In Iowa or in life

Thank you to everyone who attended Grand Rounds yesterday. We heard three incredible presentations from last year’s Internal Medicine Research Day poster session winners. This annual tradition of inviting the winners to present at Grand Rounds stretches back decades and it comes at the halfway point between the last Research Day and the next one on September 29. Looking forward to what event organizers have on deck when we gather to celebrate the breadth and depth of our department’s research scope. We were also able to kick off the hour with the presentation of some annual department awards for outstanding medical students. Congratulations to this year’s winners and thank you to their mentors and educators guiding them with confidence and compassion. I was grateful to share some engagement survey data at the top of the hour and give a preview of upcoming division leadership searches. You can watch the awards presentation and my brief update at the previous link, and the Research Day winners’ presentations at this link.

Photo for reflection
I thought I was done with firsts! Last week I experienced my first tornado warning since moving to Iowa. As quickly as the storms moved in and the skies opened up, the clouds moved on and we got a pretty amazing late afternoon sun-show. But when the sirens first went off, I was not sure what to do. Fortunately, the interns, resident, and pharmacist I was rounding with on ID consults knew. We skipped the elevators, made for the stairs, and holed up in an interior lounge, away from any windows, just in case. Over some snacks, we continued our discussion of the afternoon’s cases, while keeping an eye on the regular Hawk alerts and the weather apps on our phones. After about an hour, the all-clear was sounded and I got a text from a friend that included this photo of the sky where she was. The “calm after the storm,” she said. I gave her an update on how we spent the duration of the storm and she congratulated us on staying safe and calm throughout. My friend joked that was a good way to address any crisis, “in Iowa, or in life.”

That got me thinking. After more than a decade in California, a state with mudslides, forest fires, and earthquakes, life in Iowa has offered fewer natural disasters along with the reduction in traffic. So when last week’s tornado brushed its way through Johnson County, almost twenty years to the day since our town’s last serious tangle with a twister, I think my guard had been a little lowered. So how did my team and I make it through? We relied on expertise. We got to a safe place and used the tools on hand (including some potato chips!) to assess the status, which helped us feel informed and to manage any anxiety. And, most important, we focused on what we could control. We shared our experiences and the knowledge (or lack of it!) about what to expect. And when there was not much left to do but wait, we turned our attention back to our work. Our patients still needed us. These are not earth-shattering lessons, and to those seasoned Iowans who use a tornado siren as an excuse to step OUTside for the view rather than INside where it is safe, maybe our definitions of “crisis” differ. That’s all fair. But when there IS an undeniable crisis, I think these principles still apply. Stay calm, stick with your team, trust the experts, use your tools and experience, and, maybe, find some snacks. There’s a lot that can be handled that way.

Upi’s “Oh, WOW” moment
Another round of congratulations to the participants in this year’s Transition to Residency elective, first launched by Dr. Matt Soltys in 2023. The two-week “boot camp” for graduating medical students heading to pediatrics or internal medicine residencies, here or elsewhere, has drawn rave reviews from the trainees and a show of hands for participating from a wide range of faculty. A recap from this year’s is coming soon. The M4s get to practice responding to Code Blues, having difficult conversations, managing distraught patients, and a host of other things interns said they wish they knew before Day One of residency. Faculty give them hands-on exposure to ventilator management, ultrasound machines, and even filling out death certificates. The staff in our fabulous Center for Procedural Skills and Simulation run them through some rapid response situations. It’s a useful course and each year the feedback helps the next class get a little better, a little more targeted, to what they need to be successful. It’s that Iowa touch.