Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, May 28, 2021
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In This Memorial Day Issue:
Director's Corner
Perspectives/Opinions
Medical School History
Memorial Day
- VA Perioperative Team Members Who Have Served
Poetry Corner
- John McCrae: In Flanders Field
Your Turn
Announcements & Resources
- Register for Upcoming Virtual Events
- Kern National Network News & Events
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Director's Corner
Rituals Stir our Memories and Push Us Toward Transition
by Adina Kalet, MD, MPH
In this week’s Director’s Corner, Dr. Kalet asks us to both attend to our need for commemoration of a very difficult time with rest and reconnection while we also work to sustain hard-won transformative gains …
Memorial Day weekend is especially poignant this year. As a nation, we are exhausted. We have collectively experienced fourteen months of a frightening, isolating, unpredictable pandemic, an eye-opening year since the murder of George Floyd, widespread calls for social justice, and a nail-biting presidential election. We have been irrevocably changed and are emerging - in fits and starts - into a new post-pandemic reality. Now that many of us have been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, we are eager for the summer season to kick off.
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Perspective/Opinion
Poppies on the Grave – Symbolism and Memorial Day
by Capt. Tej Ishaan Mehta, MD
Dr. Mehta reminds us why Memorial Day is such a unique holiday and how commemorating all fallen military personnel can bring us together as one nation…
One-million, three-hundred and four thousand, six hundred and eighty-four. At the time of writing, that is how many United States military personnel have perished in the line of duty. How many mothers have wept at the sight of Death Notifiers walking to their door? How many fathers have broken down upon receiving that terrible phone call? How many lives have been ruined by the loss of a loved one in service to our country? How many lives have been saved? This Memorial Day, I urge you to consider these questions.
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Perspective/Opinion
Stand Up for What You Believe In
by Chad Kessler, MD, MBA
Dr. Kessler is the National Program Director, Emergency Medicine, Department of Veterans Affairs. He is also a professor at Duke University and a staff physician at the Durham VAMC. He is the epitome of charismatic and inspiring VA leadership. Here is an essay that he generously let us share from one of his twice-weekly newsletters …
So, I was sweating through my Thomas Pink button-down shirt this late Friday afternoon an eon or two ago. I was still in the hospital at 6:00 that day, stewing in this tiny, windowless room…not only because of the jungle-like temperature, but the unfamiliar and frankly unnerving environment. As a young chief, this was all very new to me, and having to sit with these top leaders was terrifying, and only intensified by the news I had to share. We were short on coverage, I felt that we were teetering on unsafe care in our Emergency Department, and I needed to advocate for staff in a miserable budget year. That word…I didn’t realize how much power was in that single word. I literally remember the second when the Boss stopped the meeting in mid-sentence, and said, “Kessler, did you say we have an ‘unsafe’ environment?” Like I had uttered a profanity in Temple or put ketchup on a hot dog. I looked around, realized everyone was staring at me, and said prophetically, in my best Homer Simpson voice, “uh…yes.” I’ll be honest, I don’t remember much after that, except feeling like I said or did something wrong (even though I knew I wasn’t wrong), that people were mad at me, and that I truly may get fired…but I got home, gave my wife a hug, the kiddos jumped into my arms, grabbed myself a two-liter chai and thought in my head, I did the right thing, right?
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Three Questions for Michael McBride, MD
Answering the Call to Duty and Preparing the Next Generation
Dr. McBride, who joined the VA as a psychiatrist in 2007, talks about how 9/11 moved him to enlist in the Army Reserves. This led to five deployments and a role in helping medical students understand the unique needs of veterans. He was interviewed by Transformational Times editor, Kathlyn Fletcher …
Dr. McBride answers the following questions:
- Tell us about your time in the service. How did you end up working at the VA?
- You developed an elective for medical students that allows them to explore a range of mental health services and programs that are available locally. What do you hope that students take away from your elective?
- What is the most meaningful part of your job as a VA psychiatrist?
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Medical School History
The Marquette University School of Medicine Aids America in the Time of War
by Richard Katschke, MA
In this excerpt from his book, Knowledge Changing Life: A History of the Medical College of Wisconsin, 1893-2019, MCW Chief Historian Richard N. Katschke explains how MCW’s predecessor institution, the Marquette University School of Medicine, responded to the national call to action during World War II …
As Europe was embroiled in conflict in the late 1930s, the possibility of the United States’ participation in the war effort impacted the Marquette University School of Medicine and other medical schools nationwide. Beginning in 1940, the Marquette medical school responded to a request from U.S. Surgeon General James C. Magee to sponsor an army surgical hospital. Eben J. Carey, MD, PhD, dean of the medical school, appointed twenty Marquette medical school faculty and staff members to provide administrative and technical assistance to Surgical Hospital #42, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Also, in 1940, Marquette University – including the medical school – was one of twelve colleges nationwide selected to sponsor a Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps.
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Memorial Day
VA Perioperative Team Members Who Have Served
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The VA not only serves veterans but employs them, as well. The employees who work in the perioperative services (pre-op, operating room, and post-anesthesia care) created a board to recognized their colleagues who have served in the US military.
Thanks for your service.
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Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae was a Canadian poet, physician, author, artist, and soldier during World War I, and a surgeon during the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium. He is best known for writing the famous war memorial poem In Flanders Fields. McCrae died of pneumonia near the end of the war.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
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The greatest gift of community is the knowledge that I am never alone.
- Bruce Campbell, Faculty
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The greatest gift of community is that I am continuously exposed to many different viewpoints and can learn so much from others.
- Erin Weileder, staff
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Respond to next week's reflection prompt:
What is your favorite way to spend
a summer afternoon?
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Residents and Fellows:
What are you looking forward to in the next academic year?
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You are cordially invited to a celebration
for the
2020-21 KINETIC3 Graduates of the Excellence in Teaching Track
This celebration will include a welcome address, as well as an individual celebration of each of the graduates. We hope you will join us to congratulate them on their accomplishments!
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June 2, 2021
Live Virtual Event
4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. CT
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Shape the Movement Toward Human Flourishing
KNN Conversations
The KNN is holding small-group conversations to obtain feedback on its integrated framework and inform future activities.
Help shape the direction of the KNN by sharing how you think the work of caring and character within the medical profession is supporting—and can better support—human flourishing.
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KNN Student Session
June 15, 2021
5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. CT
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KNN Faculty/Staff Session
June 17, 2021
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. CT
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The Transformational Times publishes weekly, delivering stories of hope, character and resilience to our virtual community. |
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Editorial Board: Kathlyn Fletcher, MD, Adina Kalet, MD, Wendy Peltier, MD, Erin Weileder, Olivia Davies, Scott Lamm, Eileen Peterson, Sarah Torres, & Anna Visser
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