Graduation Day: Week of May 22nd, 2020

Students, especially today’s graduates, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

Good morning! It’s going to be a beautiful day - because it’s GRADUATION DAY!

Graduation should be a time of celebration and pride – for our students, their families, significant others, as well as our faculty and staff. It also should be a time of reflection – on what’s next, how fortunate you all are to be able to help others and finally to thank those who helped get you here. This year’s graduation ceremony will be a bit different from any other we have ever celebrated, but that doesn’t diminish the remarkable and extremely laudable accomplishments of the Class of 2020! 

While some things are clearly different, as you reflect on all of this, you will see that the things that matter most actually remain the same. You all chose healthcare as a profession because of your sincere desires to make other’s lives better. That hasn’t changed; it’s actually even more important now. The fact that you’ve all embarked on extremely exciting and rewarding careers that enhance your ability to help people improve their lives remains a real gift; one that must be cherished, honed and continually nurtured throughout your professional lives.

As I’ll remind you in my remarks later today, the technology you’ll be surrounded with to assist you in caring for your patients and clients should never become the primary focus of your attention. Treat your patients and not the technology. While data on each patient must be collected, your primary job is to accurately interpret these data and effectively communicate the implications to your patients, ensuring their welfare remains central to everything you do.  

One other thing that hasn’t changed is that when you chose healthcare as a profession you’ve also chosen professions requiring a commitment to life-long learning. Salus will always be your academic home and I want you to think of us that way. Never stop asking questions, challenging your assumptions and sharpening your skills. We will all be there to help you continue your professional journeys. 

One of the traditions that I started when I came to Salus almost 8 years ago, was to informally talk with the graduating class the morning of the ceremony, following rehearsal. Since that’s not possible this year, our communications staff has arranged for me to do this via Instagram Live. So, I’m going to give that a try at 9 a.m. this morning. Here’s a link to our commencement site that should help you view commencement at 2 p.m. Additionally, if you’re accessing your social media, you can tag today’s festivities at @SalusUniversity and using #SalusGrad. 

Finally, as you prepare to venture beyond our gates, I want to thank you for entrusting your education to us. You all are leaving here SALUS STRONG, ready to help define what the next normal will look like as we overcome the challenges presented to us by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay strong and keep in touch!

Mike

Coronavirus Precautions: Week of March 20th, 2020

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

Today, I write this from home, where it’s pretty dreary outside and it’s been a week since we moved Salus online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. First and foremost, I want to convey our sincerest wishes of good health and safety for you and your families during this unsettled time.  While we find ourselves as a university community experiencing something we’ve never dealt with before, we know that our alumni, students, and families will meet this challenge responsibly, bravely and with determination. We are Salus Strong!

As you all know, we’ve pivoted to online training in all of our programs and our Salus-based clinics are closed due to the emergency. Depending upon your particular program and external clinical site, several of you are still working at those sites, while others have been instructed not to. We are working closely with accrediting bodies, as well as your external education coordinators to develop a mitigation plan that enables you to compete your clinical requirements as soon as practical and, hopefully, to avoid any graduation delays.

As you also know, we’ve made the very difficult decision to have the May graduation ceremony done virtually. I know how disappointed you are, as I am, but it was the only responsible thing we could do. Dr. Caldwell and his staff are looking at other models and working hard to make this as meaningful and special as possible. As I noted in my email that went out earlier this week, students will have the option of walking during our commencement ceremony in October. 

As you all realize by now, this is a very fluid situation, with new information and new guidelines becoming available almost daily. Just yesterday, the CDC provided additional guidance for healthcare providers to include: 

o   Delaying all elective ambulatory provider visits

o   Rescheduling of elective and non-emergent admissions to hospitals

o   Delaying inpatient and outpatient elective surgical and procedural cases

o   Postponing routine dental and eyecare visits

According to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the virus can live up to 72 hours on flat surfaces. It lives longest on plastic and steel and does poorly on copper. The virus can live up to 24 hours on cardboard, which suggests packages that arrive in the mail could have low levels of the virus. When the virus becomes suspended in droplets smaller than 5 micrometers — known as aerosols — it can stay suspended for about 3 hours with a half-life of about ½ hour, researchers said, before drifting down and settling on surfaces where it can linger for hours or days. All this information tells us how important it is to comply with the current CDC guidelines for social distancing, wiping down surfaces and regularly washing our hands. I suggest that you get into the habit of wiping down packages, your mail and things from the grocery store with a mild bleach solution, to be safe.

I recently received a link to a very informative video done by a friend and colleague, Dr. Harvey Rubin. Dr. Rubin is an infectious disease specialist at Penn who has also been a previous commencement speaker at Salus. I really liked his comparison to today’s emergency with that of the Spanish Flu of 1918 and how this is so very different in many respects. The only new information that has come out since he recorded this is the possibility that water droplets that can carry the virus can remain airborne for longer than originally thought. With his permission, I have shared a link to his talk here.

If you already haven’t come to the realization that this emergency will go on for a period of months, rather than weeks, you need to change the way you’re thinking about it.  Experts tell us we haven’t yet seen the peak in the United States. What’s happened in China and is currently playing out in Italy, Spain and other parts of Europe provides us a template for what can happen here. So, please take this seriously, practice the precautions that have been prescribed and be the conduit for accurate information for your friends and family. 

Even though you’re practicing social distancing and doing all the other preventive measures, doesn’t mean you have to sit in your living room and watch TV all day. I strongly encourage you to get outside and get some exercise, whether it be walking, running, working out in small (less than 10) groups where you can have at least 10 feet between you, or riding your bike on a path or around the neighborhood. This is probably one of the best things you can do to help relieve stress and anxiety caused by all of this. For those of you who would like to speak with one of our counselors, you can schedule an appointment to virtually meet with them here.

I know this is unnerving and very frightening to many of you.  While, at least right now, the end of this may not be in sight, I assure you, we’ll get through this. Keep the emails coming and remember that the most up-to-date information about all of this can be found on our website here!

I’d like to leave you with one final thought that I gleaned from an article I recently read in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The author spoke with his rabbi who suggested that while we must practice “physical distancing,” between others, it also important to maintain “social solidarity,” by making extra efforts to support people around us. That means checking up on your classmates, family members or if you have someone in your neighborhood who is in the “high-risk group” who cannot get out to get groceries, etc. It’s important to remember, as we make a conscious effort to continue to stay healthy and safe, we are all in this together.  You all are in my thoughts and prayers as we work through this as a Salus community. Let’s all Stay Salus Strong!

Mike

Fall Commencement, Week of October 18th

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

This morning I’m sending this update out from sunny and cool Charleston, South Carolina where I had the opportunity to meet up with Dr. Eckert who is attending the annual conference of the Association of Schools Advancing Health Profession’s annual conference and board meeting.  Our own Dr. Mitch Scheiman will be presenting to the group and Dr. Eckert sits on their board.  I am “double dipping” on this trip as I am also in town to speak at a retirement ceremony for one of my Navy colleagues who will be transitioning after 30 years of service to our great navy and country.  I love it when a plan comes together!

I’d like to give a “shout out” to Dr. Jim Caldwell and Ms. Shannon Boss and their staffs for all the work they did to ensure that Monday’s graduation lunch and long white coat ceremony and Tuesday’s commencement ceremony at the Kimmel Center all went off without a hitch!  Thank you for all the work you do to make it all look easy (and we all know it’s not!).

Closer to home, I'm excited to announce that a Blindness and Low Vision Studies (BLVS) grant proposal has been selected for funding by the Department of Education's Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA). The $750,000 grant will support Project MORE: Mentorships for Outcomes Related to Employment, a project designed to alleviate the nationwide shortage of qualified low vision rehabilitation (LVR) and vision rehabilitation therapy (VRT) personnel and address documented employment challenges experienced by individuals with visual impairments. Kerry Lueders, MS, COMS, TVI, CLVT, assistant professor for BLVS will be the Project Director. Congratulations to the whole BLVS team for making this happen! 

During the last week of August, twelve Physician Assistant (PA) students, along with PA faculty members, returned to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a one-time workshop with Museum educators as a part of a series of workshops called “The Art of Observation.”   NBC10 was there to feature the educational workshop on a segment called “Growing Greater Philadelphia” which aired Tuesday night. You can watch it online here. I encourage you to watch the entire segment as it features local business leaders and entrepreneurs from our region. Our segment starts roughly at 16:30. Thank you to everyone who made this happen!  

Last weekend, Anna Grasso, MS, OTR/L, CAPS, assistant professor of our Occupational Therapy (OT) program, along with two OT students from the Phi Theta Epsilon OT Honor Society volunteered with the Rebuilding Together Philadelphia (RTP) Block Build event in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood. During these events, Ms. Grasso and the students were able to provide adaptive equipment and home safety recommendations for homeowners and their families to improve health and safety. Read more about their partnership with RTP at salus.edu/RTP-OT.

This Saturday, the Pennsylvania Ear Institute (PEI) will be hosting its annual Fall Open House from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Audiology students and PEI clinical staff will be hosting tours of PEI, providing hearing screenings, demos of hearing aids and other technology, “meet the experts” talks, and more. If you know anyone who would be interested in stopping by, send them this link to register! 

Also this weekend, students from our Student Academy of Audiology (SAA) will be attending the Pennsylvania Walk4Hearing event at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia. Our students and audiology faculty members will also be providing hearing screenings for this years attendees. For more information visit http://hlaa.convio.net/site/TR?fr_id=2566&pg=entry.

With some of you now finished with mid-terms and others still looking forward to them, I encourage you all to take a “brain-break” and get out to enjoy the pretty fall colors and nice weather.  Have a great weekend – Many of us will be gone next week at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Optometry.  For those of you who will be there, please join us for our Alumni and Friends reception on Friday evening in the Orchid Room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at 7:30PM.

Mike

Congratulations to the Class of 2019: Week of May 22nd

All,

Last night we began celebrating the accomplishments of many of you with the recognition of those who completed their Optometry Advanced Studies certificates. Congratulations to all those who met the requirements! Thus begins our few days of celebration! 

Today we have the Awards Luncheon followed by the Occupational Therapy program's Capstone Presentations at 5:00 p.m. in the Hafter Center and then the “big event” tomorrow afternoon.  

Graduation should be a time of celebration and pride – for our students, their families, significant others and our faculty and staff. But it also should be a time of reflection – on what’s next, how fortunate you all are to be able to help others and to finally to thank those who helped get you here.

As we prepare to launch our newest group of Salus graduates I want to extend the University’s congratulations and thanks to all of our students, faculty and staff on attaining this significant accomplishment. As you’ll hear during the commencement ceremony, graduation marks the first step you’ll take as a healthcare professional. You’ve all embarked on extremely exciting and rewarding careers and your ability to help people improve their lives is a real gift; one that needs to be cherished, honed and continually nurtured. It’s our hope and expectation that you take full advantage of all that you’ve learned during your time at Salus and apply those skills with the utmost care and sensitivity to those patients and clients you will care for.  

As I’ll remind you on tomorrow, you’ll be surrounded by all sorts of technology to assist you in doing your jobs. It will be important to remember that these technologies are adjuncts to finding the best ways to care for your patients and clients.  Remember, to treat your patients and not the technology! 

Finally, when you chose healthcare as a profession you’ve also chosen professions requiring a commitment to life-long learning. Salus will always be your academic home and I want you to think of us that way. Never stop asking questions, challenging your assumptions and sharpening your skills. We’ll all be there to help you continue to succeed. Congratulations on a job exceptionally well done – we’re all very proud of you!

MHM

Commencement Week: Week of May 25th

Students, Faculty, Residents, Alumni, Staff, Board of Trustees and Friends,

Yesterday was truly a day of celebration for Salus, our graduates, their families, our faculty and Dr. Lombardi and her family. I always get a lump in my throat when I get to the stage at the beginning of the ceremony and this year was no different. When I look at how we fill the Kimmel Center and

see how many people we’ve touched as a university, I feel a sense of pride and I’m certain everyone else shares in that pride for what yesterday’s commencement represents. The accomplishments of our students, residents, faculty and staff are enviable - and we are all very lucky to be part of an institution that prepares young professionals to go out into the world to help others.  I sincerely thank our faculty, staff, and members of our Board of Trustees for participating in the event.

In addition to celebrating the 50-year career of Dr. Lorraine Lombardi, we also celebrated the accomplishments of our largest graduating class ever, to include our inaugural Occupational Therapy Doctoral program. I want to personally thank Dr. Jim Caldwell, Shannon Boss and their staffs for organizing yet another wonderfully organized commencement ceremony. Hours of planning and work goes into this with the culmination being what many of us had the privilege of experiencing yesterday. I congratulate everyone involved! 

This week we also honored many of our graduating professionals at our annual awards lunch. It was wonderful to see so many of our graduates and their families being acknowledged for their

accomplishments. That same day we dedicated the Lorraine Lombardi classroom that included a wonderful review of Lorraine’s professional career by Dr. Sue Oleszewski and the unveiling of Dr. Lombardi’s portrait. It also was an opportunity for many of Lorraine’s past students and colleagues to reminisce a bit about their experiences with her. It truly was a wonderful event. To cap off the day, our second year Occupational Therapy students educated many of us at their Capstone poster session. The creativity, depth and quality of their work was outstanding and I think that everyone who had to opportunity to peruse the posters walked away with a much better understanding of what occupational therapists do for their patients and also a great deal of pride in the creativity and professionalism of our students and their faculty mentors.

On Tuesday evening we had the opportunity to recognize 21 optometry students who completed their Advanced Studies programs where, in addition to earning their traditional OD degrees, they earned certificates in subjects such as binocular vision, neuro-optometry, contact lenses and other specialties. Most students took on an additional 4-5 credit hours to get this done. Thanks to Dr. Vitek, her staff and our subject matter expert faculty for making this happen!

It’s been a busy week for everyone. Please don’t forget the significance of this Memorial Day weekend as we look forward to our 3 days off. We all need to pause and give thanks to all those who fought and served, with some making the ultimate sacrifice, so we can enjoy all the freedoms we have.

Be safe, have some fun and come back charged to start again next week.

Mike

Graduation Time!

Graduation is rightly a time of celebration and pride – for our students, their families, significant others and our faculty and staff. As we prepare to launch our newest group of Salus graduates I want to extend the University’s congratulations and thanks to all of our students, faculty and staff on attaining this significant accomplishment. There will be many more to follow as you mature as providers and educators.

You’ve all embarked on extremely exciting and rewarding careers. Your ability to help people improve their lives is a gift; one that needs to be cherished, honed and continually nurtured. It’s our hope and expectation that you take full advantage of all that you’ve learned during your time at Salus and apply those skills with the utmost care and sensitivity to those patients and clients you will care for. As I’ll remind you on Friday, you’ll be surrounded by all sorts of technology to “assist” you in doing your jobs. It will be important to remember that these technologies are adjuncts to assist you in finding the best ways to care for your patients and clients. Remember, to treat your patients and not the technology!

Finally, when you chose healthcare as a profession you’ve also chosen a path that requires a commitment to life-long learning. Salus will always be your academic home and I want you to think of us that way. Never stop asking questions, challenging your assumptions and sharpening your skills. We’ll all be there to help you continue to succeed. Congratulations on a job exceptionally well done – we’re all very proud of you!

Singapore Graduation Ceremony & Alumni Weekend

I just returned from a wonderful trip to Singapore to officiate at what turned out to be our first official graduation ceremony for Salus Singaporean students (say that three times fast) earning their Master of Science degree in Clinical Optometry.

Graduation ceremonies are chock full of many traditions that are well worth duplicating half a world away for such important celebrations. We're about to do the same on a much larger scale here in Philadelphia in a few weeks. We also decided to start the tradition of Singapore alumni receptions, and we planned our first one for the evening of the graduation ceremony. The reception was attended by members from all five graduating classes. What was striking to me, as well as the others who were traveling with me, was that our Singaporean students and alumni really appreciated the fact that we took the time and effort to conduct the graduation ceremony and then co-host the alumni event later that evening. They couldn't thank us enough. I told our hosts that it is generally considered a tradition to celebrate these types of events with pomp and circumstance as well as to have opportunities for alumni to get together to renew friendships and experiences. One could feel the excitement and pride in our Singaporean contingent, so much so that they've asked us to pledge to do this every two years. From my perspective, it was pretty cool to see the faces on our graduates' and their families' faces when they walked across the stage, as well as to watch everyone socialize later that evening. It was truly a successful evolution.

So, now to this tradition thing. We also celebrate these traditions here at Salus. Graduations occur twice annually and enable us to celebrate our students' academic accomplishments. We also have an annual alumni reunion to help continue to foster the bond between all of us. It's my belief that our alumni are the glue that helps to hold Salus together. As we grow new cadres of alumni in our newer specialties, I'm hoping that a true tradition of participation and inter-professional education and interaction becomes ingrained in our institutional DNA. 

From looking at alumni participation in some of our events, I don't believe that's the case today. Everyone gets so busy with everything else they have to do, I think it's easy to lose sight of the importance of maintaining or even developing new traditions as a University family. University traditions are important, as I believe they help to bind us as a University community both while here as students and later as alumni. 

We don't have a football or basketball team to draw us to an event but we do have alumni reunions, receptions, commencements and other events that do. I'm a strong advocate for participation in these to foster professional camaraderie as well as pride in our alma mater. These are all traditions that greatly matter. As Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof said, "Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as a Fiddler on the Roof!" Let's not ignore those traditions that can serve us so well - lest we risk becoming that shaky fiddler on the roof. 

Happy Alumni Weekend!

Congratulations to Our Graduates!

I want to congratulate all of today's graduates and their families. We were extremely fortunate to have the acting U.S. Surgeon General, RADM Boris Lushniak, as our guest speaker, placing Salus on the national stage. What especially resonated with me were his comments on health and wellness and the importance of caring for our patients as a whole, not just from the perspective of our specific specialty areas. This is so very consistent with our ethos at Salus - to provide patient-centric, integrated care to all of our patients. Paraphrasing, he also reminded our graduates that today they should be starting to write a new chapter in their book of life's experiences, challenging everyone to make that book exciting, adventuresome, meaningful and interesting to read many years from now. He encouraged us to take risks, to care and in the words of FDR,

"Do something.  If it works, do more of it.  If it doesn't, do something else."

He also asked for our help in motivating people to keep moving, get regular exercise and to quit smoking. It was truly a memorable afternoon; smiling faces of our graduates and their families and pearls of wisdom from RADM Lushniak our acting U.S. Surgeon General. Thanks to all who helped to make this a very special day!

Preparing to Graduate

I've been in this wonderful position for about a year and this week I get to participate in my first multi-disciplinary commencement exercise (I had the honor to graduate our PA's last Fall). What an honor! As I reflect on this first year, without a doubt one of the most rewarding aspects of being president of Salus has been interacting with our wonderful students and faculty. So for this blog entry I want to take a few moments to thank our world-class faculty for the time and energy you all put into making Salus programs the absolute best in the world.  And to our fantastic students - as you prepare to graduate this week, thank you for your willingness to learn, explore new ideas and your intellectual honesty as you've pursued your specific degrees.

You are now ready to take your place in today's complex healthcare delivery world.  You're extremely well-prepared and have all the necessary tools to be successful clinicians, therapists and educators. You know how to cure and now, more than ever, you must always remember to care.

On behalf of all of us at Salus, we wish each and every one of you the very best of luck (you really won't need that) as you begin your new professional careers.

You are now part of the Salus DNA;  while many of us will come and go as the years pass, Salus will ALWAYS be your academic home and alma mater.  Please remember to look back every once in a while to maintain your ties to where your professional careers began. I'm looking forward to shaking your hands on commencement day!