and worked
toward both a BSc. and MSc. in Microbiology and Immunology before moving to London
and earning his MD from the (now) Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.
When it came time to choose a specialty, his previous education made him
initially consider Infectious Diseases, but he ultimately decided upon Family and Emergency Medicine because "it was intellectually stimulating, fairly all
encompassing and [allowed him] to experience a wide variety of medical problems
and procedures while still developing strong relationships with patients both
in the clinic and the ER department.”
Dr. Grushka examining a young patient
Dr.
Grushka completed his residency in the Department of Family Medicine and opted for
an additional year of training in emergency medicine through the Department’s
Enhanced Skills Program, for which he is now the Director. Currently, he
practices family medicine at the Victoria Family Medical Centre and Emergency Medicine at the Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital. In addition to his clinical
responsibilities, he is the Deputy Registrar of the Medical College of Canada
for the University of Western Ontario and heavily engaged in teaching both by
supervising residents and medical students and as a Behavioural Medicine lecturer for the
Department.
While
he was growing up, Dr. Grushka was able to witness firsthand the impact an
educator can make as his mother taught English and special needs children. First
instructing as a graduate student at McGill, he found he greatly enjoys
teaching and now actively seeks out new opportunities. Teaching as a physician
is especially rewarding to him because he loves "being able to help students and residents reach their potential. It gives me great satisfaction to not only teach
them standards of care and guidelines, but to show them how it relates to the patient
as a whole . . . not just a clinical dilemma.” He describes his teaching
philosophy as a simple one, "To provide a nurturing and stimulating environment,
to impart knowledge and skills and to ensure that students are able to become
lifelong learners.” Additionally, he
admits it has not been long since he was in the "student’s shoes” and sees
benefit in sharing his own unique experiences with the students to reassure
them that "the arduous journey they are pursuing has been navigated by numerous
physicians before them.”
As a native
Montrealer, one of Dr. Gushka’s favourite hobbies is cheering on the Montreal
Canadiens on TV or live whenever he has the chance, proudly declaring that he
owns more Canadiens shirts than he does neckties. He has been married to his
wife for four years, and they have two young children, a daughter and a son. A
Bernese Mountain Dog and a tabby cat round out their family. When he has time
to read for pleasure, he prefers gripping "page-turners,” such as the latest
Harry Potter novel. He also enjoys a wide range of TV shows including old
classics like ER and Star Trek to new favourites such as Dexter and Mad Men.