Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, October 9, 2020
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In this Issue:
Guest Director's Corner
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Mark D. Schwartz, MD: A "Sermon" for Medical Students about Civic Character
Perspectives/Opinions
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Jon Lehrmann, MD: One Physician's Recipe for Resilience
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Balaraman Kalyanaraman, PhD: Every Virus Needs a Host and the Answer Lies Within Each of Us
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Sherrea Jones, PhD: The Congruence in My Quest
Take 3
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Ann K. Rosenthal, MD: 2020 MCW Distinguished Service Award Recipient
Poetry Corner
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Bisola-Sarah Omoba: Healer
Your Turn
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See how readers answered last week's prompt: What is your favorite hot beverage to warm up with?
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Respond to this week's prompt: Who do you want to give a shout-out to this week, and why?
Announcements & Resources
- Register for the Kern Institute's Upcoming Virtual Events
- Kern National Network Connections Newsletter - October 2020
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Guest Director's Corner
A "Sermon" for Medical Students about Civic Character
by Mark D. Schwartz, MD
For this week’s Director’s Corner, Dr. Kalet invited Dr. Mark Schwartz to share a talk he gave to medical students as part of a recent “Civic Saturday” event. Using a model developed by Eric Liu, founder of Citizen University, this sermon seeks to inspire medical trainees to embrace their civic power to make real change in their communities ...
If individual character is what we do when no one is looking, civic character is what we do when everyone is looking!
I remember the excitement and fear of drinking from the fire hose as a medical student in the 1980s. I was aware of, but could not fully understand, how the AIDS epidemic was shaping and honing my professional identity, just as the current pandemic is shaping yours.
In this moment when the country is sick and suffering – when our health, our economy, and democracy are threatened and when science itself is being undermined – we need to impact the world beyond our next exam, our next rotation, our next patient, or our next scientific hypothesis.
Given the situation we are in, let’s talk about what it means to be civically-engaged physicians and scientists in this new world. Here are some simple but profound questions I have been living in, wrestling with, and trying to answer:
- Given our positions, capabilities, and resources, what are our responsibilities? And for whom are we responsible?
- What are our roles as a civic physicians, civic scientists, and civic healers?
- How can we use our professional roles and power to strengthen democracy?
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Perspective
One Physician's Recipe for Resilience
by Jon Lehrmann, MD – Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
Dr. Lehrmann reflects on the challenge of working in today’s difficult world, offering suggestions for resilience …
The definition of resilient: the ability to withstand and recover quickly from difficult conditions. I believe working in the academic medicine environment may, by itself, qualify as “difficult conditions.” Now add a life-threatening pandemic, reaching an overdue social and racial injustice boiling point, and an emerging economic crisis. I do not think any would argue that we have “difficult conditions.” An extreme pessimist might even argue these are apocalyptic times. Never in my lifetime has there been a greater need for finding resilience.
Well before COVID-19, I had an ongoing problem with self-confidence. You might not recognize it because I try not to show it. I am nothing but a scared boy from Waukesha County who still struggles to find courage. I will even admit that I have had imposter syndrome (a well-recognized psychological pattern where an individual doubts his/her accomplishments or talents and has a fear of being exposed as a fraud) at times in my life. At one time in my career, I was not resilient, and I was burned out. Still, I learned lessons and did find a way forward.
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Perspective
Every Virus Needs a Host and the Answer Lies Within Each of Us
by Balaraman Kalyanaraman, PhD – Chair, Department of Biophysics
Dr. Kalyanaraman reflects on past and present pandemics and how we will look back and remember 2020, perhaps even as our "annus mirabilis" …
I don’t know about you, but the terms “social distancing,” “self-quarantining,” “asymptomatic,” and “flattening the curve” were all new to me until just a few months ago! You are not alone if you’re suffering from COVID-19 news fatigue and can’t wait to have your “old and boring” life back ASAP.
It took me a while to figure out that social distancing is not the same as anti-social, and that self-quarantining is not a punishment. Apparently, social distancing existed in medieval times and was used to fight the bubonic plague. Here is some historical “viral” news that may interest you.
Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727), a transformative scholar, inventor, and writer, made all his discoveries in the fields of calculus, astronomy, optics, and gravitation, while in isolation.
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Kern Connection Cafe Preview
The Congruence in my Quest
by Sherrea Jones, PhD
Dr. Jones shares her journey to medical school and invites you to join the conversation on Thursday afternoon at the Kern Connection Cafe …
What made you decide to actively pursue your career? Traditionally, when this question is posed to the majority of people, their response involves seeing someone congruent to themselves in the profession they are seeking. For many Black individuals in this country, our answer to this question is, overwhelmingly, because we do not.
I grew up in the inner city of Milwaukee, WI. I graduated from a severely underperforming school system and I found myself, as a child, pregnant with my very own child. I was raised by a single Black woman in a family where I was surrounded by other single Black women. None of whom were in a career that aligned to the professional aspirations I was captivated by on Thursday night television. Sure, every child wants to be a superhero growing up, and eventually those dreams turn into realizations of ridiculousness. In contrast to other children, the imagery of a fictional character served as my only visual source of hope for a career in medicine.
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Kern Connection Cafe Presentation
Student Activism & Advocacy in Action
Panel Presentation by MCW students
Christian Hernandez, Sherrea Jones, and Jonathan Horng.
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Thursday, October 15, 2020
Live Virtual Presentation
4:00 - 5:00 pm CT
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Don't Miss This Week's Kern Transformational Ideas Innovation Celebration!
Join us to hear presentations by the 14 MCW Innovation Teams explaining their project plans to:
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- Coach Professional Identity Formation
- Mitigate Bias in Clerkship Evaluations
- Train Students on Implicit Bias
- Advance Cultural Humility Training
- Educate Students on LGBTQ Experiences
- Train Students in Leadership Skills
- Teach Diverse Clinical Classroom Cases
...and much more!
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Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Live Virtual Presentation
4:00 - 6:00 pm CT
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Three Questions for MCW Distinguished Service Award Recipient
Ann K. Rosenthal, MD
Chief, Rheumatology; Vice Chair, Faculty Development, Department of Medicine; Medical Director, Zablocki VA Translational Research Center.
Dr. Wendy Peltier, Co-Editor of the Kern Institute Transformational Times, posed three questions to Dr. Ann Rosenthal just after she received one of the three 2020 MCW Distinguished Service Awards …
1. What surprised you most about participating in the first Virtual Convocation Award Ceremony?
“I was impressed with the theme and the active participation of students, faculty, and trainees in the convocation. The attention to diversity and inclusion, and the acknowledgement of our current struggles was very timely and really captured the current mood. I have attended many convocations and I thought that the virtual format for this one really worked well. “
2. What are some pivotal challenges you have overcome in your journey as a woman leader in Academic Medicine?
“Interestingly, I never thought of myself as a leader until I was directly asked to be one. I am an introvert and would rather be sitting in a dark library or laboratory than leading a meeting, so the first hurdle I had to overcome was my own personality! I read the book Quiet by Susan Cain at the beginning of my leadership journey, and this really changed my thoughts about the qualities that make good leaders. I also struggled with embracing my natural leadership style versus attempting to adopt new and sometimes uncomfortable traits that are often associated with strong leadership. My experience with ELAM in 2013, really helped with this issue. They encouraged us to be our “authentic selves” at work, and for me, finding leadership roles that play to my natural strengths has ensured that I look forward to going to work every day.”
3. Do you have some ‘words of wisdom’ for junior faculty who are just starting their academic careers?
“Yes, I love academic medicine and think it is a great career. I enjoy the combination of seeing patients, research and administrative tasks that make up my daily work. I remember something that Ann Nattinger said to me many years ago about “voting with your feet,” meaning that we tend to gravitate to things we enjoy even if we might not be able to articulate these biases. I advocate taking some time to think about where your feet are taking you! I also feel strongly that work should be meaningful. The ability to make a difference in the lives of the people around you whether that is through patient care, research, or education, is a great gift.”
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This week Bisola-Sarah Omoba, class of 2021, shares with us her poem, Healer, which she wrote after facing adversity during medical school.
Healer
by Bisola-Sarah Omoba
What do you call she who paints
with oils and acrylics on a canvas?
A painter? An Artist?
What do you call she who chisels something beautiful
from a solid block of marble?
A sculptor? An Artist?
What about the black women who pursued her dream
to provide healthcare to those who need
it? What is she?
She is an artist!
Her patient’s complaints and symptoms are her canvas,
and her education her painting brush,
her paints and colors are her privilege,
and her struggles are her intuition.
Her privilege is what defines her, it shapes her views and forms her morals. Her black privilege is her heritage, it is her secret weapon, it is how she connects with her patients, it is what makes her who she is. Her black privilege is her identity and she wouldn’t trade it for anything else in the world, because she knows that in this life, during her lifetime, Dr King’s vision will come true and we will reach true equality in all sense of the word by educating those who are ignorant and forgiving those who discriminate.
Her struggles help her learn right from wrong, by forging new paths from her mistakes, they humble her, they open her mind to new possibilities on how to better address the needs of her patients. They transform her into a more cognizant being.
Her intuition is her creativity coming to life. She can treat different patients who all have the same disease differently by using different but unique treatments because each patient is unique just like each painting or sculpture is different.
No two is identical.
But an artist is nothing without the tools needed to manipulate and transform the colors on the canvas into the perfect masterpiece.
Her education gives her the opportunity to use her privilege, to use her struggles, to use her intuition to become more than she ever imaged. For it’s with her education that she will transcend to new heights, for she is not an artist … she is a healer.
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Chai Latte
-Nicole Dixon, Staff
A Chai Tea Latte with soy milk is a great addition to a chilly Fall morning.
-Anonymous, Staff
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Champurrado, a warm chocolate-based drink made with corn masa or flour, milk, and cinnamon. A Mexican classic for these chilly nights!
-Javier M., Medical Student
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Hot Chocolate
-Jose Franco, Faculty
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Lavender London Fog Latte
-Anonymous, Medical Student
Pumpkin Spice Latte
-Simmi Bharwani, MSA Student
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Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon Sticks
-Mathew Letizia, PharmD
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Respond to next week's reflection prompt:
Who would you like to give a shout-out to this week, and why?
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Kern Grand Rounds Presentation
Creating Physicians Where a Medical School Should Not Exist
Please join us for a virtual Grand Rounds presentation with Dan Hunt, MD, MBA, Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) field secretary and Secretary Emeritus.
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.
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November 18, 2020
Live Virtual Presentation
9:00 - 10:00 am CT
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The Kern National Network
Click anywhere on the image for the KNN's September 2020 Newsletter
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Our Patients Need Your Blood! |
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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!
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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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