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

Addressing Stress: Week of June 3rd, 2022

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

Good morning on this summery morning in Elkins Park. We are transitioning to summer on cue with Memorial Day weekend already in the rearview mirror! Even as summer approaches, our campus has been busy with students attending classes, labs and clinics. As our Chestnut Hill clinic undergoes a cosmetic face lift, operations have temporarily shifted to The Eye Institute. Kudos to Dr. Maria Parisi, Mr. John Gaal, Mr. Chris Esposito and Mr. Rick Echevarria and their staffs for making this happen quickly and seamlessly! 

Here are some other items of interest for you:

COMMENCEMENT WRAP-UP: Our 124th commencement ceremony was held last week at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. It was wonderful to be back at the Kimmel face-to-face. Graduates and attendees were inspired by Admiral Michelle J. Howard, the first African American woman to command a ship in the U.S. Navy, former Vice Chief of Naval Operations and a shipmate and personal friend of mine. We also heard encouraging words from Courtney Bernhardt, MS ‘22, who delivered our graduate commencement address. For details on the festivities, click here.

HOUSE DEMOCRATIC SOUTHEAST DELEGATION VISIT: Earlier this week we had the honor of hosting members of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Southeast Delegation at the University. This gave us the opportunity to help educate regional legislators about our programs and how we are training the next generation of healthcare providers for the Commonwealth.

CHALLENGING ROAD TO PhD: Speaking of commencement, be sure to read the story on Brianna Brim, PhD ‘22, MOT, OTR/L, CPAM, CLIPP, our director of the Occupational Therapy Institute (OTI), who overcame several personal challenges to graduate with a PhD from the University’s Biomedicine program. Congratulations, Dr. Brim! For details, click here.

RAM EXPERIENCE: PCO/Salus Doctor of Optometry students recently volunteered to serve in the Remote Area Medical (RAM) group’s mobile medical clinic at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia for two consecutive days. The event allowed several of our students to use their expertise to assist families and individuals who have been without eye care for years. Read more about it here.

FINAL THOUGHTS: As we transition into summer, take the opportunity to get out and enjoy some of the great recreational sites in our region. The Schuylkill River Trail, Fairmount Park and the trail systems right here in Montgomery County provide verdant greenspaces to jog, bike and enjoy nature. Coming off a stressful semester of classes, labs and clinical assignments, one of the best destressors is getting exercise and spending time in the great outdoors.

From all that we’re hearing in the world about the war in Ukraine, inflation, mass shootings, social unrest, in addition to all the “stuff” we have do in normal daily routines, it’s no wonder our stress levels are high. Only you know how stress affects you. To that end, I strongly encourage you to address head on what might be your stress triggers. Talking through some of these things with friends, family members or other confidants about what’s on your mind is extremely helpful. If you would like to speak with a professional, our CPPD counselors are always available to students and our health insurance providers can arrange for counseling sessions for faculty and staff. We are living in what the Chinese proverb labels “interesting times.” We will get through all of this with a little help and support from those around us.

Have a great weekend – make some time to relax, regenerate and destress. Go see the new Top Gun movie – my contacts tell me it’s fantastic and very realistic. It certainly will take your mind of things for a couple of hours!

In the meantime, also remember that COVID numbers are high in our region, so please remember to mask up when on campus and around others off campus, socially distance and wash your hands frequently. If you’re not feeling well, please stay home. We want you to remain SALUS STRONG as you continue to look out for one another.

Mike

Get That Vaccination Now: Week of July 9th, 2021

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

Good morning from a pretty soggy Elkins Park campus as Tropical Storm Elsa has been paying us a visit throughout the night. All of this morning’s rain hasn’t dampened the excitement of our Summer Enrichment Program students who started their in-person classes this week. Students from most of our other programs have also been very engaged in classes and labs which makes our campus a very busy, but fun place to be in the summer. In addition to all the great things happening on campus, here are some things that will also interest you:

NOA VIRTUAL CONVENTION: The National Optometric Association (NOA) 2021 Annual Convention is virtual this year. Starting today through Sunday, July 11, the online event will provide 15 hours of COPE approved continuing education. The chair of the National Medical Association (NMA) Ophthalmology section, Dr. Ninita Helen Brown, MD, PhD, will present with NOA president Dr. Sherrol A. Reynolds along with many more well-known speakers. To see the full schedule and register for a session or two over the weekend, click here. 

CIAO – CHOW: Last night we said farewell to our outgoing PCO residents and welcomed our class of new residents at the annual Ciao-Chow event. While normally held at one of our PCO faculty’s homes, this year we opted to hold the event at the Hafter Center to allow for more social distancing. As always, the evening allowed everyone to let our outgoing class of residents know how much we appreciated working with them and wish them the best as they prepare to launch their optometric careers and also welcome our new residents to the PCO/Salus team.

PCO WINS ESSILOR STUDENT BOWL: I know I wrote an addendum about this last week, but it’s so fantastic, I wanted to ensure it was included in the “real version” of the update. The Pennsylvania College of Optometry won the Essilor Student Bowl at Optometry’s Meeting last Friday evening in Denver!! Now, they just didn’t win it, they crushed it - one team member, in particular deserves special mention - Tyler Lesko - he pretty much carried the ball the whole length of the field for the event. We plan on honoring Tyler sometime in the near future but he needs to know how much we appreciate his efforts in bringing the Bowl back to PCO/Salus! Well done Tyler and our entire PCO team.

STUDENT AMBASSADORS: Salus University now has 17 students representing various academic programs who serve as student ambassadors at University events both on campus and in the community. Meet the student ambassadors representing what our Salus community is all about in the first of a three-part series.

NEW SALUS BOARD CHAIR: I am pleased to announce that, effective 1 July, Ms. Rebecca Delia became Chairwoman of our Board of Trustees. Ms. Delia joined our Board in 2018 and currently serves as Chair of the Finance Committee and a member of the Executive Committee and the Audit & Compliance Committee. She is currently Senior Vice President of Financial S&lutions LLC, a financial advisory firm to colleges and universities. Ms. Delia is a member of the advisory council for the Women’s Leadership Network of the United Way of the Capital Region and a Founding Board Member of Ladies First, a professional association of women engaged in the public finance industry.

FITNESS CENTER REMINDER: Sign-ups are still required for the Fitness Center at Hafter. You must reserve a workout block before you arrive, which you can do by selecting the "Book Class" tab in either the PTFitWorks app or on the salus.ptminder website. You can reserve up to five days in advance, must bring your Salus ID to scan into the building and must be vaccinated to utilize the Fitness Center. 

FACE MASKS: A reminder that if you’re working in any of our clinics or clinical procedure labs, you are required to wear a face mask, whether or not you are vaccinated. While required in those two areas, if you feel more comfortable wearing a face mask anywhere else on campus, please feel free to do so. All unvaccinated individuals are required to wear a face mask at all times while on campus and in our clinics.

OTI VIRTUAL SUMMER CAMP: The Occupational Therapy Institute (OTI) of Salus University is providing a virtual summer camp for children entering kindergarten and first grade. The program began this week and will run through the week of Aug. 9. This camp offers one daily activity, six days per week, to encourage the use of occupation-based skills through play. To read more, click here.

FINAL THOUGHTS: For those of us in healthcare who remember our basic sciences, we all understand that the more chances a virus has to replicate, the more chances it has to mutate. Well, that’s exactly what’s very troubling about all those folks who are refusing to get the very safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.

Fortunately for us, the five largest clusters of unvaccinated people are concentrated in the South and parts of the Midwest (see graphic). Even though Pennsylvania and our surrounding states are in much better shape, these large cohorts of unvaccinated people present a risk to all of us as they provide a host for the virus to replicate and potentially mutate to other, more virulent forms that might be resistant to existing vaccines. Right now, the current vaccines are very effective against all the variants of the virus, but there is no guarantee that will remain the case if given the chance to mutate on a larger scale. Given that fact, it is imperative for all of us to continue to help educate and convince those not vaccinated to get it done NOW. Not only are those unvaccinated people placing themselves at great risk, but they risk ruining the great progress we’ve had in slowing the spread of the virus. As a reminder, Salus will be requiring all students, faculty and staff to be fully vaccinated by August 13th, unless they have an approved medical or religious exemption.

If you know anyone not vaccinated, help them understand their decision doesn’t just affect them; it also affects all of us! We’re all in this together.

Have a great weekend. Be safe, stay hydrated in this heat and humidity, if you’re unvaccinated – GET THE JAB – and remember to wear a face mask when around others, look out for one another and remain SALUS STRONG!

Mike

Celebrating Our Summer Enrichment Program: Week of June 11th, 2021

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

Greetings from a very busy Elkins Park campus where our hot and muggy weather is finally gone, although it’s a bit soggy this morning! We have our summer cohort of Blindness and Low Vision Studies students on campus for their face-to-face learning experience in addition to students from all our other programs. It’s fun watching our BLVS students navigate around with their blinders and canes. In addition to this, here are some other activities that will be of interest to you:

THE COLLEGE TOUR: We had a great time last night at the launch party for the Salus segment of The College Tour, a TV series produced by Emmy-nominated and multi-award-winning producers featuring individual episodes on colleges and universities across the country. Special thanks to Dr. Juliana Mosley-Williams for serving as our Mistress of Ceremonies and to Alexis Abate and her communications team for putting the event together. I’d also like to thank the stars of the show, those students and faculty who made the production come to life, for sharing their stories with all of us. The evening included a viewing of the show, which streams on Amazon Prime and Roku, a meet-and-greet with the “stars”, refreshments and a DJ. To read more about The College Tour experience, go to salus.edu/TheCollegeTour.

OTI DIRECTOR: Brianna Brim, assistant professor of Occupational Therapy, has been named director of the Occupational Therapy Institute (OTI), located at The Eye Institute. James Konopack, PhD, dean of the College of Health Sciences, Education and Rehabilitation (CHER) made the announcement this week. Brianna brings a unique blend of clinical expertise, legislative and advocacy leadership, interprofessional education, and a strong record of scholarship and student mentorship to OTI. Congratulations Brianna! I know the OTI will be in great hands!

SPECIAL RECOGNITION: I’d like to extend our congratulations to Joel Silbert, OD ‘73, FAAO, former director of the Contact Lens Program and former chief of the Cornea and Specialty Contact Lens Service at TEI, who was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association of Optometric Contact Lens Educators (AOCLE); and to Brooke Kruemmling, PhD, COMS, Associate Provost, who was presented with the Salus coin on June 2 in recognition of her leadership on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. 

FACULTY FOCUS: This week’s Faculty Focus features Christine McCormick, MS, MMS, PA-C, an assistant professor in the University’s Physician Assistant (PA) Studies program. Find out how she went from wanting to be a professional dancer to becoming a PA and which Disney character “influenced” her wedding dress. To read more, go here.

SLP PODCAST SERIES: The next installment of our podcast series about the Speech-Language Pathology program at Salus University features department chair and program director Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, FNAP, as he speaks with a clinical educator and three students about about their field experience in the preschool setting. To listen to the podcast, click here.

ARTICULATION AGREEMENT: Salus University and Manhattan College recently signed an articulation agreement creating a pathway for Manhattan College students to earn their master’s degrees in occupational therapy. Under the agreement, students who gain admission into Salus via the 4+2 program will be able to complete their Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MSOT) degree program in two years. Read more about it here.

FINAL THOUGHTS: On Monday we will be welcoming 15 students into our revitalized Robert E. Horne Summer Enrichment Program (SEP) thanks to a very generous grant from America’s Best/National Vision Inc. The initial SEP was developed by Dean Robert Horne in 1977. It was funded by a government grant to support, “disadvantaged students”. Since then, the mission of the program has shifted to help assure that Salus continues to attract talented students of color who want to pursue health professions. As a testimony to the success of the SEP program, Pennsylvania College of Optometry remains one of the most diverse optometric programs in the country with the largest black student enrollment. Of note, while PCO may be number one, we still have a great deal of work to do to ensure that all of our programs, to include optometry, are representative of those communities we live and work in.

Finally, I want to once again, address the importance of getting vaccinated. As we survey our current student body as well as incoming students, while we’re doing fairly well, we are not at levels I would expect a university specializing in the health sciences to be. If any of you who have not yet gotten vaccinated and need to get more information about these very safe and effective vaccines, here are some links you can reference: The Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), WebMD, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, to name just a few. Additionally, the Black Doctors Consortium has been extremely successful in decreasing vaccine hesitancy amongst the African American community in Philadelphia. You can learn more about their efforts here. Keeping the Salus community healthy and safe is our primary concern. Because we also work closely with patients and clients, we have an additional responsibility to keep them safe, as well as protect ourselves and our loved ones. Thus, it is our expectation that unless people have a medical or religious reason not to get vaccinated, they do the right thing and get the jab. Please, if you’re not vaccinated do it now. As you prepare for this weekend, try to get out and enjoy the nice weather. If you are unvaccinated, wear your mask when indoors or outside around others. Please watch out for one another and stay SALUS STRONG!