Although the division of her work favors
research, Stapleton, who is certified in
both pulmonary medicine and critical
care medicine, dedicates roughly 15-20
percent of her time to seeing patients in
the pulmonary clinic and the medical
intensive care unit. She also puts in time
on the pulmonary consult service and as
an attending physician.
Her teaching duties are twofold: in
addition to bedside instruction in the
context of clinical rotations, Stapleton
created and directs a special research
emphasis for doctor of medicine and
doctor of nursing practice students.
It’s made up of a longitudinal series of
seminars and workshops, and arose during
Stapleton’s time as head of the resident
and fellow research committee for the
Department of Medicine.
“When I took that role, I very quickly
started getting asked a lot of questions
from medical students who weren’t
formally in the department of medicine.
They wanted to know how they could find a
research mentor, what kind of projects were
available—soup to nuts—and it became
obvious there was a gap in those kinds of
opportunities and organization for students,”
she says. She brought her concern to medical
education leaders; they agreed that having
a point person for research activities would
be beneficial. Stapleton also suggested more
formal research education was needed
and, partnering with Amy O’Meara, D.N.P.,
applied for and received a 2016 Frymoyer
Scholar Award that allowed them to design
and implement a research education project.
The research emphasis has proven
popular as it has evolved over the last two
years from a monthly in-person seminar,
to a prerecorded online model, to take into account the many demands on the students’
time. Eventually, Stapleton says, incoming
students may have the option to choose one
or more tracks, such as rural or global health
or a self-designed focus that will include an
independent mentored research project, and
will receive a certificate of completion.
Presently, Stapleton oversees students’
summer research training, helping them
find mentors, and submit applications
and reports. That program has also grown
significantly—when Stapleton became
involved four years ago, 15 students had
summer projects; this year, 31 did.
“She’s committed to nurturing medical
students, residents, and fellows, and is
actively involved in the education of those
groups,” says Parsons. That commitment
extended in a unique way to a special
short-term course Stapleton and Parsons
developed, an elective for fourth-year
students called “How the Hospital Works.”
It offers experiential learning in all aspects
of a hospital’s functioning—administration,
nutrition, pharmacy, central supply, and
social work. “Renee saw an area of need, and
put together an opportunity. She just looks
for novel ways, and people benefit at multiple
levels,” says Parsons. “At the same time, she
is approachable and compassionate, totally
down-to-earth. In unlimited ways, she gives
back. She’s an incredible role model, just by
being here.”
Although Stapleton has mentored both
men and women, she keeps a special eye out
for the latter. A 2013 paper she co-authored
with Stanford University’s Ann Weinacker,
M.D., titled “Still a Man’s World, But Why?” and
published in Critical Care, stated, “[W]omen
who have achieved promotion and leadership
roles must take active and inclusive roles as
role-models, mentors, and advocates for junior
women in academic medicine. Women early in
their careers need proof that there is light at the
end of the academic tunnel.”
“She’s a fantastic mentor,” says Jacqueline
O’Toole, D.O., now a pulmonary and critical
care fellow at Johns Hopkins University, who
joined Stapleton in a study on the presence of
attendings in the medical ICU overnight, and
how that influences the perceived educational
value of overnight shifts for medical residents
and fellows, as well as how the nursing staff
view their presence. Stapleton’s guidance was invaluable to O’Toole.
“It takes a lot of patience when you’re
working with a novice researcher, and she
was always wonderful—I never felt like I was
wasting her time, and I know she has a lot of
demands on it,” says O’Toole. The paper was
published in the Medical Science Educator
in 2018.
Radhika Parikh, M.B.B.S., M.D., chose
Stapleton to be her mentor throughout the
three years of her fellowship at UVM in part to
focus on her medical literature writing skills.
“She is really a meticulous and wonderful
person to work with,” says Parikh (now a senior associate consultant in the Mayo
Clinic Health System). “Whether I was
doing a very small or a very important
presentation, she would take time out to sit
down with me a week in advance and again
one day ahead to have practice sessions and
not only focus on whether I would finish in
time, but also on small details like spelling
errors and slide formatting.” At least as
important to Parikh at the time, Stapleton
helped her personally. Raising her daughter
solo while her husband was in Connecticut,
Parikh was at times overwhelmed by her
commitments. Without saying a word,
Stapleton worked behind the scenes to get
the date of Parikh’s scheduled presentation
to the Vermont Lung Conference moved
so Parikh could focus on preparing for her
boards. “I don’t think I could have done
all this without her,” says Parikh, adding
that she’s as indebted to Stapleton for the
career and research exposure as she is her
parenting and life wisdom, and that she
became committed to staying active by
observing her mentor’s model.