The Importance of Human Connection: Week of February 17, 2023

 

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

I write this week’s update with a very heavy heart as we keep in our thoughts and prayers Michigan State University students who were killed and injured earlier this week and the entire MSU community in the wake of the terrible tragedy. These heinous acts of violence have become all too commonplace throughout our country. Confronting this public health epidemic must be front and center in discussions with our local politicians and policy makers.

We also keep in our prayers and intentions all who have been impacted by the devastating earthquake along the Turkish Syrian border. Please refer to my February 11th LinkedIn post for more information and donation links.

SALUS SOULMATES: Mike Guerriere, MMS ‘18, and Alexandra (Adolph-Gothier) Guerriere, MMS ’18, were in the same Physician Assistant (PA) Studies class when they met. They started out as friends, but then he shoveled her car out of the snow and that led to romance. Click here to read more about Salus University’s featured Valentine’s Day couple.

LGBTQ+ SAFE SPACE TRAINING: Back by popular demand, Stan Kimer will provide a two-hour training session via Zoom on Friday, Feb 24. from noon to 2 p.m. The main subjects covered will include basic terms and definitions, LGBTQ+ history, being an ally, understanding key LGBTQ+ issues and struggles, and understanding and supporting the “coming out” process.

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION: Andrea Tyszka, OTD ‘18, OTR/L, SIPT, and Anna Grasso, OTD, MS, OTR/L, CAPS, ECHM, presented a poster at the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) international conference in Paris highlighting an innovative model of fieldwork that the Salus Occupational Therapy (OT) department utilized during the pandemic. To read more, click here. 

COMMUNICATIONS ON A ROLL: Congratulations to our Office of Communications for achieving two awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and two CUPPIE awards from the College and University Public Relations and Associated Professionals (CUPRAP), in the categories of marketing/advertising outdoors and long-form story. So great to see their work recognized! 

DREAMSCAPES EXHIBIT: The newest art exhibit, titled “Dreamscapes,” featuring the work of Kathy Robinson and Jenn Hallgren, is now available to see through March 24, 2023, at the D’Arrigo Family Gallery located inside the Hafter Student Community Center on Salus University’s Elkins Park campus. Click here for a preview.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This week I am attending the annual meeting of the Society of Federal Health Care Professionals, AMSUS, in which our U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has highlighted the epidemic of loneliness, despair and pessimism about the future of our country, and the importance of human connection. Especially among children, social media exposure has fostered feelings of loneliness, isolation and sadness. When people experience togetherness, this raises optimism and creativity. When they experience belonging, their lives are stronger, richer, and more joyful.

Dr. Murthy identifies four strategies that mitigate and directly address the root causes of the crisis. These include:

1. Spend quality time each day with the person(s) you love. This could be as little as 15 minutes with those for whom you care most. 
2.  When talking with someone, give them your full, undivided attention with eye contact and active listening.
3. Embrace solitude through meditation, art, music, prayer, and time spent outdoors.
4. Help and accept help from others. Service is a human connection that helps to remind all of us of our value and purpose in life. Simple acts such as checking on neighbors, seeking advice or smiling at a stranger make us all stronger.

As healthcare providers, we are a vital part of this solution. Giving our patients and students our full attention with kindness, care and respect; limiting the use of social media, especially among our children; spending quality time with family and friends; taking time for self-care; helping and accepting help from others; are all important steps we can take to foster connection and belonging as an antidote to isolation, depression and sadness. While political vitriol, gun violence, social unrest and general pessimism dominate the headlines, the fullest majority of society is comprised of good people doing good things.

Sometimes we need to be reminded of this -- and all that we can do individually and collectively, in and beyond the clinic and classroom, to build a stronger, richer and more creative society.

As we approach this weekend, please take time to reflect upon the strategies that Dr. Murthy shared with all of us so we can all become better connected and in the long-run, better providers for those we care for. Be safe, continue to look out for one another and remains SALUS STRONG!

- Mike

Addressing Health Inequities: Week of February 12th, 2021

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

Good morning from a rather chilly and snow-covered Elkins Park campus. We continue to have busy weeks with our students and faculty engaged in mask-to-mask, in-person classes, clinical labs (with some practical exams this week) and virtual classwork, in addition to direct care, clinical training here at Elkins Park as well as East Oak Lane and Chestnut Hill.

MORE THAN JUST OPTOMETRY: It wasn’t all academics all the time for Arieneh Tahmasian, OD ’17 and James Komornik, OD ’17 when they were students at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) at Salus University. Check out our website Sunday for a special Valentine’s Day love story about how Drs. Tahmasian and Komornik met at Salus, fell in love, got married and are now pursuing successful careers as optometrists.

UNCONSCIOUS BIAS AND MICRO-AGGRESSION PRESENTATION: I’m looking forward to a Zoom presentation from 7 to 8:15 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17, called “Unconscious Bias & Microaggression in the Healthcare Setting” by Dr. Juliana Mosley-Williams, PhD, our Special Assistant to the President for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Dr. Mosley-Williams will talk about those topics as they relate to both clinicians and patients in the healthcare environment.

TOP JOBS: We found out recently that four of the professions that Salus trains its students to enter rank among the “100 Best Jobs of 2021” according to U.S. News and World Report — Physician Assistant (PA) at No. 1, Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) at No. 7, Occupational Therapist (OT) at No. 19 and Optometrist at No. 48. Read more about how and why those professions were among the best at salus.edu/TopJobs. 

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: This week’s “Where Are They Now” features Sara Reuss, MS ‘17, CLVT, an Orientation and Mobility specialist at the Nebraska Center for the Education of Children Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired, a school in Nebraska City, Nebraska. Read more about how Sara’s career is progressing at salus.edu/SaraReuss.

FINAL THOUGHTS: We have all been going through many of ups and downs over the past 11 months since the pandemic entered our world. It’s been an unsettling time between frequent discouraging and conflicting news about the pandemic, a vaccine finally being available but inconsistent in distribution, the racial and social unrest that shook the country during the summer, the presidential campaign, insurrection on the Capitol, and now a second impeachment trial for our former president. I think most folks will look back, and with the exception of possibly the Civil War and World Wars I & II, and describe these last 11 months as some of the most turbulent in our history.

These hard times affect us nationally and locally, especially regarding COVID-19 and the Black community. The highest COVID-19 rates of infections, hospitalizations and deaths have been in the Black population of Philadelphia, followed closely by Latinos (Philadelphia Dept of Public Health, 2020). Now as vaccines begin to be distributed across the region, of those vaccinated at Philadelphia health facilities, 43% were white, 12% were Black, 10% were Asian American and 10% reported their race as “other” (Philadelphia Dept of Pubic Health, 2021). That’s pretty disheartening when you know that 44% of Philadelphia’s population is Black, 34% white, 15% Hispanic and 8% Asian American. As I noted last week, some of the challenges with getting people to take the vaccine are related to the high degree of mistrust in the government and vaccine approval process.

As we continue to celebrate Black History Month, it’s incumbent upon us to familiarize ourselves with these data, as difficult as that might be, and determine how we can all work together to help improve these health inequities that stem from hundreds of years of racial discrimination and injustices, systemic poverty, as well as a societal blind spot that must be unmasked. As healthcare professionals, while we cannot directly address many of the contributing systemic social determinants of health, we certainly can work to address those health inequities that have resulted in limited access to quality healthcare that has resulted in increased morbidities and mortalities over the years.

At Salus we have a responsibility to the communities we serve. Helping everyone to receive high quality and compassionate care within our clinical facilities as well as in others is a core tenet of our Credo. I ask that we all spend some time this weekend thinking about our Salus community can help to positively impact those systemic issues others have lived with for generations. We have so much to give through our educational and clinical outreach.

Stay safe, continue to social distance, wear your face mask (two are better than one) and wash your hands frequently. We are SALUS STRONG and this is our time to help make other lives better!

Mike

Valentine's Day: Week of February 14th, 2020

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

Greetings and Happy Valentine’s Day from Elkins Park! Since today is Valentine’s Day – a day that’s supposed to be dedicated to love and relationships, I thought I’d do a deeper dive into the history of this Hallmark and Hershey holiday. As it turns out the history of St. Valentine’s Day is somewhat dubious according to historical documents, because it includes a gory story involving the decapitation of a third century martyr. According to Smithsonian Magazine, there were several St. Valentines who died on Feb. 14. Two of them were executed during the reign of Roman Emperor Claudius Gothicus in 269-270 A.D., at a time when persecution of Christians was common. It wasn’t until Geoffrey Chaucer, the famous author of “The Canterbury Tales” declared the February feast of St. Valentinus to the mating of birds, that Valentine’s Day took on a more romantic meaning. Smithsonian notes that in Chaucer’s day, English birds paired off to produce eggs in February. Soon, nature-minded European nobility began sending love notes during bird-mating season. As the story goes, the French Duke of Orléans, who spent some years as a prisoner in the Tower of London, wrote to his wife in February 1415 that he was “already sick of love” (by which he meant lovesick.) and he called her his “very gentle Valentine.” (Smithsonian Magazine, 2018) The rest is history, as they say. If you would like to read a bit more detail about this history of St. Valentine’s Day, go to the Smithsonian Magazine website here.

Related to Valentine’s Day, love was in the air this week at Salus as students, faculty and staff could stop by the Learning Resource Center (LRC) and design a handmade valentine for their significant others.

The Pennsylvania Ear Institute (PEI) “Hear the Love” event attracted a large crowd that came to hear an educational talk that focused on hearing loss and how it can impact patients’ lives and relationships. Complimentary hearing screenings were also offered for those who attended.

This week’s Mental Health Minute discusses the positive effects of regular exercise. There have been many scientific articles that speak to how exercise helps to reduce stress and anxiety as well as increase self-esteem and self-confidence. Most of you already know that increasing your heart rate can actually stimulate the production of neurohormones like norepinephrine, which not only improve cognition and mood but can improve thinking that might be influenced by stressful events. Endorphins, when produced during even moderate exercise give us a natural high that can produce feelings of happiness and euphoria. Just developing a simple exercise regimen that could be as simple as regular walks, to some regimented gym time, will have a positive effect on your mental health. 45 minutes, three times a week is generally recommended, so think about how you’re going to work this into your schedules. I’ve done it for years and have made it a priority. Try to see if you can do that as well. If you’d like to learn a bit more about all this, check out an article from the American Psychological Association here that goes into much greater detail about all this.

As healthcare providers and students preparing to enter healthcare fields, many of our patients, family members and friends will expect us to know something about the coronavirus pandemic, so it’s probably a good idea to keep up with the latest news about it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in humans and many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats. Officially designated as COVID-2019 earlier this week, the virus is most often spread from person-to-person during close exposure to a person infected with the virus. While serious, the risk to most people outside China remains very low. According to the CDC there are at least 15 cases that have tested positive for the virus in the U.S., with a little over 400 people being observed. Generally speaking, to avoid any viral illness, be it COVID-2019 or the flu, the CDC advises getting the flu shot, washing your hands frequently and avoiding your office, school or clinic when you’re sick. To keep up with the latest reliable news about the coronavirus, I suggest you check the CDC website periodically as it’s updated frequently. 

Last Friday afternoon, many of us enjoyed seeing all the creativeness of our students, faculty, staff and friends on display at the opening reception for this year’s “Community Expressions 2020” exhibit in the D’Arrigo Family Gallery at the Hafter Student Community Center. Elynne Rosenfeld, curator and director of the gallery, has once again done a great job of gathering and displaying the work of our talented Salus community members. The exhibit runs through March 13, so stop over when you get a chance and check it out. 

Celebrating our heritage and remembering our history is always important. Take a look at the fascinating story on our website about an historic piece of PCO history that almost ended up being scrapped. But thanks to Dr. John J. Crozier and Dr. James Caldwell, the original desk that our founder Dr. Albert Fitch used was saved, restored and is still in use at the Elkins Park campus. 

Dr. Lindsay Bondurant, director of the Pennsylvania Ear Institute at Salus, will discuss “Aging Gracefully: How Addressing Hearing Loss Can Improve Your Quality of Life” at the next Lunch & Learn from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, at the Willow Grove YMCA, 3300 Davisville Road, Hatboro, Pa., 19040. Dr. Bondurant will discuss the signs and symptoms of hearing loss and the impact untreated hearing loss can have on health, happiness and relationships. She will also provide an overview of current management options for hearing loss, including hearing aids, cochlear implants and communications strategies. There are probably many of us here than can benefit from this talk!

Finally, winter has returned to Philadelphia this weekend, so if you’re headed out to enjoy the sunny weather, dress accordingly! Have fun, try to take some time to relax and evaluate how you’re going to fit some exercise into your daily routines, if you don’t already do that. Be safe and look out for one another!

Mike