Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Board Members and Friends,
We’re preparing to enter week eight of online learning, social distancing and other things that have required a monumental change in the way we teach, learn and provide patient care. As I’ve said before, the speed in which you all have responded to a rapidly evolving medical emergency has been impressive and very humbling.
Later this week many of us will be recording parts of our virtual commencement ceremony. This represents another significant adjustment we’ve all had to make that puts the scope and reach of this pandemic into very personal terms as to how it has affected us all. Preparing for commencement also signals the end of many of your academic careers and the beginning of your professional ones. The next few months will present many challenges and opportunities to you as you prepare for your boards and get ready to launch your careers. We’ll be with you every step of the way.
The next month also allows us to focus on the successful completion of our spring semester and prepare to transition to our summer semester, which will also require online teaching and learning. We’re planning, with the hope that we will are permitted to access our campus, to begin limited labs and clinical experiences, but much of that depends upon how the pandemic subsides in our region.
Like many of our counterparts in the area, we are watching conditions very closely and developing plans that can meet multiple contingencies. Working with my President’s Council, the Dean’s Council, our Board of Trustees, as well as seeking outside advice, we have been engaged in rigorous analysis and planning for what the next academic year will look like. All of the decisions that are being made are guided by local conditions, science, safety and our mission. Our focus has been on balancing the enormous value of face to face educational experiences with our responsibility to protect the health of every member of the Salus community. Overall, our goal is to maintain the excellence for which our academic programs are known.
As we move through all this, it’s clear that no one has all the answers, especially as the pandemic crisis continues to evolve. We will always be informed by the science and local conditions and will act decisively if we need to change course to protect our university community. I want to assure you that our planning will continue and, as they have throughout this emergency, your deans and program directors will be providing program-specific guidance and details as these plans develop. While we don’t yet know exactly how all this will look, we are agile enough to pivot as conditions dictate. I promise you that I will do everything I can to keep everyone informed.
As we do move forward, I also want you to know that, in addition to the educational component of what we’re planning, we’re also developing rigorous prevention protocols to keep everyone safe. Everything we’re doing is based on CDC and other evidence-based guidance, addressing institutional and clinic cleaning, personal protective equipment, hygiene, facility use and more.
Candidly, no one expects us to be back to “business as usual” in August. Our classes and classrooms will almost certainly look different, given the requirement to maintain social distancing and our clinics will be less populated than we’d like.
Out of adversity comes great opportunity and I see many opportunities for us at Salus. As we plan and anticipate what people are calling a “New Normal” I like to think of this as developing the “Next Normal”. PCO and Salus have always led health science education to the next level – now is our time to harness that creativity and resourcefulness that’s in our DNA and find new, innovative and even more effective ways to educate the next generation of professionals.
We are SALUS STRONG! While we have challenges ahead of us, I have no doubt, whatsoever, that we will not only survive these unparalleled challenges, but when this ends, we will come out on the other side stronger, more resilient and able to meet our mission as we have for over 100 years.
Stay safe and healthy, continue to practice social distancing and keep those comments coming!
Mike
No comments:
Post a Comment