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Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, December 23, 2022
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Director's Corner
Perspective/Opinion
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Poetry Corner
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Robert Louis Stevenson: Winter-Time
Your Turn
Upcoming Events/Announcements
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Director's Corner
Coda: The Long Lives of Sylvia Cruess, Robert Kern, and Jo Anne Earp
By Adina Kalet, MD, MPH
A recent spate of personal losses has offered Dr. Kalet an opportunity to consider the gift of living a long life …
….Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
To live a long life is to have the possibility of a coda. The word “coda” usually refers to a section of music with unique qualities that serves to bring a composition to an end. It may be simple and short or complex and long. Typically, it includes extensions or reverberations of themes heard earlier in the work. It is an epilogue, a finale, the final act. I have begun to use this idea as a metaphor for considering how we honor our long-lived colleagues, mentors, and friends.
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Perspective/Opinion
Sit Down, Get Paged, Repeat.
By Laura Slykhouse, MD-Internal Medicine at MCW
Dr. Slykhouse recounts a call night that was also her birthday. She shares some moments of levity and moments of meaning, some of which are specific to being in the hospital overnight…
Birthdays have a way of getting less and less exciting each year. Yes, there are some milestone birthdays we celebrate as we get older; but, as the years march on, enthusiasm lacks compared to a sweet sixteenth or a twenty-first birthday. This year, I see my schedule for June and of course, I’ll be celebrating my birthday at Froedtert at the end of a 28-hour shift. I readjust my expectations and wish for a calm night, good cross-cover, no ICU transfers, and friends to make the time go faster. The night is off to a good start when my favorite co-resident is pulled in to cover the night portion of the shift with me. I was obviously more excited than she was, but the night was looking promising.
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Perspective/Opinion
The Things We Take for Granted
By Kate Dielentheis, MD
Dr. Dielentheis reflects on how her interactions with residency applicants, medical students, and residents help renew her gratitude for her practice as an OBGYN…
“Be grateful for the things and people you have in your life. Things you take for granted someone else is praying for” ― Marlan Rico Lee
After seven years as faculty in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, I have started to experience many of the symptoms of burnout. As a mother of three young kids, a full-time OBGYN, the associate program director of our residency program (which is currently undergoing some tumultuous transition), and an abortion provider and advocate for reproductive justice, these last few years have been really, really hard. I am not going to lie and say that I have not considered leaving medicine for Plan B – food network star.
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Perspective/Opinion
Design Thinking in Action: Medical Students Weigh-In on the Mobile Health Clinic
By Emmy Lambert, BS – Medical Student
Patient-centered care calls for patient-centered spaces. Medical students were given the opportunity to dust off their creative brains and ponder the details, big and small, of an exciting new mobile clinic…
Human-Centered Design. It’s All Around Us. Or At Least, It Should Be…
Simply put, human-centered design is a method of empathy-based problem-solving. Through a three-phase design process of inspiration, ideation, and implementation, human-centered design tailors products towards those involved in their use – so-called “stakeholders”. These stakeholders are consulted and considered in every step of the design process to ensure the output will meet their needs. Truly an ingenious approach, if you ask me.
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Perspective/Opinion
I Asked An Artificial Intelligence What It Means to Be Human
By Nathaniel Verhagen, BS – Medical Student
The recent emergence of the artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, has raised questions about the nature of intelligence and more importantly, what makes us unique as humans. In the hopes of finding answers, I asked ChatGPT, “What does it mean to be human?”
Artificial intelligence has become increasingly integrated into many aspects of our lives, from helping us make decisions, to performing tasks that were once thought to be uniquely human. You may be surprised to learn that humans and AI (Artificial Intelligence) process information in a similar fashion. One recent example of the impressive capabilities of AI is ChatGPT, a new AI developed by OpenAI.
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Winter-Time
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.
Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.
Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.
When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.
Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding cake.
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Readers share their responses:
What's a common activity you've never done?
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The first Avatar (blue alien) movie - at the end when the tribe is connected to the mother tree and the community is sending prayers through the tree to save Grace. Before Grace dies, she says "I'm with her, Jake" (the mother tree) "she's real." The visuals, with fiberoptic connections resembling the mycelium of the forest, and the power of communal prayer are potent. I think it speaks to our tribal past, housed within our cellular memory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwRSoNQjI88
– Danielle Graf, Staff
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For this week's reflection prompt, please answer the following question:
What is your new years resolution?
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Congratulations to Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW) Seed Grant Winners
The Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW) will fund 31 projects selected through a competitive application process focused on promising biomedical research and community-based initiatives to improve Wisconsin residents' health and well-being.
During its Aug. 1 – Sept. 12, 2022 application period, AHW received 40 proposals seeking Seed Grant funding, with 31 submissions receiving approval by the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Consortium on Public and Community Health, the AHW Research and Education Advisory Committee, and MCW Board of Trustees – AHW's three oversight bodies.
Congratulations to several members of the Kern Institute that have been selected to receive Seed Grant Funding from AHW. To learn more about these projects, visit the funded projects page on the AHW website.
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Lawrence University's 'Doing Nothing' course; many things are learned
Drs. Cassie Ferguson and Himanshu Agrawal were interviewed for a story on a "Doing Nothing" course at Lawrence University in Appleton.
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Join a campus-wide educators’ community read of Thanks for the Feedback, by Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen
As a key component of the new MCWfusion Curriculum set to launch in July 2023, we will discuss strategies for preparing for, seeking, understanding, and applying feedback – and consider how we might help our students develop these skills as part of their personal and professional development. This book is full of practical tips that we can also adapt in our own practices of giving and receiving feedback.
As we understand how busy everyone is, we plan to offer several different ways to interact as a community in book discussions – including asynchronous/online discussions, virtual sessions, and shared reflective writing. Everyone who signs up for this will receive invitations to participate using all methods. While these are not mandatory, we hope that the output of these community discussions will enhance our shared understanding of the topic and lead to enhancement of our MCW learning environments.
We have many print copies of the book available to use throughout the Spring 2023 semester – though we will ask all of you who receive a book from us to gift it back to an incoming MCWfusion student with a message welcoming them to our community in July 2023, so they can begin their work to develop this skill. Please complete this Qualtrics survey if you are interested in participating and would like a book supplied to you.
The read is also available on Audible if you’d like to purchase the audio version on your own. Here is a sneak peek as found on Amazon.
Please contact Marty Muntz with any questions.
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Letters of Intent for Kern Medical Education Transformation Collaboratories now being Accepted
We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting Letters of Intent for the second cohort of Medical Education Transformation Collaboratories, a research funding opportunity for audacious ideas to transform medical education. Funded by the Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education at the Medical College of Wisconsin, this grant opportunity provides funding and a community of practice for transforming medical education through the values of caring, character, and competence. Please see the attached Request for Proposals for full details and submission instructions.
Letters of Intent are due Friday, January 13, 2023. All letters will be reviewed, and all will receive feedback.
Full proposals are due Friday, March 31, 2023. Funding decisions will be announced by Friday, May 19, 2023.
Funding begins July 1, 2023.
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Please Join Us!
Kern Institute Connection Café: Piloting Patient-Based Discussions in Discovery Curriculum: Lessons Learned to Inform MCWfusion, Perspectives of Students and Faculty
Patient-based discussion (PBD) is a key component of MCWfusion Phase 1 Integrated Science Blocks. The goal of PBD is to use inquiry-focused learning to support student curiosity as they apply foundational science knowledge to patient assessment and management.
Current Discovery curriculum has piloted a number of PBDs with M1 and M2 courses. Connection Café will explore what exactly PBD is and what pilot data revealed. Current students and faculty will be part of panel to answer questions and speak to lessons learned.
January 5, 2023
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Hybrid Event: Join via Zoom or in Person
MEB – M1540 - Kerrigan Auditorium
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Please Join Us!
KICS Journal Club with Eloho Ufomata, MD, MS and Sarah Merriam, MD, MS
Register to join us at our monthly Kern Institute Collaboration for Scholarship Medical Education Journal Club! Each month, we discuss recent medical education scholarship with its author for a lively, intimate conversation about the transformation of medical education.
In January, Drs. Ufomata and Merriam will be discussing working with your national society policy papers.
Eloho Ufomata is an assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and serves as an advisory dean in the Office of Student affairs. Sarah Merriam is a physician at the VA Pittsburgh and serves as a senior consultant to the VA Office of Women's Health.
January 11, 2023
12:15 PM - 1:00 PM
Live via Zoom
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Please Join Us!
Kern Institute Grand Rounds: The Four Pillars of Well-being: A Scientific Framework for the Cultivation of Human Flourishing
Can mental training actively influence our level of well-being? Research suggests that even small amounts of meditation can lead to important outcomes for our mental and physical health, as well as our success at work and in relationships. In this live talk, Cortland Dahl will share a groundbreaking scientific model that highlights four pillars of well-being — awareness, connection, insight, and purpose — as well as practical strategies for applying them in daily life.
February 9, 2023
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Hybrid Event: Join via Zoom or in Person
MEB – M1540 - Kerrigan Auditorium
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Developing Medical Educators of the 21st Century
Join us for the 5th Developing Medical Educators of the 21st Century course in San Francisco! We are back with an in-person course, focused on supporting medical educators to engage in transformational change during challenging times. How do we create equitable, inclusive and welcoming learning environments for all? How do we foster a growth mindset among our learners so they become effective life-long learners? How do we ensure the wellbeing of our learners while also maintaining our own? These and other topics will be addressed in a variety of formats, including plenary sessions by renowned educators, skill-building workshops, consultations with experts, and engaging lunch-time discussions. Participants will have opportunities to network with others and create actionable plans to take home to their own institutions. A group discount will be available for teams from one institution.
This 3-day intensive course, organized in collaboration with the Kern National Network for Caring and Character in Medicine, targets medical educators from undergraduate and graduate medical education seeking to develop or improve skills in teaching and educational program design. Flexible programming allows participants to select sessions aligned with their interest and experience level.
February 13-15, 2023
Golden Gateway Holiday Inn, San Francisco
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The Transformational Times publishes weekly, delivering stories of hope, character and resilience to our virtual community. | |
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Jeff Fritz, PhD, Editor-in-Chief
Editorial Board: Bruce Campbell, MD, Kathlyn Fletcher, MD, Adina Kalet, MD, Wendy Peltier, MD, Erin Weileder, Nabil Attlassy, Julia Bosco, Ana Istrate, Wolf Pulsiano, Eileen Peterson, Anna Visser, James Wu & Emelyn Zaworski
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