Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, November 13, 2020
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In this Issue:
Director's Corner
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Adina Kalet, MD, MPH: What a Week for Democracy! A Great Time for Kern to Build Community Through a New Funding Opportunity
Perspectives/Opinions
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Dan Hunt, MD, MBA: Kern Grand Rounds Preview: Creating Physicians Where a Medical School Should Not Exist
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Erica Engstrand: This Year's MCW Common Read and How You Can Participate
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Chase LaRue: A Turn of the Clock: A Student Perspective on Remaining “Present” in Medical School
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Kayt Havens, MD: Meaningful Careers in the VA
Take 3
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Greg Wesley, JD: Senior Vice President for Strategic Alliances and Business Development
Poetry Corner
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Sarah Steffen: Her Hospital is Now my School
Your Turn
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See how readers answered last week's prompt: What has been the best part of your day today?
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Respond to this week's prompt: What health care team or individual would you like to send a special thank you to this week, and why?
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Respond to this week's character question: How do you show love?
Announcements & Resources
- Respond to Kern's Request for Student Representatives
- Respond to Kern's RFP to build Medical Education Transformation Collaboratories
- Learn How You Can Be Involved in the 2020 MCW Common Read
- Register for the Kern Institute's Upcoming Virtual Events
- Kern National Network Connections Newsletter - November 2020
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Director's Corner
What a Week for Democracy!
A Great Time for Kern to Build Community Through a New Funding Opportunity
by Adina Kalet, MD, MPH
Dr. Kalet reflects on the past week’s events including the launch of the Kern Institute’s Medical Education Transformation Request for Proposals (RFP) and describes the RFP’s intention to stimulate collaboration, cooperation and communication as a way forward …
What a week it has been! As expected, the presidential election results took four long days to reach a conclusion. Although frustrating, there was a beauty to watching our electoral system work at human speed, votes counted one at a time all over the country. When our new President-Elect and Vice President-Elect were finally able to make victory speeches on Saturday evening, the reality and symbolism of seeing a woman of color give the acceptance speech moved me to tears.
Nearly half our fellow Americans are disappointed with the election’s outcome. It has never been more important for us to navigate forward gently but courageously, with respect and compassion.
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Kern Grand Rounds Preview
Creating Physicians Where a Medical School Should Not Exist
by Dan Hunt, MD, MBA, Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) Field Secretary and Secretary Emeritus
Don't miss Dr. Hunt's Kern Institute Grand Rounds Presentation this Wednesday, November 18 at 9am ...
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Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020
Live Virtual Presentation
9:00 - 10:00 am CT
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In this time of so many moving parts in medical education, be they the changes in USMLE scoring or increased on-line learning, we must ask ourselves how we can use these situations to maximize our graduates’ skills and likelihood of addressing society’s health care inequities. Having been on both sides of the table, both defending a school's innovative curriculum to the LCME and then later being the LCME reviewer for many, if not most, of the new schools across the US and Canada, there are lessons to be shared on how to let the LCME standards guide rather than obstruct creativity ...
The Kern Institute's Community and Institutional Engagement Pillar Director, Dr. Jose Franco, spoke with Dr. Hunt this week in anticipation of his Kern Grand Rounds Presentation, and posed these questions:
- What are the main benefits of regional campuses?
- Do you anticipate a significant increase in the number of regional campuses over the next 10-20 years?
- Have regional campuses resulted in an increase in the diversity of medical school applicants and graduates?
- Do regional campus graduates pursue different residencies compared to traditional one campus schools?
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Perspective/Opinion
This Year's MCW Common Read and How You Can Participate
by Erica Engstrand - MCW-Milwaukee Medical Student
Ms. Engstrand reflects on how reading is the gateway to understanding and friendship, and invites us to participate in this year's MCW Common Read …
As a kid, I started reading books because my father liked reading books. Of course, a 7-year-old girl’s favorite genre differs greatly than that of a 40-something-year-old man’s, but despite our ages we could talk endlessly about the tragedies and triumphs of Harry Potter’s quest to find the Sorcerer’s Stone. To this day, my dad maintains that Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is a bit of a bore compared to his others and Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” was an amazing story, but I respectfully disagree on both accounts.
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Perspective/Opinion
A Turn of the Clock: A Student Perspective on Remaining “Present” in Medical School
by Chase LaRue – MCW-Milwaukee Medical
Student
Mr. LaRue shares a technique that has helped him stay focused, and in the moment, even as COVID-19 has disrupted his learning in medical school …
Tuesday morning. 9:46 a.m. I’ve been awake for five hours, but I still have two more hours of lectures to watch. A mid-morning nap teases me from the bed just a few feet behind me. Snacks are within grasp if only I … uh … Lecture! Cardiovascular pathology! Lecture, Chase, Lecture!
This internal conversation has been common since mid-March. Like many at MCW and the Kern Institute, my life took on dramatic changes when my normal study location was ripped from underneath me. Medical school, relationships, and my well-being shifted as quickly as the hands on a clock face.
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Perspective/Opinion
Meaningful Careers in the VA
by Kayt Havens, MD – Retired VA Physician & Member of the Kern Institute Innovator's Lab
Dr. Havens describes the myriad of rewarding career opportunities the VA has to offer ...
Twelve years ago, I received a call from Dr. Ann Nattinger asking if I would accept a position at the Zablocki VAMC as Director of the Women's Clinic. I am grateful every day that I said, “Yes.” My work there powerfully influenced my identity as an educator-physician and design learner. When I told colleagues and friends that I worked at the VA, their faces often registered disbelief. Little did they know that the VA has the history of being among the most innovative health care systems in this country.
This past Wednesday we celebrated Veterans Day. I am taking this opportunity to also honor the physicians and care teams who have committed some or all of their lives to the improvement of health care for veterans. I've asked some of our MCW Zablocki VAMC faculty why they chose to work in the VA. Below are some of their comments.
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Gregory M. Wesley, JD
In 2016, MCW named Mr. Wesley to the new position of Senior Vice President for Strategic Alliances and Business Development. In this role, Mr. Wesley serves as a key strategic leader, ambassador and advisor for MCW, and is responsible for ensuring the execution of MCW's strategic initiatives through established and emerging partnerships.
Mr. Wesley works to deepen, nurture and create relationships with strategic partners, burgeoning enterprises and alliances, and others who support and create opportunities for MCW's long-term growth in Milwaukee, Madison and communities partnered with its regional campuses in Green Bay and Wausau. Mr. Wesley is a former equity partner of Gonzalez, Saggio and Harlan LLP in Milwaukee, and served on the MCW Board of Trustees from 2009-2016.
Dr. Kalet had a chance to speak with Mr. Wesley this week and posed these three questions:
- Tell me about yourself and what brought you to work with MCW.
- What are the most interesting parts of your work as Senior Vice President, Strategic Alliances and Business Development?
- What do you think are the most pressing challenges facing medical education at the moment?
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This week we’re featuring a poem written by Sarah Steffen, a current M2 student at MCW-Central Wisconsin. This piece was written during her first year of medical school as a part of an anatomy lab writing exercise and reflects upon what was at the time, the one-year anniversary of her grandmother’s death, while attending school at the same hospital she passed away in.
Her Hospital is Now my School
by Sarah Steffen
September comes to a close, and October creeps in.
My body feels it before I even realize it.
Exhaustion.
Grief rising to the surface.
I drive to school in the same direction.
In the same dark dreariness.
Rainy and cold. Bone-chilling.
Just as it was when we bundled up in her room watching the rain come down.
Sitting vigil. Keeping watch throughout the night.
Waiting.
Waiting for an end that was coming.
Now on breaks we stroll through the hospital.
So casually.
So loudly.
Almost too joyfully.
As if it’s forgotten that this is still a hospital and not just our school.
Past the surgical waiting room, where families hold their breath.
Past the cafeteria where my family spent so much time.
Waiting. Resting. Breathing.
I see her room from here and am transported back in time.
I can’t be here. Not this week. Not this time of year.
It’s too tangible.
Too real.
Every day I walk into school,
into the same building.
The same building where my grandmother worked for so many years
to take care of and welcome new, little babies into the world.
And it was here.
Here in the place where she loved to work so much
that she took her last breath.
I am distinctly aware of this.
Every day.
But especially this day.
Her hospital is now my school.
My home too.
And in my heart, I know
this is just how she would want it to be.
Know someone who writes poetry? Write poems yourself?
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Waking up remembering that women can be elected to work in the White House!!!
– Anonymous
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Spending time with my Momma ❤
– Simmi Bharwani, Anesthesia Student
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Taking a work break outside and enjoying the 75 degree weather!
- Mathew Letizia, PharmD
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Learning from Dr. Julie Owen about my psychiatry clerkship!!!
– Paige McKenzie, Medical Student
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FaceTime with my kids while I’m in COVID quarantine.
– Kavita Naik, MD
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The best part of my day is watching the sun go down on a beautiful sunny day. The colors are brilliant.
- Caroline Schachtlie, Staff
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Respond to next week's reflection prompt:
What health care team or individual would you like to give a special thank you to this week, and why?
Please include a photo, if possible.
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Students: Are You Interested in Being Involved in the Kern Institute?
We are seeking student representatives with an interest in medical education to help guide our Kern Institute programs and initiatives at MCW. We are very interested in student voices and perspectives to help us with our work!
Your time commitment would be participation in monthly or bi-monthly meetings, with opportunities to participate on special projects. Please select the area (below) you are most interested in to send a message to that leader.
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Kern Institute Announces Request for Proposals
LOI Due December 23, 2020
The Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education at the Medical College of Wisconsin is pleased to release this request for proposals to build Medical Education Transformation Collaboratories, cross-institutional, multi- and inter-disciplinary, multiple stakeholder communities of practice that work together in a sustained effort around a shared project to transform medical education by engaging in both innovation and scholarship.
We seek submission from teams of 3 to 5 individuals who will devote compensated time to build a community of practice around medical education transformation. These collaboratories will serve as incubators for the creation of generalizable knowledge as we move rapidly into a new era of medical education. Eligible groups must include at least one member employed at an LCME-accredited medical school, with other members currently affiliated with institutions or organizations with a stake in health and healthcare. Please click the link to view the RFP.
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Participate in the MCW Common Read!
We are extremely moved by the overwhelming interest shown in this year’s Common Read program, featuring How to Be an Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. It is a true testament to your devotion to racial equity and determination to make the MCW community a safer and more inclusive place for all.
We understand that many of you are eager to get involved, so we have outlined some ways that you can participate via the link below.
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The Kern National Network
Click anywhere on the image for the KNN's current newsletter
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MCW COVID-19 Resource Center |
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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, Julia Schmitt, Olivia Davies, Scott Lamm, Eileen Peterson, Sarah Torres, & Anna Visser
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