The Department of Surgery is committed to continuously developing our community of life-long learners. Our Faculty, Fellows, Residents, Researchers and Staff benefit from department leadership’s commitment to providing interactive education opportunities to address social issues within our community and our practice
This past year we provided development opportunities in areas that promote effective leadership and supporting a diverse and collaborate environment.
Department of Surgery – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Everyone. Everytime. Everywhere.
Leadership
Building Great Teams
Surgery Resident Leadership Development Exercise
Blue, Green, Red, or Yellow?
Kicking off the academic year, our residents were given an opportunity to develop their skills as leaders in July. Dr. Minter, Dr. Foley, and Nicole planned and facilitated the TEAM exercise with residents from each of our divisions. This exercise gave our residents insights and skills on becoming more self-aware regarding their own perspectives and those of others, and how to be more effective working in a team. The exercise was a fun and interactive way to bring our residents, program directors, and coordinators together.
Our administrative staff team participated in this exercise later in the year.
Members of the department were able to identify their dominant personality temperaments and characteristics that align with their identity within one of the following groups:
Group 1 – Blues
You are a competitor. You love excitement, adventure, and winning. You bore easily and do not like rules.
Group 2 – Blues
You have a great sense of responsibility. You value rules, tradition, and authority. You do not tolerate disorder and lack of planning.
Group 3 – Yellows
Harmony is most important to you. You love being around people. Empathy and sympathy are easy for you. Conflict is painful to you.
Group 4 – Blues
You have a great sense of curiosity. You love learning and finding solutions. You do not tolerate ideas that are not logical.
Leveraging Competency Based Education
Associate Professor
Surgery & Medical Education
Department of Surgery
University of Michigan
Prevention, Promotion, or Both?
“Entrustment and Entrustability: A Progressive Training Model for Residency”
In September 2019, The department welcomed back Gurjit, Sandhu, Associate Professor of Surgery and Medical Education at the University of Michigan to lead an interactive and personalize OpTrust development and training session.
Dr. Sandhu’s training gave participants an opportunity to consider their own perspectives through an assessment of individual approaches to decision making and goal achievement, followed by a thorough discussion of how these approaches may impact entrustment behaviors.
Click here to see Dr. Sandhu’s presentation >>
Click here for a reference article – “Do you Play to Win – or not to Lose” >>
Promise Coalition
“Wellness is the complete integration of body, mind, and spirit – the realization that everything we do, think, feel, and believe has an effect on our state of well-being.”
– Greg Anderson
Vice Chair for Diversity,
Equity & Inclusion
Professor & Scientific
Director, WiSOR
Department of Surgery
Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery
Advancing Surgical Excellence through Participating in the Promise Coalition”
October 2019, two of our department leaders introduced the Promise Coalition to the department and provided insight on the immediate priorities and future initiatives for improving wellness within near and far.
Drs. Sippel and Voils discussed the following domains of the Promise Coalition:
- Leadership
- Innovation
- Achievement
Vice Chair, Academic Affairs & Professional Development
Professor & Division Chief
Department of Surgery
Division of Endocrine Surgery
- Recruitment
- Outreach
- Environment
As a refresher, the Promise Coalition is a Multi-Institutional Partnership that represents a longitudinal partnership across the Departments of Surgery at the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, Stanford University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Brigham and Woman’s Hospital of Harvard University.
The goals of the coalition are to accelerate achievement and ensure that our environment allows all individuals to achieve excellence and professional satisfaction as residents and faculty. In addition, this collaboration is aimed to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion.
This past academic year, the department focused on the domains of Recruitment and Environment.
Environment
Two initiatives that were aimed at reaching the goals of the environment domain were the Climate Survey (March 2020) the implementation of the Surgery Wellness Committee (August 2019). Wellness Committee Leaders Rebecca Sippel, MD and Stacey Johnson invited residents, researchers, and administrative staff to contribute their perspectives to appropriately strategize and prioritize efforts of improving the Culture of Wellness within the department.
Department Chair, Rebecca Minter, MD, agreed to participate in a series of workshops to improve climate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An anonymous climate survey was sent out to all members of the department to help Dr. Minter identify and address areas to improve climate.
The Department offered two trainings focused on Diversity and Inclusion, with an additional session rescheduled for October 14th, 2020.
Diversity
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
― Edmund Burke
Associate Professor
of Psychology
Director, Applied Social and
Organizational Psychology
Director, Industrial/
Organizational Psychology
Department of Psychology
Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis
Confrontation of Prejudice and Discrimination”
Leslie Ashburn-Nardo, PhD, Associate Professor of
Psychology, Director of Applied Social and Organizational Psychology, Director of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, from the Department of Psychology at Indiana University and Purdue University Indianapolis visited the department as the Fall Visiting Professor and to kick-of the first of three scheduled talks to address issues of diversity.
Dr. Ashburn-Nardo provided tools and strategies on how to foster a culture of care and to recognize that the nature of the busy and stressful workplace we are subjected to is a fertile ground for incivility – especially for members unrepresented or lower status groups. Dr. Ashburn-Nardo provided attendees with the following tools on how to confront prejudice, discrimination and incivility as a witness:
Confront through verbal or nonverbal expressions of dissatisfaction with prejudicial & discriminatory treatment observed is a proven strategy to promote a culture of care that is equitable for all members of an organization.
Learners left with a deeper understanding of confrontation as an effective strategy to address incivility. This is due to the impact that confrontation has on perpetrators such as provoking feelings of guilt, self-criticism, reduction of discriminatory behaviors and expressions and self-regulation of injustice. Bystander confrontation of an ally can denounce interpersonal mistreatment as unacceptable and contribute to standardizing a policy of inclusion.
Dr. Ashburn-Nardo shared future directions discovered by her own research indicating that allies can help shoulder burden of confronting prejudice.
“Why Diversity Matters in a Surgical Workforce”
Assistant Professor
Diversity & Inclusion Advocate
Department of Surgery
Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery
Section of Facial Plastic Surgery
Associate Professor
Director of the Office of Community Health
Director of the UWSMPH Diversity and Inclusion
Advocacy Program
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
Scott Chaiet, MD, MBA, & Jennifer Edgoose, MD, MPH, led a training to address the landscape of pervasive disparities and the moral and economic argument for health equity, examine where we are at and strategize to diversify the workforce at UWSMPH. Each presenter weight in on intersectionality, social discrimination, and the impact of the presence of implicit bias.
Save the Date
Pushing Back Against Incivility
Hosted by the Department of Surgery & Department of Anesthesiology
October 14, 2020 | 6:30-8:00am
HSLC 1325 & HSLC 1335
Department chairs, Dr. Rebecca Minter and Dr. Kelly McQueen, have collaborated with UW Health’s own Chief Diversity Officer, Shiva Bider-Sielaff to address micro-aggressions seen in the clinical setting from patients and visitors directed at our providers and learners. This training will bring us closer to achieving a more inclusive and supportive environment for everyone.
This training will provide an overview of the new and progressive policy to address these issues at UWH and training on how to respond in these situations and what resources are available to support members of our community that are subjected to these incivilities.
I believe many of you are aware of the increasingly uncivil environment in which we live, which is being reflected through micro- and macro-aggressions from our patients and visitors to our providers and staff. The AAMC News recently circulated a comprehensive article highlighting this problem which I encourage you all to read.
This training will still be considered mandatory for our residents, faculty, and APPs unless there is a defined clinical or other conflict. This training will be live-streamed and recorded for those with defined conflicts. Corrine Voils, PhD, MS, Girma Tefera, MD, and Patrick Lee, MD, PhD, from the Department of Surgery are key collaborators for the integration of this critical training and we thank them for their efforts in providing this training to our departments.
Attendees of this training can plan with a better understanding of micro-aggressions, response tools, and resources available for responding to these acts on behalf of themselves or a colleague.
Members of the department are encouraged to read this article released from the AAMC regarding these issues – Pushing Back Against Patient Bias.