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Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, October 14, 2022
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Guest Director's Corner
Perspective/Opinion
Poetry Corner
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Amanda Gorman: Lighthouse
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Your Turn
Upcoming Events/Announcements
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Guest Director's Corner
What a Gift to be Together: Highlights from the First Annual KNN Conference
By Wendy Peltier, MD
On September 29 and 30, 2022, the Kern National Network (KNN) hosted its first annual two-day conference in Milwaukee. This event brought together medical educators, students and others invested in education, to join the KNN’s mission to promote Human Flourishing through the profession of medicine by fostering caring, character, and practical wisdom with innovative teaching methods and creation of an integrated framework. The conference was designed to Connect, Convene, and Catalyze towards Flourishing.
Background of the Kern National Network
Launching a Movement: This is not a project with an end date.
-John Luk, MD, Dell Medical School
Founded in 2017, the KNN is a network of seven schools across the country including the Medical College of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Dell Medical School, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University, who have launched a movement to transform medical education around caring and character, with support of a grant from the Milwaukee-based Kern Family Foundation. The KNN is closely tied to, but distinct from, the MCW Kern Institute, which is considered the program “hub.”
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Perspective/Opinion
Connect, Convene, Catalyze Toward Flourishing: Reflecting on the Inaugural Kern National Network Conference
By Kimara Ellefson, MBA, Sarah Williams and Joëlle Worm, MPA (Photos: Jay Westhauser)
In late September, hundreds of healthcare educators, leaders and learners gathered in Milwaukee to share and celebrate transformational work that is creating a brighter future for the profession of medicine. Explore themes from the first Kern National Network conference and discover ways to get involved in the movement toward flourishing in medicine…
Informed and inspired. Energized. Hopeful. A notebook full of ideas to follow up on.
Those were just a few of the reactions that participants shared throughout the inaugural Kern National Network for Caring & Character in Medicine (KNN) conference held in Milwaukee on September 29 and 30, 2022. The work of the KNN, including the conference, is made possible through the support of the Kern Family Foundation, and we extend our sincere gratitude for this extraordinary partnership and investment.
The conference, “Connect, Convene, Catalyze Toward Flourishing,” created a unique opportunity to recognize and learn from transformational work nationally that is shifting the culture of medicine to elevate flourishing, meaning and purpose.
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Perspective/Opinion
Mentoring and Professionalism in Training for Practical Wisdom in Anti-racism and Allyship
By R. Ellen Pearlman, MD, FACH
Dr. Pearlman, one of the speakers at the KNN Conference, shares her first-hand experience with Anti-racism and allyship development in faculty and staff at the Zucker School of Medicine…
I am a white, cis-gendered, able-bodied woman physician. I grew up as the daughter of a physician father and a mom who could afford not to work to raise me and my two older sisters. We lived in a white suburb and went to a private school, shopped at stores where we only saw white people and watched Disney on TV on Sunday nights, which only featured white characters. My parents were progressive liberals who were proud of teaching us to be “colorblind.”
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Perspective/Opinion
From Urine to Mindfulness – A Personal Reflection on my Work in Mind-Body Medicine
By Aviad Haramati, PhD
Dr. Haramati reflects upon twenty years of teaching and practicing mind-body medicine and his experiences at the recent KNN conference – Connect, Convene, Catalyze Toward Flourishing…
Last month I had the privilege of participating in the Kern National Network’s national conference in Milwaukee. I presented on our twenty years of experience in providing medical students and faculty at Georgetown University Medical Center with an elective course in mind-body medicine. This course is designed to foster caring and character, as well as tools for stress reduction and enhanced well-being. I have spent several days since the conference reflecting on how I got involved and why I am determined to help other institutions consider incorporating this course into the curriculum for health professionals.
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Lighthouse
By Amanda Gorman
Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.
--Terence
We have never met
& yet we have still lost sight of each other,
two lighthouses quavering in fog.
We could not hold ourselves.
This year was no year.
When next generations ask, we will say
It went something like this:
The empty, creaking playgrounds,
Bodies laid straight as celery stalks,
The imprint of warmth, holidays,
Gatherings&people, gone to rust
In our acrid skill.
The moments wavered unscheduled,
Planless, not plotless. Time col lap sed
Into no m more than a shape
That we felt for numbly
(& tell us: what is the hour
But a rotation by which we mark our grief).
Whole moths swept by, fast but dragging,
Like a damp void trapped in the rearview.
Our souls, solitary & solemn.
By then, our fear was old & exact,
Worn-in & stiff as a hand-me-down.
When has horror not been our heirloom.
* * *
The heart, chambered by grief.
The mind, assimilated to suffering.
Neverthelss, we walked from that pale plane,
Though we were free to remain.
Hope is no silent harbor, no haven still.
It is the roaring thing that tugs us away
From the very shores we clutch.
Though we have never met,
We have sensed the other all along,
Quiet & wandering, wide-lit
With the urge to move forward.
No human is a stranger to us.
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For this week's reflection prompt, please answer the following question:
Pancakes or waffles?
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Current Medical Students
Learn more about the MCWfusionTM curriculum and help improve plans
Current Medical Students interested in learning more about the MCWfusionTM curriculum: please sign up for a design sprint describing proposed assessment models and provide your feedback.
Session Dates: September 23, 26 & 27 and October 13 & 20, 2022
The September sessions will focus on assessment during the initial foundation science phase 1 of the curriculum including the patient-based discussions and the coaching program. The October sessions will focus on assessments during the Clerkship phase of the curriculum and would be most appropriate for M3 and M4 students.
Email MCWfusionCurriculum@mcw.edu with any questions.
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Congraulations to Kristina Kaljo, PhD
Dr. Kaljo has been awarded the 2022 MCW Innovations in Healthcare Education Research Annual Conference Innovator of the year!
She is contributing two oral presentations, two roundatbles, one poster and one Kern Institute Transformational Ideas Intiative Project at the 2022 MCW IHER conference.
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Help the Kern Institute Develop a Thoughtful Questionnaire on Physician Professional Development
Through the administration of a national longitudinal survey, the Kern Project on the Good Physician (KPGP) team is investigating the domains of practical wisdom, character virtue, and human flourishing in physicians.
We are looking for physician volunteers to be part of a 40-minute pilot to conduct cognitive interviewing. In this session, we will administer the survey and seek feedback on survey length, methods, and questions. If you are interested in participating in this pilot, please email Suma Thareja by 5:00 pm on October 21, 2022.
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Please Join Us!
Kern Connection Cafe: Advocacy, Legislation and Voting: Keys for all Health Sciences Professionals
with Alister Martin, MD, MPP
The opportunities and abilities to participate in advocacy, legislation and voting are often lost on professionals in the health sciences. This is typically the consequence of limited education and perceived institutional, professional, and societal constraints. This Connection Café is designed to dispel these misperceptions, to enlighten, empower, and embolden health sciences professionals, and to encourage engagement in the policy and legislative process.
This Connection Cafe will be presented by Alister Martin, MD, MPP, Assistant Professor, Harvard University, founder of Vot-ER, and recent White House Fellow and moderated by Christopher S. Davis, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Surgery and the Institute for Health and Equity.
October 27, 2022
12:00 - 1:00 pm CT
Live Via Zoom
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Please Join Us!
Kern Grand Rounds: Maximizing Your Mentoring Relationships
with Melissa McNeil, MD, MPH
Mentoring is vital to the success of academic physicians, and yet, it is both hard to get and hard to do well.
This talk will address strategies for successful mentor-mentee relationships highlighting the following:
What makes a good mentor?
What makes a good mentee? and
The strategies for maximizing the relationship to make sure that both parties are satisfied and successful.
Dr. McNeil received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, her MD degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a Master’s of Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. She is a Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and has recently joined the faculty at Brown University as a Professor of Medicine where she is a member of the Division of General Internal Medicine and will serve as an academic hospitalist. She serves as a Senior Consultant to the Women’s Health Education Group at VA Central Office.
November 3, 2022
9:00 - 10:00 am CT
Live Via Zoom
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Please Join Us!
KICS Journal Club with Susan Nathan, MD
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 November, for a special Veteran's Day event, Dr. Nathan will be discussing the VA project My Life My Story and the use of narrative medicine in medical education.
Dr. Nathan is a Geriatrician and Hospice Palliative Medicine Physician at the VA Boston. She has a strong interest in narrative medicine and is the site director of the My Life My Story Project at the Boston VA.
November 9, 2022
12:15 - 1:00 pm CT
Live Via Zoom
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KNN Discussion Series
Human Flourishing 2030: Flourishing in the Learning Environment
Imagine it’s 2030 and we live in a healthier world where healthcare learners, practitioners and patients are flourishing. What does that future look like, and what will it take to get there? We need your voice and participation to chart that future. This series will examine influences, micro to macro, that shape and drive the vitality of healthcare students, professionals and broader society.
During October’s session, leaders and learners in medicine will discuss how clinical learning environments can cultivate flourishing. Moderator Catherine R. Lucey, MD, MACP; Michelle Guy, MD; Stuart Slavin, MD, MEd; Saba Anwer and Isabelle Tersio will explore strategies for infusing human flourishing into learning experiences, as well as ways to become agents and beneficiaries of human flourishing within educational settings.
October 25, 2022
12:00 - 1:00 pm CT
Live Virtual Event
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This series is presented by the Kern National Network for Caring & Character in Medicine through an investment from the Kern Family Trust and Kern Family Foundation. | |
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The Transition to Residency Symposium
Night-onCall, co-founded by Dr. Sondra Zabar and Dr. Adina Kalet, is an immersive, clinically- authentic simulation experience for near-graduating medical students that provides the student, and the medical school, with comprehensive, debriefed feedback on readiness from multiple perspectives. Please join the NOC Symposium for a virtual interactive discussion on communication and clinical competency during the transition to residency.
During this Symposium, you will have an opportunity to:
- Hear from Dr. Holly Humphrey, the President of the Macy Foundation, on how consortia like Night-onCall contribute to the future of medical education
- Learn about the impact of simulation from medical schools that have implemented Night-onCall
- Understand how using data-rich feedback for learners can help your curriculum and learners' transition into residency
October 28, 2022
10:00 - 2:00 pm CT
Live Via Zoom
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EXPERIENCE. TALK. LISTEN.
Join the Next Med Moth Event
Come to MCW’s Med Moth, a storytelling event with faculty and students sharing their own true experiences in the world of medicine. Inspired by The Moth, this event will entail authentic storytelling and an enlightening audience experience.
November 17, 2022
6:30 pm CT
Alumni Center
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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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