Dear Friends,
Happy spring! I have been so grateful to see the COVID hospitalizations decrease and the vaccination numbers increase.
I know that many of you are taking time off during spring break and/or visiting family that you may not have seen for over a year. My hope is that each of you have time to rejuvenate and connect with family and people you love.
March was Match month! We are excited about our diverse incoming pediatric and med/peds residency classes! Also, all of our medical students pursuing pediatrics successfully matched. Thank you to Kenya McNeal-Trice, Sofia Aliaga, Martha Perry, Eric Zwemer, Kaye Gable, Mike Brown, Joelle Kane, Hillary Liken, Liz Willis, Mike Contarino, Josh Berkowitz, Raquel Reyes, Erin Finn, Rick Hobbs, William Mills, Meg Kihlstrom, Kelly Lear, Robin Howard, Denita Moore, and Lynn West for leading these efforts, especially in the virtual world!
Our census has been very high! This is especially true for the NICU and PICU. I would like to thank our faculty and staff for their continued patience as we work towards solutions and for their incredible efforts in managing the census.
Please note that May 13 and May 14 will be our Days of Scholarship. Trainees are encouraged to submit abstracts! I am looking forward to a great two days.
At our last faculty meeting, updated promotion criteria were presented. We are offering two sessions to answer questions regarding the updated criteria. The dates and times for these sessions are: April 15 @ 11-12p and April 28 @ 8-9a
On a positive note, UNC was tied for 19th in the recent USNWR rankings for pediatric graduate education! Kudos to all the faculty who invest in teaching and research! (please see article below)
Thank you again for everything you do for our families at UNC Children’s! I am grateful to work with such a great team. I very much miss seeing everyone in-person!
Gratefully,
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UNC Children's Missions Update |
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Congratulations!
We are excited to announce that Danielle Stolfi, MSN, RN, CCRN, has been named Program Manager at UNC Health's Children's Heart Center. She has worked at UNC as a clinical nurse education specialist since 2016 and has recently been the Interim Program Manager of the Children's Heart Center team.
Stolfi received her MSN from Carolina Nursing in 2019. In addition to her new role, she was recently awarded the 2021 Dhillon Jordan Shah Innovation Fund in Congenital Heart Disease through the UNC School of Nursing. She and her team will receive $3,125 to conduct their study “A 3-Dimensional Dive into the Fundamentals of Pediatric Congenital Heart Defects.” We are excited Danielle will be leading our team!
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NCCC Team Tribute
Major kudos to Karen Wood, Andrea Trembath, and Susan Lynch, Newborn Critical Care Center (NCCC) attending physicians, and Ashley Sutton, Patient Access Coordinator. They put so much time, energy and effort into NCCC bed management in March.
Also, many kudos to the Nurses, Respiratory Therapists, Neonatal Nurse Practitioners, Residents and everyone else caring for our patients.
Also, many thanks to the PICU for accepting an outside newborn admission for the NCCC!
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UNC Peds ranked 19th best in US graduate programs...
Numerous University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate programs received high rankings once again - more than 30 were among the top 10 overall or among public universities in their respective categories - as part of U.S. News & World...
Read more
thewell.unc.edu
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2021 Virtual Day of Scholarship
May 13 & 14, 2021
Mark your calendars! This year's virtual Day of Scholarship schedule is below:
May 13th
8:00a-9:30a - Research and Quality Improvement Oral Presentations
12:00p-1:00p - Case Reports and Medical Education Oral Presentations
May 14th
12:30p-1:30p - Poster Session
All learners are highly encouraged to submit an abstract by Monday, April 12. Any abstracts received after this deadline will not be eligible for oral presentations or awards. If you are selected to give an oral presentation, you will be notified by April 23.
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Please Congratulate our recently Promoted Faculty! |
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Yael Shiloh-Malawsky, MD
Division of Child Neurology and Epilepsy
Promotion to Associate Professor of Neurology
Dr. Shiloh-Malawsky serves as the UNC Child Neurology Residency Program Director and is an active clinical member of the Division of Child Neurology. Her clinical and research interests include epilepsy, neurogenetics, plasticity in the developing brain, and muscular dystrophy pathology.
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First Black Female Pediatric Surgeon in the United States
It was not that long ago that there were no Black women serving as pediatric surgeons in the United States. Not one. That statistic could still be, if not for one woman's determination, perseverance and faith...
Read more
abc11.com
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Check Out New Accomplishments, Awards & Publications |
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Elizabeth Fitzgerald, MD - Pediatric Emergency Medicine - with the Pediatric Global Health team, has had three abstracts accepted for the 2021 Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) conference: “Introduction of a cognitive aid to enhance pediatric critical care in a Malawian central referral hospital”, “A Virtual Didactic Program to Support Post-Graduate Paediatric Training in Malawi During the COVID-19 Pandemic”, and “The Road Not Traveled: Adaptations made to a global health pathway for Pediatrics/Internal Medicine/ Med-Peds residents due to COVID-19 travel restrictions”.
Elizabeth Fitzgerald, MD - Pediatric Emergency Medicine - with the Pediatric Global Health team, has had two abstracts accepted for the 2021 Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) conference: "Validity of Pediatric Early Warning Score for Resource Limited Settings (PEWS-RL) in Severe Acute Malnutrition Compared to Non-Malnourished Peers," and "Mapping geographic pre-hospital risk factors for pediatric mortality at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi”.
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Colin Orr, MD - General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine - with recently graduated NRSA fellow, Skyler McLaurin-Jiang MD, MPH, and ECU/Brody School of Medicine Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Shaundreal D. Jamison, MD, published: Orr CJ, McLaurin-Jiang S, Jamison SD. Diversity of Mentorship to Increase Diversity in Academic Pediatrics. Pediatrics. 2021 Mar 23:e20193286. doi: 10.1542/peds.2019-3286. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33757995. |
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Jackie Patterson, MD – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine – was awarded funding from the Caregivers at Carolina (“Caregivers”) program to support their research. The goal of the Caregivers program is to support the retention of junior physician scientists facing substantial caregiving responsibilities by developing not only new sustainable initiatives but also leveraging and integrating existing programs, resources, and opportunities. The program provides supplemental research funding to physician scientists to support a research technician or buy-out of one day of clinical time.
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Her Quiet Service: “Where is Dr. Trice?”
Kenya McNeal-Trice, MD
As busy as we believe her to be, Dr. McNeal-Trice is actually much busier. She serves local groups and members of the community quietly - purposely avoiding fanfare and public recognition. However, we feel it's time to share just a little about how amazing Kenya really is.
Kenya is dedicated to her colleagues, learners, family, friends and community. We all know this and we all feel her care. Last year, at a large group outdoor meeting, someone fainted in the heat. In the span of a breath, the speaker at the podium called into the microphone, “Where is Dr. Trice?” True story. We all look to Kenya when we are in need.
As another example, Kenya probably holds the record for serving on the most search committees at UNC. Such service is not fairly distributed – instead it’s an indication of how much further we have to go in our search for a diverse faculty. For Kenya, this service is not about volunteering but it is about serving her colleagues and her community.
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In early March, Kenya was asked to talk with employees of Chapel Hill Schools to help improve vaccination rates and reduce vaccine hesitancy. We don’t know how she has the time but she still said yes. In addition, we know she has recently spent a several weekends in Raleigh administering COVID-19 vaccines. She truly cares about her community, both personal and professional, so she makes it work.
Since she tries to hide these things, we're sure there are many other examples of her inconspicuous service. We are honored that Kenya is out in the world representing UNC Children's so thoroughly, so happily, and so well. By sharing these stories and just a little of Kenya’s light, we hope not just to celebrate Kenya, but also to remind everyone to follow her example in our own service to our community.
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Twitter: Good for Something After All!
Check out these tweets from Dr. Ilona Jaspers as part of a Q&A social media campaign for the non-profit organization North Carolinians for a Tobacco-Free Generation.
She found it a really interesting mechanism to get short, defined messages out to the public.
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And it looks like others agree.
UNC Health recently launched a Twitter account to help distribute the handful of leftover doses they have at the end of the each day.
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Erin Bennard, RN
Airway Center Clinical Coordinator
UNC Children's Airway Center
Nominated by Terry Noah, MD
Erin Bennard, RN has been the UNC Children’s Airway Center Clinical Coordinator and the Pediatric Bronchoscopy Nurse for the past several years. In that role she provides amazing clinical care for some of our most complex and high-risk pulmonary patients, in the setting of their procedures. Erin’s role is often the central one in coordinating multiple services including Pulmonology, Otolaryngology, Anesthesiology and others, to meet families’ needs, minimize anesthetic exposures for these children, and enhance the safety and effectiveness of the procedures. Moreover, she makes herself available for weekend and evening procedures when necessary, always with a cheerful, thoughtful and energetic approach. We would be lost without her!
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