Team Members:
Joy Hilton – Director of Education
Terry Bennett DOM Compliance Manager
Karen Ward – UME Program Administrator
Margaret Kuhlman – GME Program Administrator
Erin Arnold – Residency Coordinator
Tony Brinkman – Residency and Fellowship Coordinator
Cheryl Etelvari – Cardiology Fellowship Program Administrator
Lisa Mackey – Heme/Onc Fellowship Coordinator
Leslie Stewart – GI/Transplant Hepatology Fellowship Coordinator
Monica Olsen – Nephrology Fellowship Coordinator
Kara Watts – Pulmonary Fellowship Coordinator
Javanov Barksdale – Endo/Rheum Fellowship Coordinator
Monte Parsons – Allergy Fellowship Coordinator
Ginny Atwell – ID Fellowship Coordinator
By Joy Hilton, Department of Medicine Director of Education
Team engagement has always been a priority for the Department’s central education team. Each year, we have participated in projects designed to stay connected and motivated as we go about our UME and GME administrative tasks.
Now, more than ever, we look for ways to support and inspire one another as we all struggle to cope with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This amazing group of administrators quickly mobilized to meet the demands for working remotely and, like so many others, became instant gurus of Zoom/Web-X conferencing and quickly pivoted to recreate our roles in our respective educational programs.
As a team, we meet at least three times a week via zoom (M-W-F). Sometimes it’s just a quick check in to gauge how everyone is doing. We may share stories about our families, home and yard projects, celebrate birthdays, newborns, share some laughs, and even burst into song from time to time. And, of course, Zoom dress up is not out of the question. We have used this time to also brainstorm together creative approaches for meeting work challenges, sharing successes and best practices, and trying to figure out how we will best support our faculty and trainees in the months ahead when we are typically ramping up for year-end/year-start events as well as program recruitment in a social distancing era. Folks continue to demonstrate a collaborative spirit as we send and receive rapid-fire emails containing suggestions, process maps, how-to’s, and more, which prove invaluable as we maneuver our way through this uncharted territory.
To help keep track of what everyone is working on, we utilize both Monday.com and Google Sheets to provided weekly updates on project status. We recently held our “monthly” team meeting where we spent considerable time reviewing this month’s assigned ASPIRE value…excellence. This year’s team engagement project is to buddy up with a colleague and each month we take a deep dive to discuss the relevance of each assigned UVA ASPIRE value as it relates to our roles as education administrators. Podcasts and/or Ted talks related to each value are assigned in advance of the monthly meeting as are questions for stimulating discussion and insight. The co-presenters for each respective value share slides and handouts designed to inspire us to be exceptional in our performance for each named competency. Finally, we make a practice of regularly sharing “pearls” from professional development opportunities – workshops, webinars, conferences, etc. This sharing of information provides both valuable tips and keeps us engaged in conversations around work/life integration.
Selfishly, I enjoy seeing everyone’s face a few times a week (along with doggies, kitties, kids, and significant others). In the end, we’ll get through this together and I have no doubt that this extraordinary team will manage just fine as we move through this crisis and come out on the other side…stronger and more creative than ever!
Filed Under: Education, In the Know
Tags: Education, education team, SOM