GME Updates: Lactation Rooms and Parental Support

by nybrady | Mar 29, 2022 | News

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:

• 

  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)
  • 

    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.

Reflection – by Joseph Nelson

by nybrady | Feb 17, 2022 | News

I am honored to be able to share a poem by Family Medicine R3 Dr. Joseph Nelson, which was recently published in the Family Medicine Journal and presented at GMEC. I thought that this poem was so impactful, that it should be published in this 2nd blog post for the month of February.

Byron Joyner, MD, MPA
Vice Dean for GME and DIO

Residents and trainees often encounter language or behaviors that may display indifference or may even feel hostile. Language and actions that perpetuate negative stereotypes that lack empathy or express bias against marginalized groups of people is not unexpected in a workforce that has historically lacked diversity. But, these types of words and actions are still hurtful. The following poem was written in response to statements and actions made to me by medical professionals during a week-long teaching conference I attended.

Joseph Nelson, MD

Reflection

Joseph Nelson, MD
Family Medicine R3

It was the water that calmed him, this Native American man. The soothing clatter against nearby rock, the rhythm and dance of current, and the crystal clearness which revealed a mysterious world unseen by many.

It was a doctor who asked him earlier, “can’t we do a fish dance?” a reference as clear as the water before him.

It was a doctor who mentioned the “Redskins” of football fame as they spoke to him and his skin of red.

It was a doctor that taught him how an infant sits “Indian-style” as it passes breech from its mother’s womb.

It was a doctor who jokingly named a child “Sleeps-with-snakes,” a parody of an honor he was yet to receive.

It was a doctor who shared an imaginary case about an IHS patient who was, of course, high, a stereotype too often made.

It was a doctor who shared the same story months ago, also in teaching, but this time very clearly an “Indian” and very bluntly “drunk.”

It was a doctor who mockingly imitated a Chilean woman in jest, cursing through her labor.

It was a doctor who mentioned “scalping,” while placing a vacuum extractor on an infant model. And it was a doctor who smiled for a photo, proudly raising the same dark-skinned model by a cord up high, as it dangled lifeless and still, as if lynched by his white hand.

No matter how brief or subjective in view, it was doctors who said and did these things, even while teaching. And it was a doctor resting at the water’s edge, calmed in the presence of his ancestral land, as these acts of racism faded only in spoken word.

It is important that we recognize the power of our words and actions, and the potential for harm, even if harm was never intended.

Source:
Nelson J. Reflection. Fam Med. 2022;54(2):142-142. https://doi.org/10.22454/FamMed.2022.882975
Copyright Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. Used by permission.