To Medical Center Employees

At the June 19 management communications meeting, MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., discussed the medical university's partnership with the American Heart Association. He emphasized the Heart Association "believes in us" and provides $2 million a year to MUSC through grants and faculty support.

Last year, the Charleston community contributed more than $600,000 to the Heart Association, including $210,000 raised by MUSC employees. More than 5,000 people were involved in the Heart Walk last year, and it's expected that 6,000 will participate in this year's walk scheduled to take place Sept. 29.

Everyone is encouraged to join a Heart Walk team and participate. Additional information concerning the MUSC teams can be located at http://tinyurl.com/6oaqmtp.

On another matter, Marilyn Schaffner, Ph.D., R.N., chief nursing executive, gave an update on the Negative Behaviors in Health Care (NBHC) Survey completed in February, which involved approximately 1,900 participants. Dr. Schaffner stated the survey indicates 36 percent of the respondents reported observing lateral aggression weekly and 17 percent have observed vertical aggression weekly. The survey results will be presented to a number of groups in the weeks ahead and a workshop is planned in August to develop solutions.

W. Stuart Smith
Vice President for Clinical Operations
and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center

People–Fostering employee pride and loyalty

HR update
Helena Bastian, MUHA Human Resources director, presented the following:

• CATTS — Mandatory lessons have been assigned and are due June 30; due date for CATTS mandatory lessons will now correspond with universal review period of July 1 to June 30
• PeopleAdmin upgrade — Upgrade to Version 7 will take place in late July–August; training will be scheduled following the upgraded; in preparation, code applicants for postings that are closed and on hold statuses; HR employment needs to move these postings to a filled status and review postings that are more than six months old
• SuccessFactors — Supervisors will receive review forms on or before June 1; send back Employee Self Review; and new hires, April 1 or after, will not be rated in 2012
• Morehead Training — Employee Commitment Survey Results. Computer training for the system and action planning will take place: 8 – 9 a.m., 9 – 10 a.m., 10 –11 a.m., and 11 a.m. –12 p.m., June 25. Contact Julie Floyd at 792-1839.
• Meet the MUHA HR Team — HR representatives will be in the Children's Hospital lobby to answer employee questions and provide other HR-related needs from 1 – 2:30 p.m., July 26.
• 2012 MUHA Employee of the Year nominations is being accepted until July 2. Recognize colleagues and coworkers for their exceptional work and contributions. Visit the medical center intranet homepage for information.
  

Benefit of the Month—June
Employee perks and discounts program provides vacation planning for employees, students and volunteers. Call Contrenia Haynes at 792-7018 or visit the medical center intranet for information.

Health care survey results
Marilyn Schaffner, Ph.D., R.N., clinical services administrator and chief nursing executive for the medical center, addressed managers about results of Negative Behaviors in Health Care Survey conducted from late January to February. More than 1,900 employees and physicians completed the survey. The goal was to discuss the findings, the task force charge, membership and dissemination plans.

The next steps are to continue to roll out the results in various forums to staff organizationwide and to solicit individuals who have an interest in participating in an all-day workshop focused on developing solutions and tools and a plan for disseminating those solutions and tools.

Service – Serving the public with compassion, respect and excellence
MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., spoke to managers about the upcoming American Heart Association's (AHA) Lowcountry Heart Walk scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 29.

Last year, Greenberg chaired the Heart Walk, which raised more than $600,000 total in the Tri-county. In 2011, MUSC's efforts raised more than $210,000 or about one-third of the community's efforts. According to Greenberg, the AHA has given back almost $2 million a year from Lowcountry fundraising to MUSC to support training grants, research and improvements in patient care.

MUSC is currently organizing employee, faculty and student teams to support the event. For more information on the walk or to join a team, visit http://tinyurl.com/6oaqmtp.

Quality – Providing quality patient care in a safe environment
Donna Kern, M.D., associate dean for curriculum in clinical sciences, College of Medicine, reviewed the College of Medicine core competencies and 37 institutional learning objectives that define the education program and set the standard for the pursuit for clinical competency.

The College of Medicine is undergoing a self-study process for reaccreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) for 2011-2012. It is the college's goal to prepare students to practice effective, safe, patient-centered medicine. The newly revised COM learning objectives focus on outcomes in medical student education and provide a clearer framework for teaching and assessing demonstrable competencies. These competencies and objectives, along with the program's curriculum and evaluation methods, will be reviewed by an LCME site visit team in January 2013.

They will be evaluating MUSC to determine if the curriculum, the assessment plan, and the learning environment are appropriate to prepare medical students. The COM has defined expectations for developing physician that reflect national standards: physicians must be altruistic, knowledgeable, skillful and dutiful. To accomplish this, COM has aligned its education goals to provide a continuum with graduate medical education and continuing medical education.

The COM competency domains for the undergraduate medical education program are: medical knowledge, patient care, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, practice-based and lifelong learning and system-based learning. Thirty-seven institutional learning objectives within these six domains further define key knowledge, attitudes and skills that medical student must acquire in order to be judged competent to advance to internship training.

Kern spoke about a new medical supervision policy for medical students in the hospital. Although students are not licensed to provide care, they are expected to contribute as integral members of interprofessional medical teams. Students must be able to demonstrate ownership for patient care responsibility prior to graduation. As part of a team, students may obtain essential historical and physical examination information, document differential diagnoses and prepare treatment plans under the close supervision of attending faculty.

Kern reminded managers that student professionalism is an important competency that hospital staff can assist in assessing. Students must demonstrate honesty, integrity, respect and compassion in all interactions with patients, faculty, staff, peers and other health professionals. She encouraged managers to acknowledge good professional behavior when they see it and to communicate and report any inappropriate behavior and breaches in student professionalism using physicianship forms that are then sent to the COM Office of Student Affairs.

She reminded the audience that medical students are working closer with clinical staff in multiple programs and training opportunities that require feedback from staff. In the first year, medical students work under the mentorship of registered nurses to learn about team care of the patient. Feedback helps students to evaluate their effectiveness in learning and the quality of their work.

Announcements

• Tara Greenwood has joined the medical center's Interpreter Services staff as an American Sign Language Interpreter. Greenwood is one of two who are specialized in this area. To request an interpreter, call 792-5078.
• Karen Boyd, R.N., is the interim nurse manager for 10West Orthopaedics and Trauma.
• The next meeting is July 17.

Wins
Janet Byrne, R.N., MICU nurse manager, presented two posters at the American Thoracic Society Conference. She collaborated with MICU staff, Point of Care Testing lab, Infection Control, pulmonary physicians and Environmental Services staff.