GME News & Notes: November

Nov 18, 2021 | Announcements, Events, GME News & Notes, News

Dear GME Community,

November is Native American Heritage Month.  In the November issue of GME News & Notes, we include updated information about the new Training Site Information Page, Holiday Gift Guidelines, the Husky Prevention Response Course, the UW Medicine Influenza Vaccine requirement and the ACGME Back to Bedside initiative.

Additionally, and as in past months, this issue of GME News & Notes has lots of information about awards, publications, new program leadership, etc.

If you have information you would like included, please send to me at hamrac@uw.edu.

 

Cindy Hamra

Cindy Hamra
Assistant Dean, GME

Policies and Processes

  • Holiday Gift Guidelines: The holiday season is often a time of giving by grateful patients, vendors, and other outside organizations. State employees within UW Medicine are governed by the Washington Ethics in Public Service Act with regard to the gifts they may accept and how they may redirect gifts they cannot accept.  Read the Gifts, Food, and Meals from External Sources – FAQs on the UW Medicine Compliance website. Additional information is available on the Internal Audit website.  Contact UW Medicine Compliance at 206.543.3098 / comply@uw.edu or UW Internal Audit at 206.543.4028 / iaudit@uw.edu if you have any questions.
  • The UW now requires all incoming students and new employees to complete the Husky Prevention & Response course — a foundational training that is tailored differently for students and employees to help them seek resources as well as recognize, interrupt, prevent and report sex- and gender-based violence and harassment. Over the coming year, all UW employees will be expected to complete the 60- to 90-minute online course. More information will be shared in winter quarter. In the meantime, any employee can complete Husky Prevention & Response employee course now. Please see UW President Ana Mari Cauce’s November 15 email for more information.
  • Healthcare Helpers Initiative: Employees interested in participating can register at Healthcare Helpers and sign up for an available shift. Please note that roles may require additional training or qualifications. You can review these items and detailed role descriptions on the Volunteer Resource Page by selecting the quick link for “Hospital Volunteers.” Please note that residents are not considered classified staff and so may volunteer but are not eligible to be paid
  • The UW Office of Global Affairs has updated the UW International Travel Rules and Restrictions Policy
  • New Program Director Appointment Policy: The GMEC approved revisions to the New Program Director Appointment Policy at the November meeting.  Revisions reflect changes to the ACGME Institutional Requirements and Common Program requirements, as well as clarification and updates to the existing appointment process.
  • The deadline for UW Medicine Influenza Vaccination is November 30. Information about compliance is as follows:
    • How can I get a flu shot?  Please swing by your local UWMC Employee Health Clinic, a local provider, or pharmacy
    • What should a resident or fellow do if they were vaccinated elsewhere?  Bring a copy of the documentation to UWMC-Employee Health or email emhealth@uw.edu (Montlake) or employeehealthnw@uw.edu (Northwest) from a UW email account. Individuals can send a photo or a scan of documentation or provide their name, Employee ID number, date of vaccine and where the flu shot was received (Rite Aid, Costco, etc.).
    • What if a resident or fellow wants to decline the vaccine? Immunization is what will protect our patients, fellow staff, and providers and public. But if a trainee chooses to decline, there are three required steps:
      • Complete the on-line education Flu vaccine declination module available on the Employee Health page of the UW Medicine intranet and print a copy or screenshot with confirmation of module completion.
      • Meet with Employee Health RN or ARNP to have one-on-one education about declination.
      • Formally decline by signing the written declination. This must be done annually!
  • Employee COVID booster eligibility: Currently, UW Medicine is scheduling booster appointments for the following individuals who completed their initial vaccine series at least six months previously for Moderna or Pfizer, and at least two months previously for Johnson & Johnson.
    • Moderna or Pfizer: Ages 18-64 with underlying medical conditions or who are at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission because of occupational or institutional setting, including healthcare workers
    • Johnson & Johnson: Age 18 and older
    • Review the COVID-19 Vaccine Updates & Information page for additional information
  • Please make sure that you’re wearing a mask when you’re in a UW Medicine or UW space! The University has published a corrective action process for violations of the Face covering policies. The process can be found on the HR website.  Employees are required comply with the COVID-19 Face Covering Policy on campus or the UW Medicine face covering policy at the medical centers as a condition of employment or will be subject to corrective or disciplinary action including dismissal from University employment.
  • UW and UW Medicine COVID symptom daily attestations: for trainees engaged in any clinical activity during a given day, they need to complete the UW Medicine attestation, NOT the UW Workday attestation. Link to the attestation: 2019 Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) Response Program (uwmedicine.org). QR codes linking to this attestation are also all over clinical sites.
  • Vaccine Requirements & Attestation for non-UW Medicine Training sites:  GME has received information about vaccine requirements for non-UW Medicine training sites.  See the COVID-19 Updates page of this website for details.  If you know of others, please share them with us so we can distribute broadly.
  • Open Enrollment is here: For benefits-eligible employees, Open Enrollment is a once-a-year opportunity to make changes to health plan elections or enroll in a Flexible Spending Arrangement (FSA) or the Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP). Employees make changes in Workday, and changes must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. PST on Nov. 30. Open Enrollment elections go into effect on Jan. 1, 2022

Program Information

  • The ACGME is currently accepting applications and letters of interest for the next round of Back to Bedside projects.  The ACGME seeks proposals for awards for resident- and fellow-developed, innovative, grassroots strategies to improve, foster, or cultivate meaning in clinical learning environments by increasing opportunities to build connections with patients and improving the physician-patient relationship. Proposals are due February 21, 2022.

Events of Interest

  • The next GME Outreach event will be on Friday, December 10, at Harborview Medical Center. We will share more information closer to the event date.
  • Science Says Lecture Series: Trevor Noah, comedian and host of The Daily Show, will chat with Fred Hutch researchers – including Department of Medicine members Drs. Philip Greenberg and Rachel Issaka – who are boldly working to end cancer and COVID-19 during the event Trevor Noah Talks with Fearless Scientists Tackling Cancer and COVID-19 on Tuesday, November 30, from 2-3:15 p.m. Register for the event on the Fred Hutch website.
  • Other GME Events can be found on our calendar

Projects and Resources

People

  • The Pediatrics Residency has won the ACGME Barbara Ross Lee Diversity Award! The renamed Barbara Ross-Lee, DO Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award honors ACGME-accredited Sponsoring Institutions and programs, as well as specialty organizations, working to diversify the underrepresented physician workforce and create inclusive workplaces that foster humane, civil, and equitable environments.
  • Lauren Feld, fellow, Gastroenterology, received an Advanced/Transplant Hepatology Award from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Foundation. The purpose of this award is to encourage the academic career of exceptional hepatology trainees.
  • Fuki M. Hisama, program director, Medical Genetics and Genomics residency, is the senior author of “Exome and Genome Sequencing for Pediatric Patients with Congenital Anomalies or Intellectual Disability: an Evidence-Based Clinical Guideline of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics” published in Genetics in Medicine (2021;23:2029-2037).  This high-impact manuscript has been viewed >10,000 times in the first month following publication and has been reported in multiple national news outlets. Below are social media links regarding this publication.  See ACMGE News Release and National News Release
  • Barbara Jung, professor and chair, Department of Medicine, has been elected to the American Clinical and Climatological Association (ACCA). ACCA was organized in 1884 to improve medical education, research and practice in the U.S.
  • Cooper Kersey, resident, Internal Medicine was the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) hospital medicine oral presentation winner at the Washington American College of Physicians annual meeting for “Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Myocarditis: Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself.”
  • Whitney Kiker, fellow, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and J. Randall Curtis, professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, are co-authors of “Goal-Concordant Care After Severe Acute Brain Injury” in Frontiers in Neurology.
  • Joe Merrill, program director, Addiction Medicine, received an Outstanding Research Mentor Award. Nominated by students throughout WWAMI, 17 mentors were selected by the School of Medicine Scholarship Committee to receive Outstanding Research Mentor Awards
  • Danny Miller, resident, Combined Pediatrics and Medical Genetics and Genomics, received an Outstanding Presentation Award at the 2021 Seattle Children’s Hospital Fellow and Resident Research Day, and the Best Presentation Award at the 42nd Annual David W. Smith Workshop on Malformations and Morphogenesis. His mentors include  Evan Eichler PhD (Genome Sciences) and Junko Oshima, MD, PhD (Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine).
  • Joey Nelson, resident, Family Medicine, was featured in the recent article What Being First Generation Means to These Students in The Huddle
  • Olubusola Oluwole, fellow, Hematology Oncology, was selected as the 2021 National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF) Jeanne Marie Lusher Diversity Fellowship Award recipient. She was awarded $52,000/year for up to three years for her research project “A prospective study of clinical and imaging assessment of cognitive function and its association with anemia in adults with sickle cell disease at the University of Washington.”
  • Alex Stoller, program administrator, Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, is featured in the Department of Medicine Staff Spotlight for November.