Fall Commencement & White Coat Ceremony

White Coat Ceremony, October 2014

As we get ready to march into October, Salus is preparing to celebrate two very significant events; our Fall Commencement on October 6th and our traditional White Coat Ceremony on October 12th. Both of these ceremonies mark significant milestones in the professional careers of our students.

Our Fall Commencement always includes our Physician Assistant program graduates, but this year we're also graduating students who have completed our Master of Public Health (MPH), Doctor of Audiology Online Bridge Program and Blindness and Low Vision program. Commencement marks the transition from being a professional student to becoming a healthcare professional. Thanks to the wonderful education and training they have received at Salus, these very talented individuals will now take their place in the American healthcare system, with an eye on helping to improve how healthcare is delivered in our country.  

The White Coat Ceremony marks transition from the study of pre-clinical or undergraduate studies to clinical health sciences. This ceremony also helps to instill the fact that these new caregivers will now be held to a higher standard of behavior and must earn the trust of their patients. This year we'll be presenting over 300 white coats to students in our optometry, audiology, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology degreee programs. Additionally, we're very honored to have our first cohort of Chinese students who are here to complete a specialized master's program in clinical optometry.  

While some may think these ceremonies are time consuming and unnecessary, I believe they're extremely important for both students and their families to celebrate and reflect on these significant professional milestones. Becoming a healthcare provider requires a very special commitment to lifelong learning, caring and putting others' needs before their own. We absolutely need to recognize this and celebrate all the successes these very special people achieve along the way. 

Congratulations to our graduates and white coat recipients! 

President's Update

At meetings with our faculty, staff and alumni association president yesterday, I announced that the Boards of Trustees of Salus University and University of the Sciences in Philadelphia have agreed to discussions to consider forming a broad strategic partnership that could potentially lead to a merger of our two long-standing educational healthcare institutions.

Although discussions are very much in an exploratory phase, our respective boards recognize the potential for growth as a combined institution far exceeds what either of us can accomplish alone. There is no time table for completion of the talks.

Salus and University of the Sciences in Philadelphia offer marquee programs that, if combined under a single university, would form a health sciences university of considerable breadth and scale. As the landscape of American higher education has changed over the past few years, the boards at Salus and USciences felt it was important to consider how combining forces could strengthen health education delivery and be poised to meet the challenges of the 21st century.  Both institutions think tremendous opportunities can be gained from this potential partnership.

On behalf of the board, I am very excited about the future and the possible outcome of these discussions. We look forward to sharing additional information as talks progress.

Starting The School Year Off Right!

On behalf of the faculty, staff and Board of Trustees, I want to welcome all of our new and returning students to Salus. I’d especially like to welcome those students who represent our inaugural Speech-Language Pathology class. It's already shaping up to be a banner year at Salus as we enter our largest class ever!  

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our great Admissions staff for getting things lined up for this success as well as orchestrating an amazing orientation program that I think everyone enjoyed a great deal. I'd especially like to thank those student and faculty volunteers who helped make this a great success.

While I mentioned this at orientation, I want to remind everyone how important it is to take care of yourself as you begin this new school year. Maintaining your health will help you stay sharp and perform at the highest levels possible. Additionally, as a healthcare professional it's important for you to set a good example for those patients you will be caring for and providing advice to. That means eating right, exercising regularly and getting enough sleep. While I realize everyone has tight schedules I want you to think about how you’re going to prioritize these things into your busy professional and student lives. I’ve done it for over 35 years so I know it’s possible. Get into those good habits now – they will be much easier to maintain later.

You're at Salus during an exciting time. We’re revising many of our curricula from which you all will reap the benefits, updating University infrastructure such as our library, classrooms, other study areas and the optometric clinical procedures lab. At times we may look like a construction zone but the end result will be well worth the slight inconveniences this may present – so please be patient with us. 

As the landscape of healthcare delivery changes, so must our mechanisms for educating future healthcare providers, councilors and educators. Whether we're teaching you how to diagnose and treat conditions such as diabetes, hypertension or hyperlipidemia, Salus is already leading the way in innovative programs through our Optometric Scholars Program and our Inter-professional Education efforts that cut across all of our specialties.  

I recently had the opportunity to attend the World Council of Optometry meeting in Medellin, Colombia along with a good number of our faculty members. What made me extremely proud was the fact that Salus was the only American school there with significant presence and all of our faculty members presented timely, relevant and excellent lectures and posters that were head and shoulders above many of the others I saw. Now, I'm not at all biased, but our folks are truly the very best and it especially showed there!  

As we move into the school year I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone the very best of luck and let you know that we're all here to help you succeed. See you around campus!

Follow me on Twitter: @SalusPresident 

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!

Cutting Edge Changes Coming to Salus!

I've been following the social media activity that some of our students have been generating about the condition of some of our facilities, namely the library and our optometric clinical procedures lab.  Since the first day I arrived at Salus I too have noted that both of these important resources were sorely in need of an update.  As luck would have it, this is the year we've developed a new strategic plan for the University that prioritizes and addresses these and other upcoming improvements to Salus. 

Beginning several months ago, working very closely with the Board of Trustees as well as faculty and students, we've begun to develop plans to completely renovate our optometric clinical procedures lab, review and update the entire optometric curriculum and modernize our library.   

Since all of these projects require a good deal of financial and human resources, we're spending an appropriate amount of time doing deliberate planning to ensure we're capturing best practices and obtaining the best and most effective equipment, technology and designs as possible.  In order to accomplish this, we've been sending teams of faculty members to several different optometry programs to look at clinical procedure lab designs, curricula and other aspects of their programs. We're also studying current literature and designs from non-optometric sources. Additionally, we've already learned a great deal from administering our new Optometric Scholars program that will be applied to the curriculum review.

We anticipate the cost of these renovations and updates could be upwards of $3 million.  In order to help fund these necessary initiatives I'll be reaching out to our alumni and industry base for assistance. Concurrently, we are developing a design and build timeline that hopefully will see a new clinical procedures lab by the end of summer 2016.  The new lab will have an integrated electronic health record, state-of-the-art clinical equipment and an efficient design allowing faculty and students to interact seamlessly. 

Changes in the library are commencing now with removal of antiquated, superfluous reference materials that have already been replaced with online resources. Removal of shelving is planned within the next couple of months and replacement carpeting and furniture will soon follow. We also hope to update the current computer lab with more modern equipment. 

The optometric curriculum review has already begun with a timeline for incremental implementation to commence sometime next academic year. The entire update to the curriculum will likely take about three years to complete to ensure our students don't miss out on essential material. 

I'm excited about all these changes as it will ensure that Salus remains at the cutting edge of optometric education by leveraging our extremely talented faculty, innovative technology, and the most progressive optometric curriculum taught in the country. 

I'll keep everyone posted as to our progress with these major projects. 

Vision Expo East & other Recent Events

I've been on the road for the past couple of weeks. Last week I attended the American College of Healthcare Executives annual meeting in Chicago where I reconnected with some of my Navy colleagues as well as learned current healthcare trends for administration, finance, assessment and compliance. One lecture that struck me discussed the ever growing focus on healthcare customer service. While we have always taught (and lived it in the Navy) patient-centered care, there is a movement afoot to more clearly define what that means. I was encouraged to hear how some of the larger healthcare delivery organizations were moving from "patient-centered" care to "person-centered" care. When you think about it, that's what we're all about - taking care of people, whether they're our patients or not. As healthcare providers we have the responsibility to not only care for those sitting in our exam rooms or those who are the direct beneficiary of our care but also those around them. That includes being able to communicate effectively, ensuring ready and consistent access to care and information as well as spending time with our patients and families or significant others to help ensure they are active partners in their healthcare. In the days of productivity and RVU generation it's easy to loose sight of the fact that we're in the business of caring for people, not just generating numbers and data. It's a tough balance but I believe we need to maintain our focus on the person as providers. Sometimes that's easier said than done - which is where the challenge lies.  

Last weekend I had the opportunity to meet with alumni, friends and other industry professionals while attending Vision Expo East in New York. I never attended this meeting so it was a nice treat to experience something new. In my conversations with some of our alumni and others I discussed what I had heard in Chicago in the week prior. It was surprising to me the "push-back" I received from some stating that it's almost impossible to see enough patients during the day if we spend too much time with them. On the other side of the coin, I heard the opposite, where others were making the effort to ensure enough time was spent with patients in order for them to feel important. Once again, it's a balancing act that we absolutely need to get our heads around.  

Now I'm on my way home from San Antonio where I had the absolute pleasure of supporting our Osborne College of Audiology at their annual AudiologyNOW,  American Academy of Audiology meeting. It's funny, there was no talk of RVU's or anything like that. Audiology is a dynamic profession in the midst of growth and change.   Today's audiologists are trained at the highest level (they obtain an AuD or Doctor of Audiology degree), but because legislation has not kept up with educational levels, these amazingly talented professionals are not considered independent providers in the eyes of Medicare, most third party payers and the Federal Government. This creates quite a problem if Medicare patients need hearing care as they must be referred to an audiologist if that provider is to receive Medicare or third party reimbursement. While the profession is working hard to get this corrected, it's not likely going to happen for quite a while. The sad part is that the biggest loser is the patient. Getting back to my original points about patient or person-centered care, the government really needs to take a hard look at professions such as audiology. They need to ensure that patients are benefiting from current rules and regulations and not lobbyists, or others more concerned about their own rice bowls than they are about the patients we all care for.