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Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, November 18, 2022
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In This Special Gratitude Issue: | |
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Editor's Corner
Featured Essay
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Everything Passes, but only through you
by Sarah Farhan, M2
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Society for Teaching Scholars Corner
Poetry Corner
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Wendy Peltier, MD: 55 Words of Gratitude for 2022
Your Turn
Upcoming Events/Announcements
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Editor's Corner
Gratitude – Who’s Got Time for Gratitude?
(AND A RECIPE FOR DATE-FILLED SUGAR COOKIES!)
By Jeff Fritz, PhD
As we all head into this season of Thanksgiving, Dr. Fritz celebrates the wonderful benefits of being grateful and offers some ideas for developing habits of gratitude ...
I hate to admit that I suffer from a strong case of what can be termed as negativity bias. Put simply, I tend to overly focus on the negative and use remembering negative information as a protective habit to avoid pain in the future. It’s a cognitive bias and amplifies the power of losses compared to the power of pleasure obtained from gains. Maybe it is why some coaches over time will state that the losses hurt more than the wins even when the wins are many and the losses few.
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Perspective/Opinion
Gratitude: A Practical Application
By Kathlyn E. Fletcher, MD, MA
Dr. Fletcher and Luke make a discovery together.
Me: “What are you grateful for today?”
My 12-year-old son, Luke: “That everyone was here today. My basketball games. And making tortillas with you.”
This is the nightly ritual that we have observed almost without fail since mid-winter 2021. I think it turned his life around; but let me take you back to the preceding months and you can judge for yourself.
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Perspective / Opinion
A Simple Superpower
(AND A RECIPE FOR BAKED MAC AND CHEESE!)
By Linda Nwumeh
Medical student Linda Nwumeh writes about the value of a daily practice focused on gratitude.
We all know that there is such a thing as too much entitlement. But will it ever be possible to have too much gratitude?
The beauty of gratitude is that it does everything, yet at the same time, it does nothing. There is nothing that practicing gratitude changes about an action once it has happened, but the practice allows us to uncover positive truths that we are normally too preoccupied with negative thinking patterns to acknowledge. This complete view of life is like a superpower. But unlike a superpower, we all have the power to strive for it by adopting a simple practice.
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Perspective / Opinion
Gratitude as a Medical Student
(AND A RECIPE FOR PUMPKIN CURRY SOUP!)
By Sophie Voss, BS, Medical College of Wisconsin— Milwaukee, MD Candidate
Ms. Voss shares her thoughts on the value of gratitude while in medical school.
When telling others that I am a first-year medical student, no one ever replies with “Wow! Your life must be beaming with gratitude!” Usually, I hear comments along the lines of how difficult the medical profession is and how busy I must be. This journey is no easy feat and time is more fleeting than the money in my bank account when tuition is due. However, a pillar of MCW’s character is its commitment to fostering student wellness, and gratitude is something I find to go hand in hand with wellness itself.
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Perspective / Opinion
Gratitude as a Coping Strategy
(AND A RECIPE FOR ROASTED TOMATO BASIL SOUP!)
By Sofie Kjellesvig, BBmE – Medical Student
Gratitude is a tool I use to cope and be positive in the face of whatever my day throws at me...
Gratitude is a big part of my life. I credit much of my positivity to being able to identify silver linings and be grateful for them. This is not to say I do not have ample reasons to be grateful, but rather that between my struggles with mental health and pursuit of a rigorous career path, the “clouds” of stress are especially dark and gloomy at times.
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Perspective / Opinion
A Triad for Gratefulness
(AND A RECIPE FOR APPLE PIE FILLED CUPCAKES!)
By Emelyn Zaworski, BS – Medical Student
In medicine, we love triads: Beck’s, Cushing’s, Virchow’s, etc. In this article, I propose a triad for gratefulness and share my reflections...
My triad for gratefulness consists of consciously contemplating the things for which we should be grateful: the big things – shared by nearly everyone but often overlooked, the little things – which may seem trifling but incite genuine happiness, and all the wonderful people – people who provide support, care, and love to your life. Below are my reflections on each.
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Society for Teaching Scholars Corner
If I Gave a Graduation Speech....
By Hershel Raff, PhD
Dr. Raff is a faculty member in Medicine, Surgery, and Physiology and a longstanding exemplar of teaching. He writes about what over forty years has taught him of what is important in teaching. And it isn’t exactly what you might think …
In my mind, you’ll never grow up at all.
I get older and so do all of [the faculty]
But you always stay the same and you always will
And in that, I shall find great comfort in the days to come
So, you see, it won’t really be goodbye at all.
This speech was given by my favorite actor—Peter O’Toole in the musical remake of the great movie “Good-bye, Mr. Chips”—in which he played a Latin teacher in a British Public School (equivalent to our private schools). It is based on an older movie which was based on a wonderful book “Good-Bye, Mr. Chips” by James Hilton – I highly recommend it! Every year, at the MCW graduation, while the band is playing “The Triumphal March” from the opera Aida, I say this speech to myself. What did Mr. Chips represent?
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55 Words of Gratitude for 2022
By Wendy Peltier, MD
Feeling thankful for……………….
A day meeting at work with beloved colleagues, in person, no masks.
A week of summer vacation with my brother after years apart.
A month without last minute cancellations in my son’s caregiving schedule.
An entire year of planning meetings, holidays and vacation trips that actually happened.
Getting. Out. Of. Survival. Mode.
Dr. Peltier is a Professor in the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at MCW. She serves on the Faculty Pillar for the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education and on the editorial board of the Kern Transformational Times.
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Readers share their responses:
What would you give to someone hosting their first Thanksgiving?
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I would give two things: my time and some advice. I would offer to assist with preparations either the day of or the days ahead. I would encourage the host to embrace the time with loved ones, try not to get so caught up in the details that you don't engage with your guests.
– Meg Sullivan, Staff
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A cherry pie made with Door County cherries that we picked ourselves earlier in the summer
– Kathlyn Fletcher, MD, MA, Faculty
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For this week's reflection prompt, please answer the following question:
What is your favorite holiday recipe?
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Accepted Academic Medicine Article: Using Resident-Sensitive Quality Measures Derived From Electronic Health Record Data to Assess Residents' Performance in Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Authors: Smirnova Alina MD, PhD; Chahine Saad PhD, MEd; Milani Christina MSc; Schuh Abigail MD, MMHPE; Sebok-Syer Stephanie S. PhD; Swartz Jordan MD; Wilhite Jeffrey A. MPH; Kalet Adina MD, MPH; Durning Steven J. MD, MPH; Lombarts Kiki M.J.M.H.; van der Vleuten Cees P.M. PhD; Schumacher Daniel J. MD, MPH, MEd
Traditional quality metrics do not adequately represent the clinical work done by residents and, thus, cannot be used to link residency training to health care quality. This study aimed to determine whether electronic health record (EHR) data can be used to meaningfully assess residents’ clinical performance in pediatric emergency medicine using resident-sensitive quality measures (RSQMs).
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Kern Scholars Program Faculty Development Opportunities
We are excited to announce two opportunities for faculty development through our Kern Scholars Program. Each year we support one Kern Scholar in each of the following programs:
Masters of Health Professions Education through New York University Langone's Department of Medicine
Master of Arts in Character Education at the Jubilee Center for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
Letters of Interest are due to Jeff Fritz in December. Learn more through the link below.
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Share your Perspective: The Impact of Recent Reproductive Health Policy Changes on your Professional and Academic Roles in the MCW Community
Sponsored by the Council for Women's Advocacy
This event will focus on the ways that recent changes to reproductive health laws have and will impact your professional and academic roles. We hope to hear from individuals throughout the MCW community, including students, trainees, staff, and faculty. Individuals will have the opportunity to share their experiences for two minutes each so we have time to hear from as many people as possible. There will also be an opportunity to anonymously submit stories prior to the meeting which will then be read during the event.
While we recognize this is a sensitive and often very personal topic, this event is not intended to be a debate. Instead, it is an opportunity to discuss the impact of these laws through a professional and academic lens. All MCW voices are welcome.
To share an anonymous experience, please click HERE.
If you have questions, please contact AWSM@mcw.edu.
November 18, 2022
12:00 - 1:00 pm CT
Live Via Zoom
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Join the 12th Annual MCW Global Health Week 2022
Global Health Week is an opportunity to co-promote the diverse communities our faculty, staff, and partners are serving to advance health. We anticipate that together, we can continue to share credible, collaborative, and mutually beneficial efforts in global health from neighborhoods to nations.
November 28- December 2
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Educating Character Across The University
Dr. Cornel West - author, activist, philosopher, public intellectual, and civil rights leader, will kick off a major conference at Wake Forest University entitled "Educating Character Across The University" on December 1-3. The Program for Leadership and Character has invited him to take part in a moderated discussion about character and education. The event will be free and open to the public.
Over the following two days, the conference will highlight promising work on character education in the university context and strengthen a community of scholars across institutions and academic communities. Co-sponsored by the Oxford Character Project at the University of Oxford, the conference will feature presentations, panels, and workshops focused on integrating character into courses, designing character-related co-curricular programming, assessing character-related curricula and programs, and building a culture of character within colleges and universities.
While the keynote with Dr. West is open to all and requires no advance registration, the conference itself is aimed at educators and administrators from colleges and universities across the nation and the world. Workshops, panels, and networking events are scheduled from the morning of December 2 until noon on December 3.
December 1-3, 2022
Wake Forest University
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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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