Doing the Right Thing: Week of July 8th, 2022

 

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

Good morning on a beautiful July day from our Elkins Park campus. It’s been another busy week at Salus with our summer semester just about half done. Our students and faculty have been engaged in lectures, labs and clinics in addition to fieldwork and externships around the country. Here are some additional things you might find interesting:

CSD OPEN HOUSE: Our Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) open house is set to welcome all this Monday, July 11, at our Elkins Park campus. Don't miss out on this opportunity to connect and engage with current students and renowned faculty, tour our campus and state-of-the-art clinical facilities and learn to navigate the application process.

BLAUSTEIN AWARD WINNERS: Wayne Tan, OD ‘21, Resident ‘22, on-campus resident at The Eye Institute (TEI), along with Tina Choe, OD ‘20, Resident ’22, off-campus resident, have been named the Bernard Blaustein Residents of the Year for the residency class of 2022 by the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) at Salus University. The award is named for Bernard Blaustein, OD ‘67, FAAO. For six years, from 2003 through 2009, Dr. Blaustein managed the On-Campus Residency Programs. In addition to educating students at PCO, he spent time as chief of the Optometry Service at the VA Medical Center in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and in private practice before retiring in 2018. To read more, click here.

OT FIELDWORK: Check out our latest podcast featuring two, second-year occupational therapy students, Xin Song and Michelle Berg, who are completing their fieldwork at the Occupational Therapy Institute (OTI) of Salus University. They talk about the unique clinical and management skills that they've gained, and how they'll utilize them in their future healthcare careers. Click here for details.

QUIZ BOWL CHALLENGE: April Mishley ‘23 OD knew that she had to be lightning-quick to compete in the Quiz Bowl at the annual meeting of the American Optometric Association (AOA) and the American Optometric Student Association (AOSA). To find out how April did, click here.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Over the course of this last year, I’ve been reading the works of the Roman and Greek Stoics, and in particular, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Roman philosopher and playwright Seneca and slave turned philosopher, Epictetus. What stands out in their work is their contagious optimism and regard for truth and honesty. Here’s a segment that I thought is particularly germane, given current events including today’s horrid assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“Never shirk the proper dispatch of your duty, no matter if you are freezing or hot, groggy, or well-rested, vilified or praised, not even if dying or pressed by other demands. Even dying is one of the important assignments in life and, in this as in all else, make the most of your resources to do well the duty at hand.” -- Marcus Aurelius on Duty and Circumstance

This passage underscores that no matter what circumstance you are confronted with, doing the right thing is generally a clear and intuitive choice. While morality is often complicated and sometimes the difficult path to take, it’s important to take the high road, remember your overall mission, no matter what may be happening around you.

Whether global incidents like the most recent shootings in Highland Park, the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs or today’s dreadful assassination of Prime Minister Abe, or daily occurrences such as your next set of exams or suffering a flat tire on the way to campus, they all have an impact on your daily life. It’s hard to compartmentalize some of these things, but keep in mind that your duty, even under these arduous circumstances, is to remain focused on those skills that you are learning or teaching to help improve the lives of others. That is what we must do – our current and future patients and clients expect no less.

As you prepare for the weekend, please remember to follow CDC masking guidelines, stay hydrated and look out for one another. I’m getting ready to depart on a short vacation but will try to reach out from where I’ll be next Friday. Stay safe, stay smart and remain SALUS STRONG!

Mike

Snow is Coming! Week of December 8th

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

I hope everyone is having a great Friday!  It’s cold and the weather forecasters are predicting snow for the first time this year tomorrow.  We’ll see…

This morning, many of us were treated to a wonderful Grand Rounds lecture from Dr. Bernie Blaustein. Dr. Blaustein has been a member of our optometric clinical teaching staff since 1974, which is a bit over 43 years! He’s been an optometrist for over 50 years and we have been so very lucky to have him on staff. Today’s engaging Ground Rounds lecture covered 50 years of clinical experiences that were priceless.  Many of us remember having Dr. Blaustein when we were students at The Eye Institute. Always patient and willing to provide students with the time to teach and explore options, Bernie has influenced the way we practice this great profession for as long as he’s been a teacher and mentor. Dr. Blaustein, who will be retiring after this month, was awarded Professor emeritus status by the Board of Trustees several months ago. Some of Dr. Blaustein’s many accomplishments include serving as Chief of Optometry Services at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Coatesville, Pa., and as editor for both the Ocular Manifestations of Neurologic Disease and Ocular Manifestations of Systemic Disease. During his professional career, Dr. Blaustein has written numerous professional articles and chapters in optometric texts, has also regularly presented papers and has lectured at various professional conferences. He also previously served as director of the PCO Residency Program and has always taken a special interest in educating our young optometric interns and residents. We wish him “fair winds and following seas” as he begins his well-earned retirement - but also hope to see him around The Eye Institute from time to time doing what he loves and also what he does best - teaching and mentoring all of us!

Last Friday, Mr. Don Kates and I attended the Metropolitan Caucus, a political event in New York sponsored by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia. We had the opportunity to meet and more importantly, tell many local politicians and civic leaders about Salus and the wonderful services we provide for children and others in the greater Philadelphia and Montgomery County regions. There were over 500 people at this one event which, hopefully, helped to raise awareness about Salus and all of the great things our faculty, staff and students do for our communities on a daily basis.  

Earlier this week, Drs. Janice Scharre, Brooke Kruemmling, Gregory Benjamin, Radhika Aravamudhan and I attended the annual meeting of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. As our University's accrediting body, we had the opportunity to learn more about new standards and rules that will affect us over the coming years. While each one of our programs also has individual accrediting bodies, Salus, along with over 560 other universities in the Mid-Atlantic region of the country, is accredited by Middle States. Since we successfully completed our Periodic Review Report last year, our next accreditation visit will be in 2020. But, it’s never too early to begin to prepare for these visits and to learn about any new incoming standards in which we need to adhere.  As always, we learned a great deal and felt confident we’re moving in the right direction.  

At 5 p.m. this evening, PCO will be hosting a reception for the American Optometric Association’s InfantSEE program in the Hafter Student Center. Tomorrow, an InfantSEE community event will be held at The Eye Institute at 10 a.m. The InfantSEE program is a public health initiative managed by Optometry Cares, the Foundation of the American Optometric Association. It’s designed to ensure vision care becomes a vital part of an infant’s wellness program. Optometrists who are part of this program provide a no-cost initial eye assessment to children between 6 to 12 months of age. 

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that on December 7th we remembered the 76th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. This significant event thrust the United States into World War II, thus defining a generation of Americans as “Our Greatest Generation." Many American service men and women lost their lives or were injured on December 7, 1941. Please take a moment to reflect on this and the brave men and women who sacrificed everything to preserve the freedoms we enjoy today.  

Finally, on a much lighter note, tomorrow is the annual Army-Navy game at Lincoln Financial Field here in Philadelphia. As many believe, last year’s Army win was a fluke, but we’ll see how this year’s event turns out :-).  

GO NAVY - BEAT ARMY!

Have a great weekend,

Mike