Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, September 18, 2020
In this Issue:

Director's Corner
  • Adina Kalet, MD, MPH: The future of our profession must find their voices

Perspective
  • David Lambert, M4: Front Line Adjacent: A Reflection on being Removed from Clinical Rotations
  • Olivia Davies - MCW-Milwaukee Medical student Class of 2021: May I have Coffee?
  • Reed Colling, MCW Green Bay M4 & Olivia Davies - MCW-Milwaukee medical student Class of 2021:"Questions from Milwaukee” Q & A with Reed Colling, MCW-Green Bay M4
  • Kelli Cole & Gopika SenthilKumar: The Life Bus Project: How two MCW Medical Students engaged in Social Innovation
  • Jess Sachs, M3: The Unsolvable Tension Behind Good Intentions: Confronting Sincerity and its Shadow

Poetry Corner
  • Hayden Swartz: I held a heart today

Your Turn
  • See how readers answered last week's prompt: Where were you on September 11, 2001 and how did you learn of the attacks?
  • Respond to this week's prompt: What is your favorite thing about fall in Wisconsin?

Announcements & Resources
  • Innovations in Healthcare Education Research (IHER) Conference
  • Register for the Kern Institute's Upcoming Virtual Events
  • Kern National Network Connections Newsletter - September 2020
Director's Corner
The future of our profession must find their voices

by Adina Kalet, MD, MPH

Dr. Kalet celebrates the 25th and first student edited issue of the Transformational Times and argues for the critical importance of strengthening student voices in the transformation of medical education. 

“I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.”- Joan Didion

" COVID-19 and the events of the last 6 months has provided us all with a classic disorienting dilemma. According to Meszirow’s transformative learning theory, disorienting dilemmas occur when people have experiences that do not fit their expectations and that they cannot resolve without changing their world views and challenging basic underlying assumptions and beliefs. This perspective transformation is not a common event, but when it does happen, theory has it, profound learning occurs. A strong professional identity is facilitated by these uncomfortable or distressing experiences when coupled with an ability to reflect on what one has learned- usually in writing- and expert support from coaches, mentors, faculty, peers, or others (Kegan & Lahey, 2009).

There is a great deal of evidence that cultivating an ability to write reflectively, expressively and stylistically well is critical to “locking in” learning experiences for the long run- especially if those experiences are emotionally intense. But good reflective writing requires effortful practice. Even for those who do it for a living and find it pleasurable, good writing is never easy. In these very stressful times- given the potential for transformative learning- I believe we should encourage our trainees to cultivate a habit of reflective writing. "
Perspective
Front Line Adjacent: A Reflection on being Removed from Clinical Rotations

by David Lambert, M4

David Lambert, now an M4. He writes about being pulled off of rotations as an M3 in March.  

"I was just over two weeks into my internal medicine clerkship when I first heard the news that medical students would be removed from rotations due to COVID-19. I was filled with a flood of emotions. I was sure by then that I wanted to go into internal medicine, so of course I was disappointed I would not be able to finish our rotation. But I was mostly sad to say goodbye to the team. In just two weeks, we had already experienced late nights, challenging call shifts and difficult cases. We had experienced a range of emotions together and formed a deep sense of trust that made them feel like more than just coworkers. These are the very elements that are important for providing quality care. These elements also made it very hard for me to say goodbye. I realized that a team that I had come to genuinely care about would be facing a global pandemic that we still knew very little about.
As our rotations moved online, my days were filled with uncertainty. Each day, we would receive updates from the school and hospitals. Everyone was trying to react, to do the right thing, and to ease our anxiety. Third-year medical students are used to adapting to changing environments-we are never in the same rotation for more than four weeks. However, moving online felt profoundly different. In some ways, I felt like an imposter-not knowing when we would see another patient made me feel like I was just pretending to be a medical student. I had become accustomed to finding ways to be helpful in my rotations and seeking every possible opportunity to learn how to be a good physician. However, now as I sat at home with my laptop in front of me watching the coronavirus numbers rise, I felt helpless. I was fearful for the world, our nation, and my colleagues in the hospitals.". 
Perspective -Interviewing in the COVID-19 Era
May I have Coffee?

by Olivia Davies - MCW-Milwaukee
medical student Class of 2021



" I’ve tried three different zoom set ups, four if you count the one from my couch that I joke about. One of my friends has a bouquet of flowers set stage left on her screen, just in sight. I play with the tilt of my monitor to see if I can show the top leaves of my split leaf philodendron which sits on the floor next to me. Staring at the white wall behind me through the screen monitor I catch a glisten – is that grease? I turn around to examine it in real time, yup, grease. How did that even get there? To be fair, I am sitting next to the wall where our dinner table was just a mere two days ago before I declared it my new interview spot.
 
“Do you have the Milk Street Cookbook?” my fiancé calls from the other room. I sigh, removing it from the stack underneath my laptop. I know I should be grateful he’s making the grocery list this week (like he does almost every week), but doesn’t he understand we only have so many laptop-sized books in this apartment to elevate the built-in camera? I realize using Milk Street as my laptop prop probably won’t be sustainable."
Perspective - Life as an MCW Regional Campus Student
"Questions from Milwaukee” Q & A with Reed Colling, MCW-Green Bay M4

by Reed Colling, MCW Green Bay M4 & Olivia Davies - MCW-Milwaukee medical student Class of 2021


Associate Editor Olivia Davies (MCW-MKE M4) asks Reed Colling (MCW-GB M4) questions about what it’s like to be a student at one of MCW’s regional campuses. 

" Olivia: “Regional campus students have a different curriculum than MKE students. Refresh me on how that works, and what do you like better about it?”

Reed: “The curriculum during the M1 and M2 year are actually identical. The main difference is earlier clinical exposure and less time for electives. On the Green Bay campus, we start our core clerkships during the summer after M1 year. While it is challenging to start clinic before learning all the pathophysiology presented in the M2 year, starting to develop our clinical skills early on is super helpful as we progress through our education. One downside is there are only six weeks available for electives. By graduation, the difference between the main campus and the regional campuses is actually only twenty weeks of instruction.”

Olivia: “I know you’re applying Emergency Medicine (EM) this year and decided to do a fourth year, what does that process look like at a regional campus? How is your fourth year different than an M4 student on the MKE campus?”

Reed: “While the goal of the regional campus is to graduate as many students in three years as possible, the administration is very supportive of students pursuing whatever specialty fits them best! After you take USMLE Step 1, you submit an application requesting a fourth year outlining why it is necessary for your career path. In EM, you typically need to complete two EM rotations at a program with a residency which would not be possible during the accelerated curriculum. The application is then reviewed by both the MKE and regional campus. After a fourth year is approved, there is very little difference between an M4 student on the MKE campus and the regional campuses! We complete a mixture of rotations in MKE, on the regional campus, and away rotations.” "
Perspective
The Life Bus Project: How two MCW Medical Students engaged in Social Innovation

by Kelli Cole & Gopika SenthilKumar 


Medical Students Kelli Cole & Gopika SenthilKumar describe how they partnered and utilized their passion, ingenuity, entrepreneurial mindsets, and community support to design a real-world public health solution which gave them a transformative learning experience. 

" We remember March 2020 clearly. The two of us, were looking forward to getting started on our Kern Institute TI2 project and finalizing our summer lab rotations. Suddenly, there were constant news updates about rising death tolls around the world and an incoming sense of doom as the pandemic spread to the US. As we watched the initial responses, we could not help but notice all the ways that our healthcare systems were not prepared - personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages, disproportionate impact on vulnerable and low-income communities, intensifying health disparities, fear amongst frontline healthcare workers. In an effort to help, we put together a grassroots team of students, physicians, scientists, and engineers for the Johns Hopkins COVID19 Design Challenge held in early April. Life Bus, the solution that sprouted from the competition and evolved since, has not only allowed us to persist towards improving healthcare delivery and access starting in our own MKE community, but has also been an incredible opportunity for growth and reflection.
 
In this article, we hope to share our story and reflect on our key takeaways/learnings thus far."
Perspective
The Unsolvable Tension Behind Good Intentions: Confronting Sincerity and its Shadow

by Jess Sachs, M3

Jess Sachs, M3, explores the complex relationship between intentions and actions as she seeks to understand anti-racism and navigate her way toward being a consistent, effective ally.
*the following this is an editorial piece and therefore does not represent the views, opinions and polices of MCW.

" Like many, I have become increasingly motivated to step up and advocate for justice and equity. Also like many, I struggle to determine where I am most needed and how to strike the delicate balance between white savior and white ally. So when advocating for Black lives became “trendy” again in May after the death of George Floyd, I decided to do what plenty of other people started doing, which is committing to learning about social justice and anti-racism work and then…posting about it online. Otherwise known as “performative allyship”, or “slacktivism” in colloquial terms, this trend is something that white people, like myself, have an embarrassing history of participating in—that is, temporarily caring, and engaging in the work of reading, listening to, and advocating for Black people until our own lives become too “important” to continue pursuing meaningful activism. Nevertheless, I was drawn into this engagement, but this time I committed to doing it “right.” This would not be another time loop, another performance of the same pieties we have played out time and time again. What I ultimately intended to learn about was the death of Breonna Taylor.  
 
If you haven’t heard about Breonna Taylor, hers is the story of a Black woman losing her life to police brutality, a tragically common occurrence. Breonna was an EMT who was fatally shot by police officers attempting to serve a no-knock warrant on her home on March 13, 2020 (Brown & Duvall, 2020).The chronicle of her death is senseless, tragic, and heartbreaking. Why I became particularly attached to this specific tragedy, I am unsure. Perhaps it was because of the similarities between Breonna and me. We are the same age and working in the same professional field. Perhaps it was also because the case continues to evolve as new information leaks out - information that is often contradictory and confusing."
Poetry is central to the very core of humanity.
It is universal in its accessibility, yet infinitely diverse
in its interpretation.


This week Hayden Swartz shares with us another poem that he penned during his first year of medical school. Hayden is a current M2 at MCW-Central Wisconsin. Be sure to check out the September 4th Transformational Times for Hayden’s first poetry installation: A Medical Student’s Remorse | My Anatomy Group.




I held a heart today
by Hayden Swartz


I held a heart today.

This time was not my first,
And I don’t think it will be my last.

The heart was at rest.



Submit your poems or poems you love for next week’s poetry corner to odavies@mcw.edu and slamm@mcw.edu


The MCW Office of Academic Affairs invites you to attend the seventh annual Innovations in Healthcare Education Research (IHER) Conference. 

Conference Theme: Professional Identity Formation

September 24-25, 2020
Medical College of Wisconsin
Virtual Conference
Survey Link Responses

" I remember being in kindergarten in Boston, and getting sent home early the day that it happened. My mom told me, through continuous bursts of tears, that my uncle has passed away. I didn’t quite understand what that meant at the time, but I knew the story years later. He had stayed an extra day in Boston to see his son’s soccer game, and changed his flight to one of the planes that was hijacked. For many from the east coast, it can be impossible to find someone who didn’t personally know someone who died in 9/11. Never forget." - M2 student

" I was working at a Nurse Triage Line when someone heard about a plane crashing into one of the WTC towers. We all went to the hospital lobby to see the crash of the first plane. Then the picture went live and we saw the second plane hit the second tower. At this point, I wanted to leave to get my children from school and go home. I remember thinking if they are seeing this how are they feeling. Are they scared, frightened, or concerned about what would happen next? Then I realized these were my worries. I wanted to protect them from what may happen next. We went back to work and later heard about the Pentagon and plane crash in PA. Life was altered forever that day." - Cheryl Knapp

" I was a first year medical student at MCW. I remember one of my classmates telling me about the attacks, but not fully comprehending the extent of the destruction. Everything froze; classes were cancelled. The cafeteria closed. We hugged each other in the hallways. Someone brought up a news channel on the big screen in the HRC auditorium and we all sat together, in silence and disbelief, watching for hours." - Cassie Ferguson

" I had just returned to the workforce, as a faculty member of a K-8 MPS school. The school had a great view of our airport. I was teaching beginning band, when I saw Federal Agents in the hallway. I learned of the attack from a colleague, then I watched the Agents access the roof of the school, to monitor airport activity." - Lynn Lewandowski

"I was an undergrad at CU-Boulder. For some reason my radio alarm was set to a morning show that I never listened to. I was always quick to hit the snooze (not a morning person, then or now). Yet the voices instantly sounded different. There was no banter, no laughter. That day I LISTENED, and LEARNED. But I could not SEE because our TV service had yet to be set up. So I walked to campus for class where a few gathered, and SAW. Understanding the Pentagon was also hit I called my grandparents in a panic knowing my grandfather on occasion was there for intelligence work. He was not that day, and they were safe. The mile-high sky was crystal blue and clear. And the quiet was...confusing." - Christopher Davis

" I was in my Jr. year at Marquette, getting ready for my 8:30 am Philosophy course in my apartment. My older sister called me earlier than normal. She asked me if I was ok and told me to turn on the TV. I resisted at first, thinking she was just being weird. She was oddly quiet and told me again to turn on the TV, we sat in silence, still on the phone, watching the news footage of the first plane hitting the twin towers. I was in shock, I remember driving down to campus and my professor had no idea what happened; he found out from his students. I couldn't get a hold of my husband, he was downtown at the Chase building and cell phone service went down. I had never been so scared in my life." Anonymous

" I was driving to work; heard it on the radio. When I got to work people were listening to radios; trying to understand what was happening. I remember the day so clearly, even now. It was horrible and sad. But I also remember seeing people helping one another in NY. The type of kindness we can and should always show one another." - Teri Hecker

" The morning of September 11, 2001 the air was clear and crisp, the sky bright blue. As soon as I exited the subway in Manhattan, I could feel that something was amiss. The hospital lobby was eerily quiet and I watched as police cars stopped the heavy traffic on the FDR Drive to allow tens of our emergency vehicles to race downtown. On a TV screen smoke streamed from one Tower. I called my husband and my children's school, walked to the ER to see if I was needed. I assisted in prep for a mass casualty. We waited. The two towers fell. Most of the first responders never returned. Not needed, I walked over the bridge to huddled with my family and wait to discover who would not be coming home." - Adina Kalet

" It was my first semester at UW-Whitewater. My roommate had turned on the Today show before our respective 9:30 classes. We watch the first tower burning and watched live the second plane hit. It was pretty surreal and I couldn't wrap my head around how such a thing could happen, it was a perfectly clear morning! My morning class was US History but our professor didn't know yet what happened and I think everyone in that class was too afraid to say it out loud." - Stacey Hay

Instagram Post Responses

“I was starting the day in 7th grade when our classroom phone rang, our teacher answered, burst into tears and announced to the class a horrible plane crash had happened. A few kids with family in New York were really upset and escorted out to call their families. We were given the option to go home or stay and watch the news. They brought in a tv and we didn’t know the second tower had been hit so we watched that footage and then saw the pentagon footage real time. Then most of us including me went home.” – Laura Grogan, Medical Student

“I was in 4th grade in school in New Jersey. Classmates were pulled from class and told the worst news. We were all sent home early.” – Anonymous

“2nd grade, we walked into class and our teachers were huddled around the TV in the corner.” – Kate Bellile, Medical Student



Respond to next week's reflection prompt:


What is your favorite thing about fall in Wisconsin?
Grand Rounds Panel Presentation
Navigating Ethical Issues in Resource Allocation During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Please join us for a panel presentation and Q&A with members of the MCW Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities including Arthur R. Derse, MD, JD; Mary E. Homan, DrPH, MA, MSHCE; Fabrice Jotterand, PhD, and Ryan Spellecy, PhD
September 24, 2020
Live Virtual Presentation
9:00 - 10:00 am CT
Transformational Ideas Initiative
MCW Education Innovation Celebration!

Please join us in celebrating innovative ideas for the transformation of medical education at MCW!

Learn about the 15 projects being implemented this academic year and how you can join us as we transform medical education here at MCW! Thirteen of our projects focus on URM student inclusion, and 8 projects are student-led this year.

Join us on the journey to transform medical education!
October 14, 2020
Live Virtual Presentation
4:00 - 6:00 pm CT
The Kern National Network
Click anywhere on the image for the KNN's September 2020 Newsletter
Our Patients Need Your Blood!
The pandemic has changed so much about our day-to-day lives, but it certainly hasn’t changed the need for life-saving blood products for our seriously ill patients. 

Current supplies are limited, which impacts our patients with cancer, chronic anemia, and solid organ transplants.   

Give the gift of hope. Our patients need you today! 
MCW COVID-19 Resource Center
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