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Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, March 17, 2023
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Director's Corner
Essays from MedMoth
Friends of the Kern Institute
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Poetry Corner
- Amanda Gorman, The Miracle of Morning
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- What is your favorite Podcasts?
- What are you doing when you are listening to podcasts?
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Director's Corner
Transformational Times, No Longer in Emergency Mode, Continues to Hone Narrative Competence
By Adina Kalet, MD, MPH
On the newsletter’s third anniversary, Dr. Kalet considers how the Transformational Times has provided an opportunity for many people to tell stories, thereby sharpening a skill set and sensibility that is central to caring physician-patient relationships…
"It takes courage to share our stories with the world. "
- First Lady Michelle Obama (Instagram post).
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Perspective/Opinion
The Sign
By Bruce Campbell, MD FACS
Dr. Campbell tells a story of a special patient, the patient’s sister, and a gift …
“Dr. Campbell, this is Maurice’s sister, Tanya,” says the caller. “I have something I want to bring to your office to give you.”
“Okay,” I respond, uncertain what to expect. Maurice was a long-term patient of mine who died several months earlier after losing an extended battle with tongue cancer. I have met Tanya briefly and only once. She gives no clue as to why she wants to see me. I do not know whether or not to be nervous.
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Perspective/Opinion
"Later, Jesus..."
By Himanshu Agrawal, MBBS, DF-APA
In this ‘med-moth’ style narration, Dr. Himanshu Agrawal reminisces about an important lesson he learned from one of his patients, early in his training...
When I first learned about Helena (not her real name), I had only been in psychiatric training for about six months. She was a petite, single woman in her fifties, meek and sweet at baseline. Despite numerous treatment interventions, her annual breakthrough episode of psychosis would visit with the regularity of high tide, drenching her to the bone. Each time, her psychotic episode swept her away to magical realms and in due time, she was plopped back ashore.
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Perspective/Opinion
Overcoming Shame in Professional Identity
By Brett Linzer
The autopsy concluded it wasn’t his fault, but an intern’s shame over one patient’s death followed him for 22 years, until a physician coach helped him through it...
Early one morning in 1996, after a sleepless night on call, I stood with my team in the VA hospital, outside room 102. I was a 28-year-old intern on the general medicine service. We were making rounds on 12 patients that my intern partner, myself, and our supervising resident had admitted overnight. As we walked from room to room, the interns presented data about each patient’s condition from a small white notecard. I presented the case of a 62-year-old veteran who was admitted with chest pain. His pain had resolved, and the EKG and lab work were both reassuring. Our attending and team were satisfied with my presentation. We entered the room to find a pleasant man sitting up in bed, enjoying his breakfast of scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes. After a few moments of small talk, the attending was confident the patient was in our capable hands, and we left the room.
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Perspective/Opinion
Building Professional Identity and Higher Purpose
By Thomas Hurtado, EdD
We should help students think about their mission in medicine -- what it means to them personally -- and form a community around them, coaching them to think about the higher purpose of medicine...
I was a complete outsider when I began meeting with first-year students in my new role, leading the Student Affairs team at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah. Within only a few weeks of starting medical school, students were telling me, "I don't feel like myself" and "I am unsure about who I am anymore." This was different from my work with undergraduates who were beginning to adjust to college life. It was a bit shocking, considering how far in their academic journey these first-year medical students already had traveled. Their experiences, and the support they needed, became the genesis for me -- a non-MD -- to co-create something called a RealMD program.
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Kern Institute in the News
-Alicia Pilarski, DO, named Froedtert & MCW chief well-being officer
-Alicia Pilarski, DO- AMA Steps Forward Podcast- "No one left behind: Expanded peer support and second victim syndrome"
-Monday Morning Coffee – March 13, 2023 – KinetiC3 Teaching Academy
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The Miracle of Morning
By Amanda Gorman
I thought I’d awaken to a world in mourning.
Heavy clouds crowding, a society storming.
But there’s something different on this golden morning.
Something magical in the sunlight, wide and warming.
I see a dad with a stroller taking a jog.
Across the street, a bright-eyed girl chases her dog.
A grandma on a porch fingers her rosaries.
She grins as her young neighbor brings her groceries.
While we might feel small, separate, and all alone,
Our people have never been more closely tethered.
The question isn’t if we will weather this unknown,
But how we will weather this unknown together.
So on this meaningful morn, we mourn and we mend.
Like light, we can’t be broken, even when we bend.
As one, we will defeat both despair and disease.
We stand with healthcare heroes and all employees;
With families, libraries, schools, waiters, artists;
Businesses, restaurants, and hospitals hit hardest.
We ignite not in the light, but in lack thereof,
For it is in loss that we truly learn to love.
In this chaos, we will discover clarity.
In suffering, we must find solidarity.
For it’s our grief that gives us our gratitude,
Shows us how to find hope, if we ever lose it.
So ensure that this ache wasn’t endured in vain:
Do not ignore the pain. Give it purpose. Use it.
Read children’s books, dance alone to DJ music.
Know that this distance will make our hearts grow fonder.
From a wave of woes our world will emerge stronger.
We’ll observe how the burdens braved by humankind
Are also the moments that make us humans kind;
Let every dawn find us courageous, brought closer;
Heeding the light before the fight is over.
When this ends, we’ll smile sweetly, finally seeing
In testing times, we became the best of beings.
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Join us for a live storytelling event with MCW Students, Residents, Fellows, Faculty, & Staff
Come share your own story or listen to other narratives and celebrate the commonality of the human experience! Register to be a Storyteller below!
Please join us on Thursday, March 23 at 6:30 p.m. for MedMoth: A Storytelling Reflection on Medicine. The event will be hosted in person in MCW's Alumni Center.
Listen to stories by faculty, staff, residents, fellows, and students as they share their own true experiences in the world of medicine. Inspired by The Moth, this event will entail authentic storytelling and will be an enlightening audience experience that you won't want to miss.
March 23, 2023
6:30 pm
MCW Alumni Center
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Please join us to explore, discuss, and align our efforts
to ADVANCE equity-focused initiatives in the learning
environment!
Thursday, April 20, 2023
9:00am - 1:00pm
MCW Alumni Center
The summit will highlight how MCW uses data to advance equity in the learning
environment with a focus on learners in three different stages:
1. Aspiring Health Science Learners
2. Health Science Students (e.g. medical, pharmacy, graduate)
3. Post Graduate Learners and Trainees
Target Audience
This summit is intended for faculty, staff, trainees, and students who are interested in
learning and discussing how the use of data can advance equity in the learning
environment.
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Understanding Medical Professional Identity and
Character Development
April 28, 2023
8:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CDT
Professional identity formation (PIF), as defined by the Carnegie Foundation, is the “ongoing self-reflective process involving habits of thinking, feeling, and acting” as a physician. The holistic development of these capacities of PIF can be interpreted as essential qualities of one's character and integrity.
Education in the professions must design learning environments that center self-reflection within the PIF curriculum and provide growth opportunities that challenge while offering support and guidance for PIF growth, as well as the learner's well-being. In this symposium, we aim to convene medical education researchers, instructors, and others to engage on the state of PIF research, the goals, and interests of attendees, going beyond the confines of reductionist approaches. Our overarching goal is to transcend to holistic and humanistic integration spaces, weaving a central thread that is crucial to the person’s professional self.
Keynote Presentation
Can You Imagine How Far They've Come?:
PIF As Immigration
Presented by
Lara Varpio, PhD
Visit our website for more information about the program, including agenda, topics, and presenters.
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Get ready to Apply to the KINETIC3 Program!
Are you interested in directing a medical school course in the future? Do you want to learn about active learning techniques for the foundational sciences? Do you want to build character education into your current teaching? Are you looking to improve your teaching skills at the bedside?
If you answered YES to any of these questions, you should apply to the KINETIC3 program!
The program is entering its sixth year at the Medical College of Wisconsin and has produced 138 graduates. Our program is open to any MCW faculty, staff, advanced practice provider, student, resident, or fellow interested in advancing their skills in medical education.
We will be holding virtual informational sessions on:
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March 8th from 12-12:30 pm
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March 10th from 11-11:30 am
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March 15th from 12:30-1 pm
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March 23rd from 12-12:30 pm
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March 27th from 12:30-1 pm
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ALL VIRTUAL ON MS TEAMS. Please email [email protected] for a calendar invite.
Applications are OPEN for our Excellence in Teaching Track. We will close applications on March 31, 2023.
If you have any questions about the program, please don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected]. We look forward to your application!
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Call for Transformational Ideas!
Designing New Innovations in Medical Education
The Kern Institute invites all MCW faculty, students, staff, residents, postdocs, and fellows to submit ideas for funding through the 2023 Transformational Ideas Initiative (TI2) Program.
This program focuses on innovating and transforming medical education. We are looking for ideas that improve the learning environment for students, residents, and/or fellows at MCW.
Who is this for? Anyone who is…
- Interested in experimenting
- Open to exploring new ideas and reimagining existing ideas or programs
- Curious, compassionate, change-makers
- Truly interested in transforming medical education for the future
Project teams will be guided through the development of their idea through summer workshops, one on one coaching, and character mentorship through the Kern Institute’s Human-Centered Design Lab.
Each project will be implemented throughout the 2023-24 academic year. Funding for each project will be individually granted at the conclusion of summer workshops based on the needs of each project. For more information about the program, visit our website.
Applications will be accepted until Monday, April 3, 2023.
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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, Karen Herzog, Justine Espisito, Nabil Attlassy, Julia Bosco, Ana Istrate, Linda Nwumeh, Wolf Pulsiano, Eileen Peterson, Anna Visser, Sophie Voss, James Wu & Emelyn Zaworski
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