Year 2021 is now well underway. While there have been national challenges in the first week of the year that may cause us anxiety about what the year holds, I am grateful for many things as we look back on 2020 and look towards the rest of 2021 as listed below.
– For the long-term commitment and excellence that Dr. Jay Moore brought to student education at UNMC. He has recently stepped down from his Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the College of Medicine. While Jay’s work benefitted students and faculty in all the departments, his central role in student education helped make sure students had great exposure to internal medicine as a discipline and that our faculty were very involved in all students’ education. We are thankful Jay is not completely retiring just yet!
– For the clinical care so many have been providing to our patients with COVID-19 and their representation in the Omaha World Herald’s Midlanders of the Year article on January 3,2021.
– For the impressive research activity around COVID-19 that has been led by our Infectious Diseases division with just two of their most recent contributions noted in this newsletter (Dr. Kalil’s recent NEJM first author paper and Dr. Diana Florescu’s role in a new COVID vaccine trial.)
– For the two COVID vaccines now available and the department members who have received it or will soon either through Nebraska Medicine or the VA. It is a huge task organizing the administration of the currently limited supply from the state. I appreciate the work of our own Dr. Beachy (and his co-chair Dr. Tammy Winterboer) in this challenging task.
– For all the scholarly activity of the department with some fine examples (publications, grants, recognitions) in this newsletter. It will soon be time to nominate people for our departmental research awards. Stay tuned for the email in the next few weeks that will outline the various awards.
– For new life—there have been several babies born to members of the department and we are always pleased to share those announcements in the newsletter. Forward Shannon Thomsen information as these events occur.
– For our residents and fellows and all the contributions they make in caring for patients, educating students, and pursuing scholarship. We are pleased with how things went for the fellowship match, despite it all being done virtually. A fine group of fellows will join us in July 2021. Resident interviews will be finishing before long and appreciate all the hard work of our program staff, chief residents and all their resident colleagues, and residency program leadership in making this all happen entirely virtual this year.
– For the medical students and other students who are now back with us in our clinical settings.
The January Nebraska Medicine/UNMC COM culture conversation topic this month is gratitude. When we feel ourselves going down on the mood elevator (which is going to happen regularly!), turning our attention to what we are grateful for will help us re-set our mood and allow us to be more effective in our work. Expressing gratitude by pointing out when someone is doing something correctly helps emphasis the kinds of activities we need to be the safest environment possible. Gratitude and a safe environment are closely linked.
I will leave you with a poem/blessing that a friend recently shared with me for the start of the new year. It is a bit lengthy but left me mindful of things to remember when we meet our inevitable challenges of 2021.
Deb Romberger
"A Blessing for the New Year"
To Bless the Space Between Us by John O'Donohue
On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.
And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The gray window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colors,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
In the curragh of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.
Internal Medicine Message From the Chair
