There’s a reason they call it March Madness. With the school year winding down, spring is an especially hectic time of year at any academic medical center.
The fourth-year students just completed Match Day and are preparing for graduation. The incoming class for this fall is being finalized, and other classes are preparing for their upcoming USMLE exam.
The College of Medicine is preparing its self-study for the LCME accreditation process that culminates this fall. We are in the middle of a detailed assessment by external consultants as to how The Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC Physicians, and the COM can work more efficiently and develop an integrated clinical enterprise.
Building plans for the Cancer Center and the new Ambulatory facility are in full swing. New opportunities for research funding are being explored through the University-Affiliated Research Center (UARC).
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UNMC’s China delegation met up with a group of College of Nursing students during their trip to China last month. From left-right are: Dele Davies, M.D., Jessie Bolton, Brittne Mahoney, Gara Sibley, Sara Lutton, Alex Nelson, Ellie Johnson, Anne Brennan, Brad Britigan, M.D. and Jialin Zheng, M.D. |
Personally, I’ve spent the past month in a variety of locales. The second week in March I was in China with several other individuals from the Chancellor’s Office and the School of Allied Health Professions further developing a number of programs with medical schools, hospitals and government agencies in Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. I returned to take on the role of attending physician on the general infectious diseases inpatient consult service at The Nebraska Medical Center for the last two weeks.
As dean, I probably spend too much time going to meetings and tending to administrative issues. It has been an enlightening experience for me to again be directly involved in the care of patients with our faculty, staff, house staff and students who comprise the clinical enterprise.
It is reassuring and inspiring to see first-hand the high quality of care being delivered by the health care professionals who comprise the clinical enterprise. The experience also has reinforced to me the importance of interprofessional care in the new era of health care reform. It is a much more effective way of providing high quality care.
The new world of health care demands a team approach. The patient-centered medical home and team-based care is the future. It will be imperative that physicians work together with nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists, nutritionists and other allied health professionals. By working together as a team, we can do a better job of managing patients and keeping them healthy.
Historically the health professions have been educated in total isolation of each other. Curricula need to change to impact this, and we have begun such a transition. In fact, UNMC has one program that has led the way in promoting interprofessional education for many years.
On April 18, the student-run SHARING Clinics will celebrate their 16th anniversary. A special event will be held in the West Atrium of the Durham Outpatient Center from 4 to 6 p.m.
If you think about it, the SHARING Clinics were way ahead of their time. They have always been about interprofessionalism. Students from all UNMC colleges volunteer for the clinics and work together as a team.
The SHARING Clinics have been an important mechanism for giving students more patient experience while helping people gain access to much needed and inaccessible health care at little or no cost.
Finally, I want to salute three College of Medicine faculty – Drs. Ed Vandenburg, Tom Porter and Susan Swindells – for being named as recipients of prestigious university-wide awards this year and our incredible bone marrow/stem cell transplantation program, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month.
Their accomplishments are detailed in this newsletter. Please take a few minutes a read about them.
We couldn’t be more proud.