Parenting in the Time of Black Lives Matter

From the 6/19/2020 newsletter

Parenting in the Time of Black Lives Matter

Lara Voigt, MD

When my son was born in March 2020, I thought the most dramatic stories I would be telling him about his birth would be related to the pandemic. I had been in quarantine for only a few days after my husband tested positive for COVID-19, when I went into labor, becoming one of the countless new moms to go through labor and delivery without their partner or a support person.

I thought I would be telling him how my anesthesiologist held the phone to video call my husband for the birth and how my nurse took pictures of us when he was just minutes old. I thought the main tragedy surrounding his birth would be all the families separated and lives lost during the pandemic. We were lucky that my husband never had to be admitted, and we were only separated for the first week of our son’s life.

Two months later, I sat on the couch with his tiny head resting on my chest, scanning news articles, and watching as communities took to the streets to protest the murder of George Floyd. As non-white communities stood up to say "Enough," I became acutely aware of the incredible privilege my son had been born with as a white male child of two physicians, and that our stories surrounding his birth would be about far more than quarantine and PPE shortages.

Long before I planned to have children, I imagined how one day I would teach mine about race, gender, sexuality, privilege, poverty, inequality, and how to be a good human. I was worried about how society, including my children’s school friends and the media, would shape their biases despite my best efforts. 

But what would “my best efforts” be?

Our son is not going to grow up in a world where everyone is treated as equals and respected regardless of their color, but I hope I can foster in him a respect and recognition that all life as equal. I often start to think, "Well, growing up in South Africa, my experiences..." then stop myself as I realize this is me making excuses for the implicit biases I know I hold. I try to recognize and analyze these biases on a daily basis and want to teach my child to do the same. 

I'm sure I am one of the many who feels useless as I sit safely at home with my newborn. I feel guilty that I am not in the streets supporting my community, nor in the hospital treating patients on the front line of the pandemic. I think nothing I would do is "enough" because I am just one person.

But we are all "just one person" and together we are a national voice. There are so many seemingly small things we can do that, in sum, make a difference. We can educate ourselves, be honest about our biases and actively work on them. We can donate our time or money to organizations, and speak up when we see racism, injustice, and inequality in action. These are actions and values I hope I can instill in my children.

When the protests first started, I cynically thought this would be another flash in the pan for racial equality, a recurring movement that gets brief national attention every few years when an atrocity gets caught on camera and we are reminded of the horrendous inequality our non-white communities experience on a daily basis. But as the protests continue and real change seems to be more than just a pipe dream, I think I may have to change the stories I tell my child about his birth. He will no longer be a #COVID baby, but also a Black Lives Matter baby, and hopefully a child and adult who recognizes the differences between us but does not treat those differences as either a negative or a positive.

Until we get to tell him these stories, I will continue to educate myself, work on my biases, stand up for those around me, find ways to support my community, and find ways to teach this small human that Black lives matter just as much as his tiny white life does.

Lara Voigt, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Hospitalist Division) at MCW. She is the Associate Director of the Bedside Procedure Service.

North Avenue at Holton Street, Milwaukee - June 13, 2020

From the 6/19/2020 newsletter

North Avenue at Holton Street, Milwaukee WI 

June 13, 2020

Photo courtesy of Venus Coates, MBA

Pushing Institutional Climate Change for Underrepresented Minority Students

From the 6/19/2020 newsletter

Pushing Institutional Climate Change for Underrepresented Minority Students

Chris Decker, MD, and Julia Schmitt

Malika Siker, MD, MCW’s Dean of Student Diversity and Inclusion challenged our Kern Institute design team to dive into an important question: Why don’t our Underrepresented Students in Medicine (URM) apply to residency programs here at MCW?


Surveys had been conducted over the years, but the data did not reveal what was really happening with these students during their medical school years. Why did so many of these students want to leave?


At the Kern Institute, we use human-centered design to elicit stories and experiences around an issue. We crafted an exercise, coined a “design sprint,” and asked volunteer URM students to share a story from their medical school experience when they felt they didn’t belong. We paired the twenty students and, as they shared stories with each other, we captured and grouped the narratives into themes.




Gathering Input from Students, Faculty, and Staff

Next, a Kern Café was convened, titled “Cultivating a Culture of Inclusion for Underrepresented Students,” in September 2019. The session attracted approximately a hundred participants. We reviewed the results from two MCW surveys on student experiences and the design sprint findings. The surveys demonstrated that students who self-identified as being from racial/ethnic minorities felt gaps in diversity, campus-wide engagement in diversity activities, and negative differences in how they are perceived and treated on clinical rotations. The design sprint identified three themes: lack of respect, lack of support, and lack of connection.


After hearing the results, a student in the audience challenged us all: “These results are not surprising. What is the plan for the institution to change the climate?”


This challenge was supported by the rest of the audience. The combination of survey data and stories from the students made for a powerful presentation. Everyone wanted meaningful change.




Focusing Innovation on MCW’s Cultural Climate

As a result, we made “URM Student Inclusion” the theme of this year’s Transformation Ideas Initiative (TI2). This is the Kern Institute’s seed grant program – three years running – where students, staff and faculty are invited to submit ideas on how to innovate medical education.


The call for ideas went out in January 2020. Of the more than fifty ideas received, we advanced sixteen into development this academic year – fourteen of which are focused on URM student inclusion and eight of which are student-lead teams. The teams are organized into four cohorts: mentorship, implicit bias, cultural humility, and leadership/professional development.


The program kicked off with a virtual workshop on June 10, 2020, with over eighty participants excited to get started! This will be a team effort by all, evidenced by the “virtual high-five” photo from our Zoom workshop.

Next Steps

This summer, we’ll take them through workshops to help them refine and scope their project teaching and using an innovator’s mindset. The foundation of this work is empathy and a relentless pursuit of creating value in their programs, using curiosity and creating partnerships. Each team will be surrounded by experts and facilitators along the journey.


The goal is to begin the rewrite the URM student experience at MCW - and to make good on our promise to those who want to change the climate for future students.


TI2 2020 Projects:

M. Chris Decker, MD is a Professor in the MCW Department of Emergency Medicine and Chief Transformational Officer for the Froedtert & MCW Medical College Physicians. He serves as Director of the Culture and Systems Pillar of the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education.

Julia Schmitt is Program Manager of the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education. She also serves as an editor of the Transformational Times.

PANDEMICS JUXTAPOSED

From the 6/19/2020 newsletter



PANDEMICS JUXTAPOSED



Sherry-Ann Brown, MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA

Many of you are wondering about what I as a leader in various ways am thinking about the racial pandemic, juxtaposed with the coronavirus pandemic.

In the coronavirus pandemic, I had been starting my emails with something like, “I hope you have been able to stay well during these unprecedented times.”

This morning, I started to write an email to a group of people. At first I typed, “I hope you are well.”

Then I deleted that and started over. And then wrote, “I hope you are sorting through these multiply tumultuous times.”

I deleted that too, and skipped that intro altogether, and instead decided to share it with you all.

Let me tell you why. You should already be able to figure this out, but let me walk you through it.
Here it is.

Plainly and simply.

I hope you are NOT well.

I hope you are not OK with seeing what is going on in the world around you. I hope you are not OK with the global ignorance we have as people. I hope you’re not OK with the complacency with which we live our lives.

I hope you are NOT well.

I hope that your heart has been breaking inside due to centuries and decades of injustice.

I hope your well being has been ruffled knowing that all are NOT well.

That all is NOT well.

We all agreed that as a society the goal is to be well.
However, the goal we should desire is for all to be well.

We cannot be true to ourselves until we honestly recognize that all are not well until the futures of our black men, women, boys, girls, and babies in this country and around the world are well.

Until then, how can you be well?

Together, in community, how can we be well?

We can be well when we start to admit that we are not.

We can be well when we commit to open dialogue and truthful conversation about race.

We can be well when we recognize our ineptitude as a society at understanding and addressing what ails us.
We can be well when it finally legitimately rings true that all men, women, boys, girls, and babies in the United States are indeed understood, recognized, perceived, and treated as equal.





Sherry-Ann Brown, MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA is an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and the Director of Cardio-Oncology Program at MCW. She is a physician, scientist, poet, and author.