Pediatric News
Updates from the Department of Pediatrics
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Kari Simonsen, M.D., chair, UNMC Department of Pediatrics |
Department of Pediatrics Chair Update:
Kari Simonsen, M.D.
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As the calendar advances to a new year, we reflect on the past and set our sights on the opportunities of the year ahead. This year, I’m committing to focusing on lessons we’ve learned from COVID-19 that we want to carry forward in setting a new course for the future. One of the things I’m personally committed to doing this year is spending more time cultivating gratitude, and I’d invite you to do the same this year, perhaps by reflecting daily in a gratitude journal.
Professionally, I’m grateful that we have continued to recruit exceptional faculty members into our department. I’m also grateful for the dedication and leadership our current faculty and staff have demonstrated while navigating the pandemic. Our clinical care has been exemplary of putting the patient first and aligning our efforts on safety for patients and for the workforce. I’m grateful for the commitment of our physician scientists who have pivoted time, energy and resources into studying the impacts and outcomes of COVID-19 in children. And I’m excited that our educational programs are adapting and innovating to better serve our trainees as we evolve to match the necessary skills of our future pediatric workforce with the educational opportunities we provide through our exceptional programs.
Personally, I am grateful that COVID-19 has increased our flexibility and improved our technology to enhance remote work. I’m grateful for the benefits of work-life integration as I'm able to work productively at home. I appreciate the ability to spend additional time at home with my 12 and 14 year-old daughters who are growing up quickly. They might not view the additional hours spent at home with their parents quite as favorably, but we are appreciating the time spent doing activities together that we might have missed otherwise, like baking, building Legos (you guys!--it’s Central Perk!!) and sipping blooming tea--when our pre-pandemic lives would have been undoubtedly busier and more scheduled.
Although it cannot replace the sense of sadness that we feel for the people and places we lost or missed during 2020, the sense of gratitude for this time with family and for the ingenuity to create new opportunities for the Department of Pediatrics will drive us ahead with focus, purpose and collective vision through 2021.
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Our Successes:
Department Celebrations
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The Department of Pediatrics share accomplishments, publications and appointments.
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Residency Program:
2020/21 Recruitment Season Highlights
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This is a busy and exciting time in the residency program as we wrap up the 2020/2021 recruitment season. Congratulations to Dr. Nate Goodrich and Dr. Lisa Sieczkowski on completing their first official and virtual recruitment season as our new co-program directors. We have received a lot of positive feedback from our post interview surveys on how well the day was organized. A special thank you to Cindy Colpitts and Brooke Seaton for their help with coordinating the interview day, running the breakout rooms and making it a great experience for everyone involved.
Our season went from Nov. 3, 2020 to Jan. 26, 2021. We have interviewed 183 applicants from all across the country, with over 23 virtual interview sessions lasting approximately 3.5 hours each. We are recruiting for 15 pediatric categorial positions. We will spend the next couple of weeks meeting and preparing our final rank list. Match Day is scheduled for
March 19. We are excited to see who will be in our new intern class starting in July. Intern orientation will start the week of June 21.
A special thank you to our pediatric chief resident, Dr. Dan Boadwine, for help with interviews. His great riddles and puns throughout recruitment were uplifting during the many hours of Zoom interviews. We additionally thank our rising chief residents,
Dr. Amanda Dave and Dr. Julie Risinger, who spent hours of their time helping with interviews and preparing some of our PowerPoint presentations.
We would also like to thank the pediatric residents who did an awesome job of setting up the night before social with an Omaha PowerPoint and Jack Box games, and for helping with tours and our wrap-up meetings with the applicants at the end of each interview day.
We also would like to thank the following faculty for helping with interviewing applicants this year:
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Melissa Acquazzino
Ann Anderson-Berry
Josh Bies
Don Coulter
David Finken
James Ford
Amy Goldstein
Nate Gollehon
Claire Ives
Trey Jantzen
Amy Lacroix
Katie Mackrell
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Courtney McLean
Chelsea Majerus
Aleisha Nabower
Sachit Patel
Sheryl Pitner
Chittalsinh Raulji
Jeffrey Robinson
Samantha Rohe
Hannah Sneller
Jay Snow
Sharon Stoolman
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Med-Peds Recruitment Update
Allison Ashford, M.D., Med-Peds Program Director
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Internal Medicine-Pediatrics recruitment season ran from Nov. 6, 2020 until Jan. 29, 2021. There were over 72 applicants who interviewed from all across the country. We are recruiting for four Med-Peds positions. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be preparing our final rank list. Match Day is scheduled for March 19. We are very excited to see who will be in our new intern class starting July 2021.
A special thank you to the Med-Peds residents who did an awesome job of setting up the night before social and participating in a resident/benefits discussion on interview day with the applicants.
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Children's 2021-2025 Strategic Plan |
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We are currently undertaking parallel efforts with each of the pediatric divisions under
Dr. Simonsen and will then move on to the surgical divisions and other services at Children’s. The scale of this undertaking far surpasses previous division planning efforts and will hopefully provide every division with firmer groundwork from which to advance their causes. The end result will be the creation (and utilization) of cohesive Division Tactic Plans based on a single enterprise framework, promoting alignment and facilitating integration with the Enterprise Strategic Plan and other Division Tactic Plans.
The final unified framework will key off of the Enterprise Strategies to encourage cohesion and integration, so a major component of our review was to ensure the integrity/presence of your thoughts while restructuring them to the most meaningful level (tactic, action item, key performance indicators). This plan will better serve you as a roadmap for action by bringing your strategic thoughts to the tactical level while demonstrating how they support enterprise goals and strategies.
To ensure that the Division Tactical Plan is accurate in the final framework, we need to:
- Ensure the drafted statements/points remain true to your intent
- Ensure that there are no significant omissions
- Identify 2-4 priority tactics for 2021
- Identify 1-3 (KPIs) for each priority tactic
Final Framework will include the following sections:
- Reference – best practices for maintenance and utilization of tactical plan, definitions and instructions for action planning
- Summary Tactical Plan – enterprise strategies, division tactics and identify priority division tactics
- Tactic Action Planning – identify action items, scheduling and supporting information for priority tactics
- Tactic KPIs – identify key purpose and KPIs for each priority tactic, including baseline, annual target and long-term target
- Additional thoughts – brainstorming parking lot (archive division strategies, potential KPIs to consider and other division-generated thoughts for future reference)
Most divisions are somewhere between 50-80 percent done with the process. There are several Children's and Department of Pediatrics personnel involved in the process and can provide assistance as needed. These people include:
John Williams – Children's Vice President of Planning & Business Planning
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*Note you will need to be on Children's server to access |
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Faculty & Staff Reminder:
Faculty Evaluations for Calendar Year 2020
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Steph Montgomery has been asked to set up the meetings with Chiefs and Dr. Simonsen in late February all through March to review each faculty evaluation. In order to accommodate that timeline, each faculty member needs to be finished with their self evaluations in ADIS by Feb. 15 if at all possible.
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Faculty Resources:
First Edition Administrative Guide
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The Department of Pediatrics has assembled a first edition of its administrative guide to serve as a resource for faculty, staff and students. The guide lists administrative personnel expertise and backgrounds, as well as their current duties. These administrative professionals provide daily support to divisions in the areas of academics and research, and work closely with clinical counterparts across Children's and UNMC clinical enterprises to ensure that our department runs smoothly. Plans for making this guide readily available and updated are underway. |
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Staff Milestones:
Recent Service Anniversaries
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Congratulations to those celebrating recent work anniversaries. We wish you all the best for continued success! |
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Years of Service:
Carol Gilbert - 17 years
Scott James - 11 years
Mark Wilson - 11 years
Kym Abraham - 11 years
Jennifer Wang - 10 years
Patti Jones - 8 years
Kara Foster - 7 years
Evan Roberts - 7 years
Joseph Sibilia - 7 years
Eyad Najdawi - 4 years
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Zoe Gonzalez Garcia - 3 years
Andrew Casper - 2 years
Steven Haskett - 2 years
Angela Kratochvil-Stava - 2 years
DeAnn Psota - 2 years
Gabriel Hansen - 2 years
K. Meghan Kendall - 2 years
Divine Shelton - 2 years
Christina Andersen - 1 year
Alice Sato - 1 year
Casey Cordts - 1 year
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Faculty & Staff Reminder:
2021 Annual Disclosure Questionnaire
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2021 Annual Disclosure of Financial Interest Questionnaire is due by March 31, 2021. The UNMC Compliance Department is sending out notices with direct links to login and complete. More information is available at the link below. |
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Register & Submit Your Research Project:
Nebraska Healthy Kids Summit 2021
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The second biennial Nebraska Healthy Kids Summit will take place virtually March 3-4 from noon – 4:30 p.m. Hosted by Children’s Center for the Child & Community and planned in partnership with state and local partners, the Summit will include local and national speakers addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child health and system inequities.
CHRI is accepting submissions for the Research & Project Fair, which includes a virtual poster session and complementary live sessions during the summit. Research and projects relevant to the summit’s theme of child nutrition and active living will be highlighted on a special viewing website available for summit registrants to browse and make comments. Summit registration is required to showcase your work. Submissions will be accepted until Feb. 10, 2021. Register and learn more by following the link below.
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Upcoming Event:
2021 Pediatric Academic Workshop Agenda Now Available
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The Pediatric Academic Workshop Series agenda, which will be held Feb. 19-20, is now posted. The virtual workshop will offer interactive learning on the theme of Health Advocacy & Communication. To view the detailed agenda, please click the link below. |
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Update on UNMC Box Transition |
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The Department of Pediatrics had been proactively planning for a transition to a subscription model for Box, which would have resulted in charges back to the users. UNMC has decided to enter into its own Box contract for UNMC personnel and has been able to find a way to underwrite the costs for users again for CY21.
Efforts are underway to transition active Box accounts to the new contract. Users should not notice any disruption. An official survey was sent by the Vice Chancellor of Research office to Box users’ UNMC emails to ensure only active users continue on the new plan. Please contact Jackie Ostronic for questions or more information.
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CHRI Pediatric Research Seminar
*A few slots remain open for interested presenters – please visit link below for more information.
Pediatric Academic Workshop: Health Advocacy & Communication Workshop
Nebraska Healthy Kids Summit 2021
CHRI Pediatric Research Forum
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Department of Pediatrics Meeting: January |
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If you missed the Department of Pediatrics General Faculty meeting on Thursday, Jan. 28, please view the recording. Note: you must be logged into your Children's account to access the recording as it is saved on the shared drive. On your desktop, follow this path to view the recording: Q:\General Faculty Meetings\UNMC General Faculty Meeting
1-28-21
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University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics
982155 Nebraska Medicine
Omaha, NE 68198-2155
402-559-6400
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