Since our October 2020 update on Call Rooms, Lactation Rooms and Parental Support, the GME Office has continued to work on improvements for parent trainees, in partnership with the hospitals.
Improvements over the last year have included:
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Mamava Lactation Pod at Harborview Medical Center
Addition of three new lactation spaces at Harborview Medical Center (HMC)
- Ninth and Jefferson Building (NJB) 512
- Pat Steele Building (PSB) 5097
- Basement West Hospital (BWH) – Mamava Pod
- All HMC lactation spaces are now equipped with hospital-grade pumps and additional standardized amenities
- Supply and amenity improvements at UWMC-Montlake at the L2000L Lactation Room
- Addition of 4 new lactation spaces at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System (VAPSHCS)
- Building 100, 1st Floor, Veterans Lobby (ADA Lactation Pod)
- Building 100, 4th Floor, Near Elevators (Lactation Pod)
- Building 101, 2nd Floor, Room 2E80A (Lactation Room)
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Ribbon cutting ceremony for one of the new VAPS Mamava Pods
Building 101, 1st Floor, Near Entrance (Lactation Pod)
- Placement of lactation refrigerators in three program-specific spaces for two of our larger programs, Internal Medicine and Psychiatry
- Increased utilization of GME’s lactation supply loaning program – please reach out if you are in need!
- Hosted events on Family Planning & Fertility and Navigating Parental Leave for residents, fellows and their partners. See recordings of these events on the Growing Your Family webpage.
- Our Parenthood Peer Mentoring Program (launched in Fall 2019) continues to pair experienced parents with newcomers. On average the program has had 6 mentoring pairs per year.
A huge thank you to our colleagues at:
- HMC: Allison Zelikoff, Manager, Employee Health; Dr. Linda Liu, Internal Medicine Chief Resident; and Dr. Chris Nguyen, Psychiatry Chief Resident
- UWMC-Montlake: Jose Rodriquez, Program Operations Manager, Environmental Services; Eric Higashi, Nurse Manager – 6NE; Elaine Martyn Hickcox, Jordan Mollot and Kathleen Schaefers from Design & Construction Management
- VAPSHCS: Lisa Mizamoto, Health System Specialist; and Robin Wille
Their partnership and dedication have been immensely helpful to achieve the improvements made. We would also like to extend our appreciation to Dr. Julie Lamb and our own Director of Housestaff Affairs, Hayley Fisher for sharing your expertise through housestaff-directed events.
Our team continues to work to improve amenities and experiences for our parent trainees. We are working in partnership with the GME Committee (GMEC) to ensure compliance with the new ACGME requirements around parental leave (effective July 2022).
Please be sure to share any feedback or needs you may have with us by either emailing uwgme@uw.edu or using our anonymous Report A Concern tool. We are happy to explore options and work to improve the environment.