On Professionalism and Creativity

Professionalism is an “in” word these days. It stands for more than political correctness. When googling it, one can find “professionalism  is the skill, good judgment, and polite behavior that is expected from a person who is trained to do a job well”.  Alistair Cooke (1908-2004), who was a well-known British-American journalist, television personality and broadcaster, is quoted as having said ”a  professional is someone who can deliver his/her best work when he doesn’t feel like it”. The latter, of course, is hard, but, I guess it is what separates the wheat from the  chaff.

Creativity on the other hand can be defined as “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations.”  Creativity is the basis of every innovation and as such is indispensable for sustaining the success of any business in an ever changing environment. This holds particularly true for our Department’s situation in the middle of the ongoing health care reform in our Province.

Creativity is easily mistaken to mean disorganized spontaneity with little or no accountability, and to be incompatible with professionalism which stands for predictability and trust. However, creativity and professionalism, as defined above, do not only go well hand in hand, but, are, in fact, mutually complementing each other. A creative professional finds new solutions to challenges, brings them respectfully forward and acts in a way that always has the greater good in mind. This does not mean having to enter a popularity contest or having to abandon (constructive) criticism, but to be mindful of one’s own (unconscious) biases and always respect a dissenting counterpart.

The best solutions are not owned by a single individual/party, but created through respectful argumentation between engaged – albeit initially dissenting – professionals.  Engagement is key here, our Department needs yours!

Dr Richard Warrington Honoured by Royal College

  • Dr. Richard  Warrington was recently honoured for his  long and continued service to the Royal College. Without volunteers like Richard Warrington – the Royal College could not fulfill their mandate.

When asked about a time while volunteering for the Royal College when he felt that his contribution had made a tangible impact Dr Warrington recalled that “During an oral examination, a candidate became ill. There were apparently no regulations as to what to do, so we sent the candidate to Emergency to be assessed. When the candidate was considered recovered by the ER physician, with the candidate’s permission, we continued the examination successfully.”    He stated that it is important to the College, to the medical profession, to the trainees and to the public  to give back to the medical profession through  work with the Royal College.

Thank you Dr. Warrington for your over 30 years of dedication and service to the Royal College.

 

GRANTS

Project:  “Integrating clinical data systems to improve the capacity, performance, & value of Manitoba’s healthcare system”

Nominated Principal Applicant: Ryan Zarychanski

Principal Applicants: Marshall Pitz, Alan Katz, Josée Lavoie, James Bolton, Lisa Lix, Terry Klassen

Principal Knowledge Users:

Clinicians: Piotr Czaykowski, Alex Singer, Jitender Sareen, Thomas Mutter

Decision-Makers: Deborah Malazdrewicz, Jeanette Edwards

Collaborators: Dan Skwarchuk, Brock Wright, Sri Navaratnam, Frank Krupka

Funding Source: Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR); Operating Grant: SPOR iCT Rewarding Success, Idea Brief

Funds Awarded: $100,000 Duration:  1 Year

 

TRAINEE GRANTS!

Project:  Reducing transfusion whilepreserving Canada’s blood supply: The use and effectiveness of tranexamic acid in     major non-cardiac surgical procedures at high-risk of bleeding

Principal Investigator: Brett Houston (PhD candidate)

Co Applicants from the Department of Internal Medicine: Ryan Zarychanski (Supervisor), Allan Garland

Funding Source: Manitoba Medical Services Foundation (MMSF)

Funds Awarded: $29,613 Duration:  1 Year

 

Project:  Intravenous immune globulin in septic shock: A Canadian national survey

Primary investigators: Murdoch Leeies (MSc Candidate), Ryan Zarychanski (Supervisor), Faisal Siddiqui

Co-applicants from the Department of Internal Medicine: Anand Kumar, Allan Garland, Bojan Paunovic, John Embil

Funding Source:   Anesthesia Oversight Committee Operating Grant. Winnipeg Manitoba.

Funds awarded: $10,000 Duration: 2 years

 

 

GRANTS

Project : Effect of an Exercise Rehabilitation Program on Symptom Burden in Hemodialysis: a Randomized Controlled Study

Principal Investigator:  Clara Bohm

Co-investigators: Todd Duhamel, Mauro Verrelli, Claudio Rigatto, James Zacharias, Jenniefer MacRae (University of Calgary),  Navdeep Tangri

Grant Funding Source: Kidney Foundation of Canada 2018 Biomedical Grant Competiti

Amount: $99,973.                 Time period:  2 years July 2018-June 2020

 

Project:  “Workplace Diesel Exhaust Exposure: Defining a Biosignature to Support Prevention”

Co-Principal Applicants: Neeloffer Mookherjee, Section of Proteomics and Systems Biology – University of Manitoba, and Chris Carlsten, University of British Columbia.

Funding Source:  Research and Workplace Innovation Program (RWIP), Workers Compensation Board Manitoba

Funds Awarded:  $198,400 Duration:  2018 – 2020.

 

2018 MMSA TEACHING AWARDS

At the 2018 Max Rady College of Medicine Teacher Recognition and Manitoba Medical  Students Association (MMSA) Awards Dinner,  the following Internal Medicine faculty   members, were  recipients of the following teaching awards:

 Med 1

Innovation Award:  Dr. Clarence Khoo (Section of Cardiology)

Med II

Innovation Award:  Dr. Donald Houston (Section of Hematology/Oncology)

Best Med 2 Teaching in Small Group:  Dr. Pam Katz (Section of Endocrinology)

Best Med 2 Course:  Urinary Tract 2 (Dr. Keevin Bernstein – Section of Nephrology)

Med III

Med 3 Award for Attending Professionalism:  Dr. Jillian Horton

Med 3 Award for Attending Clinical Teaching:  Dr. Michael Semus

Med 3 Award for Attending Mentorship:  Dr. Aditya Sharma

Drs. Horton, Semus and Sharma – Section of General Internal Medicine

Congratulations!