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Professionalism – Rock City Church

Professionalism CEO: Consistently demonstrate compassion, respect, honesty, integrity, accountability, altruism, prudence, social justice and a commitment to excellence in all professional and personal responsibilities.

Over my 4 years of medical school here at OSUCOM, I have become very involved with my church – Rock City Church. We are one of Americas top 20 fastest growing new churches for several years in a row. We also spend 35% of our yearly budget beyond our walls, in the community. Participating in service of the community both inside and outside the church walls. I have served in the Rock City Kids children ministry, the set-up team, the impressions team. I was featured in out Year 4 report for my service in the Rock City Kids ministry, as well as our annual shoe gives. Outside of the church walls, I have participated in a multitude of community outreach and service projects.

I have led service teams Inside of our walls. Here is a picture of me after leading one of our baptism teams on a Sunday morning.

I have also volunteered for several video shoots. Here is a picture from our campaign to launch a huge expansion:

Here in my ‘Life Change’ video from that same initiative, I explain what Rock City means to me:

Systems-Based Practice – Role Models

CEO 5.4: Identify and utilize professional role models as a means of growth and accept the responsibility of acting as a role model and teaching and training others

Role Models are extremely important in the journey of medicine. I can say that throughout my 4 years, I have had excellent role models who have taught me much about myself. They have provided more opportunities for self-reflection than a written reflection ever could, and I have been great friends, mentors and colleagues.

The primary group that i have leaned on for personal and professional growth is my LC. We have always been very close, so much so that many of us traveled 2000mi to the wedding of one of our members. Here is a picture from our very first meeting:

 

Another group that I have drawn from is the OSUCOM alumni. I had the honor of being named a OSUCOM Alumni Scholar during M1, and I have had tremendous opportunities to meet role models and develop relationships. Here is a picture from the 2016 Alumni Weekend, where I was asked to talk a little bit about what OSUCOM Alumni meant to me and my experience here at OSUCOM.

 

Interpersonal Communication – Collaboration

Interpersonal Communication CEO 4.1: Demonstrate leadership and collaborate effectively with other healthcare team members and professional associates.

 

Collaboration is an important part of medicine. I have had the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues both inside the hospital and out. I have been involved with research in the Department of Anesthesiology at OSUWMC since 2008, transitioning from making copies, all the way to participating in research projects in progress. Data collection in the OR, organizing samples, delegating tasks and leading undergraduate students, writing publications, and editing publications. Here is a picture of me with my PI, Dr. Sergio Bergese.

 

I think that team building outside the hospital is just as important. I like to think of my colleagues as my extended family. We have had a OSU Intramural Champion flag football team, and a OSUCOM Champion tug-of-war team. Here is a picture of our flag football team, and a very fun video of the tug-of-war final.

 

 

3IC – Olympic Tug-of-War final-1v7f6iw

Practice-Based and Lifelong Learning – Limits and Work/Life Balance

CEO 3.4: Identify one’s own strengths, weaknesses, and limits; a) seek performance feedback, b) maintain an appropriate balance of personal and professional commitments, and c) seek help and advice when needed.

The best way that I can describe my medical school journey is that of climbing a mountain. During med 1-2, I was in the lowlands. I was not performing how I wanted to, I was spread thin. It was partially because of my passion for cars. Coming from undergrad, I was rising among the car community because of my work on my first car, a Lexus IS350 that I modified from the ground up.

I spent a lot of time working on it, traveling to shows, and shooting website features. I am now a member of one local (Lowcally Famous), and 2 international (Dapper and Violent Clique) car groups, who travel the country attending invite-only car shows. Lowcally Famous, based in Ohio, also helps to organize and participates in area charity car events, including the Lap Around Columbus for PTSD, the NvUS Charity Car show, and many others.

Realizing that this was taking up way too much of my time, I opted to sell the car 3rd year and move on to my current build, which is much more clean and simple.

Since then my grades have improved, I have earned honors in 2 rotations, including anesthesia elective and my ICU sub-internship, and I have still maintained my country-wide friendships and found time to make it out to 1-2 national shows, including one during that sub-internship. Overall, I learned a lot about myself, my limits, and my happy medium work-life balance.

Medical Knowledge and Skills – The People

Medical Knowledge CEO 2.4: Understand the indications, contraindications, and potential complications of common clinical procedures and perform the basic clinical procedures expected of a new PGY-1.

During my 4 years, I have had the privilege of taking advantage of all of the resources that OSUCOM has to offer. I think that OSUCOM’s biggest asset is its people. I have had the pleasure of learning from the most talented and well known physicians in our hospital system, and utilizing all of its amazing facilities as well. Below is a picture of me reviewing fetal heart tracings with OBGYN Chair, Dr. Landon, and OBGYN chief resident Dr. Chelsea Mutscheller.

Here is a picture of me in the 6th floor Prior Clinical Skills lab, simulating basic airway management under the supervision of Dr. Veena Satyapriya.

Patient Care – Special Populations and Situations

Patient Care CEO 1.1: Approach the care of patients as a cooperative endeavor, integrating patients’ concerns and ensuring their health needs are addressed.

Treating patients as individuals is a worthy emphasis of todays medical education. I had 2 special instances which drove this point home in my heart.

During M2 year, I had the privilege of seeing a very special patient – one of the very last living Tuskegee Airmen. Featured in the recent movie, Red Tails, the Tuskegee Airmen comprises the first African-American fighter and bombardment groups in the US Air Force during WWII. As a URM student, one of my personal interests and commitments lies in reaching underserved populations. Even more, we were fortunate enough to consent this gentleman for pictures, which were featured in Alumni Update magazine. For the purposes of this portfolio, however, I have blurred his face.

The most moving experience with a patient occurred 3rd year on benign GYN. On rounds in the morning, we had a patient on post-op day 1 from a robotic hysterectomy with a very familiar last name. I walked into the room to a familiar face, sitting with her husband and child. I asked her, “Im sorry, but are you a teacher?”.

She looked hard at me, and immediately burst into tears. It was my kindergarten teacher. When I was her student, I was just 4 year old boy in an inner city school district. She remembered me, my sister, and both of my parents well. My team allowed me to stay and talk with her for a few minutes. We traded a warm embrace and contact information, but the most important exchange between us was my reminder that every patient has a story. Every patient is someones loved one, and you never know when you will run across a patient whose day you can change just by your comforting presence.

 

Understanding the logistics of the delivery of healthcare is also extremely important to the ability of the physician to relate to his or her patient and set real expectations. Never is this knowledge more important than when life-saving surgery is needed.

During my cardiothoracic surgery elective, I had the opportunity to participate in the entire process of a fly-out heart transplant. This occurrence affected 2 of our patients: one, the recipient, and two, the patient whose CABG x3 was delayed that day. We arrived at 0430 and were taken to the airport where we were flown by private jet down to the procurement. Below are a few pictures of our plane leaving from CMH.

Through a series of events, I was called up to run first assist for the procurement. By the end of the surgery, I was exhausted, but our job wasn’t done. We rushed back to Columbus and landed around 4pm. The recipient left the OR around 10pm, and then my surgeon, who had been with me since 430AM, called the CABG x3 down to the OR for a 2430 start, meaning he had been NPO for almost 24hrs. This experience showed me that no matter how efficient your care delivery attempts to be, setting expectations is key, and nothing trumps self-sacrifice and hard work on the part of the physician.