Passion for literature bonds physician, students

By JESSE SENDEJAS
Chronicle correspondent

Before he began reading Gray's Anatomy and the Physicians' Desk Reference, physician Randy Birken read the classics, books like Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, one of his favorites.

"I've always had a strong propensity for literature and poetry and have always felt that the literary arts reflected a lot of what a physician does, and that's dealing with the human condition," said Birken, a gynecologic surgeon who has practiced from Houston Northwest Medical Center since 1980. "I also felt that being able to pick up a literary work on a medical theme, such as grief or pain or suffering, provided a bit of an emotional catharsis for me and allowed me to re-focus on why I'm in this profession.

"That's when I decided, `You know, if you really have a love for this, you ought to go back and get some further education.' I was really doing it for my own edification."

What began as further pursuit of his love for literature has blossomed into a second career for Birken, who also resides in the FM 1960 area.

Since fall 2001, he's been teaching English as an adjunct faculty member for North Harris College. Last fall, Birken taught at the college's Parkway Center satellite.

This spring, he's teaching English 1302 -- a survey of fiction, poetry and drama -- to college students and high school seniors seeking dual credit from a satellite site at Klein High School.

"It really has been an extremely uplifting experience for me," he said. "Dealing with younger students I'm able to not only teach them an appreciation for the literary arts, but at the same time give them a lot of what I know as a physician over these last 21 years of dealing with the human condition and human nature. I think they really appreciate that.

"Not only that, but I've found they really are impressed that here is a doctor who has his own practice and is busy but still has enough of an appreciation for literature to come back and teach them, and I think they're much more receptive to that.

"Not that I'm looking for any more respect than they'd give any of their professors, but the fact that I'm doing it as really more a passion and an advocation I think means something to them."

It's a passion that was inspired by his father, who also was an avid reader and even wrote two, unpublished novels.

Through medical school in Boston, residency at Baylor College of Medicine, chief residency at Ben Taub and Jefferson Davis hospitals, Birken never lost his interest in the literary arts.

But, it wasn't until 1997 that he decided to return to school to better study the subject. By 2000, he'd earned a master's in liberal arts from Houston Baptist University.

Birken was eager to share his new appreciation and found a way to bring his literary and medical worlds together. He approached Baylor College of Medicine about teaching a lecture on medicine in literature.

That lecture is now part of the medical student curriculum at the college and is taken by third-year students.

Students will read various works that deal with illness from the patient's perspective, Birken said.

"I feel, by doing that, what we're able to do is enhance compassion and empathy with the medical students," he said. "Then I have literary works that deal with the actual responsibilities of the physician, works that we use written by doctors. I feel that will promote professional integrity to the students.

"And I also have works that deal with physicians and their own experiences of dealing with the stresses of medicine and patients they've become very attached with. I think that provides emotional catharsis for physicians and medical students."

The most important thing, he said, is to be able to relate the connection between science and humanities.

"I don't want students ever to lose sight that, as advanced as we've become technologically in medicine, we should never forget the human side and that we're there to take care of patients," he said. "If we can do it in a compassionate and conscientious way, we're much more effective."

Teaching those students encouraged Birken to seek opportunities to instruct literature on a broader scope. Some medical colleagues on North Harris College's adjunct faculty recommended the school.

"They have a great administration, an excellent faculty. I really didn't know what to expect, but I'm been most favorably impressed," he said.

Pat Timpanaro, former associate dean of North Harris' Parkway Center and the college district's current director of nursing, said she developed an enthusiasm for Shakespeare after taking one of Birken's classes last fall.

"He has such enthusiasm for his topic that it spills out and you think, `Gosh, I've go to go back and read Hamlet,' she said. "He connected with students. Let's face it, not everybody is nuts about Shakespeare or can appreciate him, but he made a connection with the students through his own enthusiasm."

Birken said the class at Klein High School has studied William Faulkner and Edgar Allen Poe this semester. He's looking forward to teaching John Updike, Emily Dickinson and T.S. Eliot in approaching weeks.

There are obvious differences between teaching third-year med students and students from his own neighborhood. Birken said he was worried he'd get to class and find someone he delivered 18 or 20 years ago, waiting for a lecture.

"I have to tell you, I found it very challenging," Birken said. "I definitely had some apprehension and trepidation the first time I went into class.

"Matter of fact, I even questioned, `Why are you doing this? You're comfortable operating on patients.' The first half-hour I felt a bit anxious and then it just kind of went away and it was like I had been doing this for 20 years."