Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, August 28, 2020
In this Issue:

Guest Director's Corner
  • Alexandra Harrington, MD: It Starts with Faculty

Perspectives
  • Ryan Spellecy, PhD: Lessons Learned in Character Education: Don't be Intimidated
  • Art Derse, MD, JD: How Medical Humanities Can Help Save Lives - Including Ours
  • Cassie Ferguson, MD: The Messy

Poetry Corner
  • Rafael Campo, MD: What the Body Told

Your Turn
  • See how readers answered last week's prompt: What quote or saying has been on your mind lately?
  • Respond to this week's prompt: What works best for you when you want to quiet your mind and find peace?
  • Respond to the AAMC: Call for Creative Expressions in Times of Extremity

Announcements & Resources
  • Register for the Kern Institute's Upcoming Virtual Events
  • Kern National Network Connections Newsletter - August 2020
  • Enter the Student Essay Contest on Character in Medicine
Guest Director's Corner
It Starts With Faculty


by Alexandra Harrington, MD


Dr. Harrington shows how the Kern Institute’s emphasis on character can influence how we respond to our callings …

I was upset. We had just clicked “End Meeting” for our weekly Zoom Tumor Board. During the meeting, conflict arose between a few of us, which is never a comfortable situation; and some of us, including me, felt disrespected. Now this feeling is not a unique one for me as a pathologist, as I have learned to live with the slight that I sometimes experience for my chosen profession. Nonetheless, as the division director, I had to assert leadership in the moment and respond to the tensions, so I picked up the phone to talk with my colleague. My impulse was to react, to say how I felt, and to defend my position. And I started there, but I quickly backed off and used self-regulation to “check” my emotions. A few seconds into the conversation, it was clear I needed to listen. I was hearing things I had not considered before. I needed to use perspective – one of my character strengths. 

Since our conversation, I have deliberated on how I can use empathy and my character strengths to help resolve future conflicts. (Of course, I will also need to deal with my suppressed emotions, something I am not so good at.)   
Perspective
Lessons Learned in Character Education: Don't be Intimidated

by Ryan Spellecy, PhD

Dr. Spellecy, who trained in Philosophy, talks about the challenges and rewards seeking to understand and implement the concept of “character in medical education” …

In the first months after the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education was launched, I attended, as a Kern representative, the annual meeting of the Association for Moral Education. Our goal was to present our initial work on “character” in medical education. The Kern Institute was a new player in the world of character and, since we were the first medical school to attend that conference in its forty-three-year history, we were the first to delve into national and international scholarship on character education. It was clear, even at that early stage, that role models are – and would be – essential in character education. 
 
In fact, medical education has known for years that role models shape our learners. We call it the “hidden curriculum,” and it has often achieved the opposite effect of what we would want. 
Perspective
How Medical Humanities Can Help Save Lives - Including Ours

by Art Derse, MD, JD

Dr. Derse describes how philosophers, poets, and physician-writers all help us to develop equanimity …

The Wall Street Journal recently featured a story that asked the question, “What would Aristotle do in a pandemic?” It’s not such an odd question. Philosophy is part of the humanities, academic disciplines that ask important questions about our human lives. Ancient writers may have wisdom to share with modern day physicians who have to face the challenges of COVID-19.
 
For Aristotle, character was paramount. Character is demonstrated through traits that included courage and perseverance in the face of adversity. Courage is a laudable character trait, though Aristotle also recognized that courage had to be appropriate to the situation. The character trait of prudence helps recognize when courage is appropriate to the situation that lies between cowardice and foolhardiness. Those teachings from millennia ago can guide us in today’s pandemic crisis.
Perspective
The Messy

by Cassie Ferguson, MD

Dr. Ferguson describes how clinicians must embrace their capacity for compassion to overcome the challenges of working in a messy world …

One very late night during my pediatric residency, I sat in the middle of the pediatric intensive care unit with my supervising fellow and the hospital chaplain. A teenager we had been caring for had just chosen to be decannulated (that is, have her tracheotomy tube removed) and be allowed to die. She was 16 years old and had lived with a rare neuromuscular disease that had progressed to the point that she could not breathe without the aid of a ventilator and, more devastatingly, could no longer paint or draw.
 
“Some days,” the chaplain said, “some days, we are called to the messy.”
“A house that is against each other cannot stand. To all the police officers, I am praying for you and your families. To all of the citizens, my Black and brown sisters and brothers, I am praying for you … Let’s use our hearts, our love and our intelligence to work together to show the rest of the world how humans are supposed to treat each other.”


quote from Julia Jackson,
Mother of Jacob Blake
Poetry is central to the very core of humanity.
It is universal in its accessibility, yet infinitely diverse
in its interpretation.


This week’s poem was submitted by Jess Sachs, current M3, and was written by Dr. Rafael Campo, current editor of JAMA Poetry and Medicine
and a prolific poet. What the Body Told was published as part of Campo's second book of poetry also entitled: What the Body Told. This compilation of poetry was published in 1996 by Duke University Press. Looking for more? Check out his Ted Talk on How Poetry Heals Us.



What the Body Told
by Rafael Campo, MD


Not long ago, I studied medicine.
It was terrible, what the body told.
I’d look inside another person’s mouth,
And see the desolation of the world.
I’d see his genitals and think of sin.
 
Because my body speaks the stranger’s language,
I’ve never understood those nods and stares.
My parents held me in their arms, and still
I think I’ve disappointed them; they care
And stare, they nod, they make their pilgrimage
 
To somewhere distant in my heart, they cry.
I look inside their other-person’s mouths
And see the wet interior of souls.
It’s warm and red in there—like love, with teeth.
I’ve studied medicine until I cried
 
All night. Through certain books, a truth unfolds.
Anatomy and physiology,
The tiny sensing organs of the tongue—
Each nameless cell contributing its needs.
It was fabulous, what the body told.



Please send your poems or poems you love for next week's
Poetry Corner to Olivia Davies and Scott Lamm.
“Websites spreading misinformation about health attracted nearly half a billion views on Facebook in April alone, as the coronavirus pandemic escalated worldwide. … Researchers led by Bangladesh’s International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, writing in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, have suggested a single piece of coronavirus misinformation led to as many as to 800 deaths."


quote from
"Facebook Funneling Readers Towards COVID Misinformation"
The Guardian - August 20, 2020
Survey Link Responses


"It's not your fault, but it is your problem." - Megan Quamme, Medical Student


"Comparison is the thief of joy. by Theodore Roosevelt" - Jessica Hayes, Medical Student


"We're all just doing the best we can" - when I notice myself or others make mistakes." -Spenser Marting, Medical Student


“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., March 22, 1964 speech in St. Louis." -Anonymous


“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow. by Mary Anne Radmacher" -Britt Player, Post-Doctoral Fellow
Instagram Post Responses


"Happiness is not a function of your circumstance, but a function of your outlook on life." - Mathew Letizia, PharmD


"Just is what love looks like in public. by Dr. Cornel West" - Kate Bellile, Medical Student


“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. by Maya Angelou" -Julia Schmitt, MCW Staff


Respond to next week's reflection prompt:


What works best for you when you want to quiet your mind and find peace?
Share Your Story!

Click anywhere on the image to learn about the AAMC's partnership with StoryCorps and the National Endowment for the Arts to collect stories and poetry from health care professionals relating to their experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic, racism, and persistent inequities in America.
Connection Cafe Presentation
Student Mental Health Climate Survey 2020: How are we doing?
by David J. Cipriano, PhD, Director of Student and Resident Behavioral Health, Medical College of Wisconsin
September 17, 2020
Live Virtual Presentation
4:00 - 5:00 pm CT
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, JDMary E. Homan, DrPH, MA, MSHCEFabrice 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 16 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 to read the KNN's August 2020 Newsletter
Student Essay Contest!


Describe someone you have encountered in the field of medicine who is a character exemplar - what about them and their actions inspires you and your future work?

For definitions of the 24 character strengths, click on the image at the left.
The Kern Institute is excited to launch a character essay contest for medical students across the Kern National Network of medical schools. 

The essay is an opportunity to reflect on what character means to you and what character strengths you’ve seen exhibited in role models. All essays will be used for us to better understand how students view attributes that make someone a character exemplar in medicine.  

A $25 gift card will be awarded to the contest winner. Essays are due August 28th and should be 700 words or less.
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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