Employee Engagement Follow-Up Survey in March

As you may recall from previous announcements on the Employee Engagement survey and workshops held last year, a follow up survey was planned in the Spring 2012 to gauge how well results are being shared. This follow up survey is planned to be launched on March 31st, and will be sent to the same audience as the original Employee Engagement survey. The purpose of the survey is to identify areas and organizations where additional help may be needed in sharing the results and taking action. Only organization demographics and the following 3 questions will be asked:

1. Employee Engagement results were reviewed with employees in my organization (yes/no)
2. My work group developed an action plan(s) to address survey findings (yes/no)
3. I have seen progress on our plan (yes/no)

Work is underway with control point contacts to assemble the survey and verify organizational demographics. Please contact Don Diettinger at 476-4841 if you have any questions on the Employee Engagement survey, or on how to best share results with your team.

Spotlight on UCSF LivingGreen Champion: Kristen Fitzhenry

Medical Education's Greenteam founder Kristen Fitzhenry has been featured for her efforts and commitment to sustainability issues and practices. Read more

Congratulations, Kristen!

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What is Green Team?

Green team is a group of medical education employees in the UCSF School of Medicine working to promote department policies and activities aimed at reducing the environmental impact of our office spaces and work habits. This committee has representation across all medical education sites and provides support and education about ways we can reduce waste, recycle, save energy, and protect the environment. 

There are 2 levels of participation, Green team or Green team ambassadors.  Green team will work on the following:

• Recommend Medical Education green standards to be reviewed and endorsed by the Medical Education leadership
• Provide ongoing education, evaluation and support on green standards to all of Medical Education
• Celebrate and promote successes in “greening” our units
• Maintain a library of resources and articles on promoting green behavior
• Serve as champions (green ambassadors) within our units and on campus green initiatives
• Research answers to relevant questions from Medical Education staff and disseminate answers

Green Team Ambassadors will work with the core team to promote greening initiatives within their units and office space.  Ambassadors will be contacted by the core team, but do not need to attend meetings.  The Core Team meets monthly at Parnassus.

If anyone is interested in joining Green Team-core or ambassador- please contact any of the members: Kristen Fitzhenry (UME), Sylvia DeCourcey (Educational Evaluations), Patty Ramirez (CLU), or Jewel Smally (Kanbar)

Ombuds Works as a Neutral Party to Keep the Peace Across UCSF

A new office — the Office of the Ombuds — has been created at UCSF, appointing Randy Daron, PsyD, as the first UCSF Ombuds. Daron brings with him a background in problem-solving services, including mediation, problem resolution, effective communication, emotional intelligence, and conflict management.

“The addition of an Ombuds Office has expanded the alternative dispute resolution options available to all members of UCSF,” Daron explains. “It’s an office where people can bring their concerns and issues forward for strictly confidential assistance, without fear of retribution.”

UCSF’s former Work~Life Resource Center (WLRC) operated as a quasi-ombuds office and addressed one aspect of the campus mission, promoting a supportive work environment, which has been a work in progress at UCSF for many years. Today, it is part of a larger goal to become the workplace of choice, which is outlined in UCSF’s three-year plan outlined by Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH.

More information

AAMC Says Obama Budget Plan Threatens Access to Health Care

AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., issued the following statement today on the Obama administration’s FY 2013 budget proposal: “The AAMC is deeply concerned about the impact the president’s budget will have on the nation’s health.  The cuts to teaching hospitals through the plan’s drastic reductions to Medicare will hurt beneficiaries and exacerbate the already critical shortage of doctors in the United States.  In addition, while we thank the president for his commitment to medical research funding, the administration’s proposal to freeze the budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would mean that the NIH budget has failed to keep pace with biomedical inflation for 10 consecutive years, a situation that would have dramatic consequences on the pace of medical innovation and harm communities around the nation...>>>more 

Six Leading Health Education Associations Unite to Form a New Organization Focused on Interprofessional Education and Practice

Six national health professions associations have formally joined to create the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC), a new national organization that will focus on better integrating and coordinating the education of nurses, physicians, dentists, pharmacists, public health professionals, and other members of the patient health care team to provide more collaborative and patient-centered care. The founding members include the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the American Dental Education Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Association of Schools of Public Health...>>>more

New Medical College Admissions Test Approved

Starting in 2015, when aspiring doctors take the MCAT® examination, they will need more than a solid basis in the natural sciences.  Under changes approved last week by the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), they also will need an understanding of the psychology, sociology, and biology that provide the foundation for learning about the human and social components of health. The changes to the MCAT exam, the first since 1991, are designed to help students prepare for a rapidly changing health care system and an evolving body of medical knowledge while addressing the needs of a growing, aging, and increasingly diverse population. >>>More

Med Ed Communications Wiki renamed Medical Education Hub

The Medical Education Communications Wiki is now called the Medical Education Hub

Check out the Hub for information on active committees and projects such as Green team, Website and Staff Engagement Plan. Also included are updates and information on facilities, reserving 'hotel space', medical education calendars and much much more!

If you are a member of the medical education staff or faculty leadership and don't have access to the Hub please contact Christina Cicoletti for enrollment.

Patricia O'Sullivan receives 2012 AERA fellowship

Please join us in congratulating Patricia O'Sullivan on her selection as a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). 

The AERA Fellows Program was established by the AERA Council in 2007 to honor education researchers with substantial research accomplishments, to convey the Association’s commitment to excellence in research, and to emphasize to new scholars the importance of sustained research of excellence in the field.

New AAMC Pilot Focuses on Global Educational Exchange

In response to increasing globalization in medicine and the growing importance of international electives in medical education, the AAMC is piloting a new program to help facilitate educational exchanges for medical students.  The Global Health Learning Opportunities pilot is a Web-based health education exchange service that connects first-year international and domestic medical students with clinical and research elective rotations.  Launched earlier this month, the program has 23 schools participating worldwide.  Learn more

UCSF Profiles Great Managers: Congratulations to Kevin Souza

Kevin Souza is not new to managing people. His first experience was 25 years ago as a manager of a basic science research lab in endocrinology.

 

Now, in his current role as the assistant dean of Medical Education in the UCSF School of Medicine, he is responsible for unifying the geographically dispersed medical education administration, with approximately 60 staff members making up the team.

But it is not Souza’s years of experience or the breadth of his role that makes him such a great manager, it is his commitment to inclusivity, fairness and innovation. In 2010, he was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Exceptional University Performance. It is not a honor that Souza takes lightly. “It was the greatest moment of my professional career,” he says.

Born in Clarksville, a small town on Tennessee’s northern border, Souza grew up on a 400-acre family farm. “We grew cash crops like corn and much of our own food,” he says. “We slaughtered our own pigs and chickens.”

From these rural beginnings he embarked on a career in science, earning his B.S. degree in Biology at Austin Peay State University and an M.S. degree in Biology from Vanderbilt University. After earning his graduate degree, he taught biology at Vanderbilt and at Chancellor College in Malawi, Africa, as a US Peace Corps volunteer. Souza then returned to Vanderbilt before coming to UCSF in 1993.

While at UCSF, he has served as a lab manager in the Department of Psychiatry and an information officer in medical education. In 2000, Souza became director of Educational Technologies and then in 2008, the first assistant dean for Medical Education.  

Read More about Kevin and OME's approach to the Staff Engagement Survey

GOOD Magazine features UCSF SOM's use of technology aids

GOOD magazine has profiled the UCSF School of Medicine's use of cutting-edge technologies currently being used to support innovative hands-on teaching methods. Check out Vice Dean Dr. Catherine Lucey and Kevin Souza as they show how integrating technology aids the faculty in training the next generation of compassionate, skillful physicians. 

Link to Good Magazine article.

Learning Center Virtual Tours

This collection of virtual tours showcases educational innovations implemented in old or new learning spaces, and were originally presented at the 2011 AAMC Annual Meeting. These innovations improve or extend the use of space beyond the educational methods for which they were designed.

2011 AAMC Annual Meeting Virtual Tour Presentations

Tufts University School of Medicine 

"Transforming the Student Experience"

UT Southwestern Medical Center 

"Academic Colleges at UT Southwestern"

UCSF School of Medicine 

"UCSF Teaching and Learning Center - Virtual Tour"

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine 

"One School with Two Preclinical Campuses"