by jarrexi
On May 6, we featured Sandra Phillips in our MSC on the Frontline series. This series focused on former MSC students’ involvement opportunities as well as the leadership skills developed during time within the MSC.
In our update to this series, we feature a blog from Sandra and her parents as they personified selfless service and volunteered to be part of the trial for the Covid vaccine.
by ecb2536
by ecb2536
Former MSC students continue to serve on the frontline giving back their time and talents in many ways. Please enjoy this performance by Erika Chen as she served her community at the Lincoln Center in New York City.
Frontline Healthcare Worker Erika Chen Performs “Amazing Grace” at Lincoln CenterErika Chen, an emergency medicine nurse practitioner and musician, fills the plaza with a beautiful rendition of "Amazing Grace." To the brave and dedicated health care workers, first responders, and all essential workers who daily risk their lives during this pandemic: Thank you, from all of us at Lincoln Center.
Posted by Lincoln Center on Tuesday, July 14, 2020
by jarrexi
I was part of the MSC CAMAC - A Latinx Programming Committe and member of the MSC SCOLA - Student Conference on Latinx Affairs executive team.
My everyday life and routine has changed dramatically over the last two months. I work as a nurse at an urgent care and my days start early around 7 a.m.. It’s important for me to allocate time to get ready, eat breakfast, get a good morning stretch and mentally prepare for another 12 hour shift. Music is an essential component to lift my spirits and overall mood for the day. Once I’m at work, I complete my morning duties, prepare my PPE for the day and briefly connect and catch up with my co-workers. It’s always important to connect and allow for normalcy to still linger among my coworker family and work environment. We share a good story, relay some good news, and I always try to amp up the funny meter by saying something funny and witty to get them to smile. I sometimes get the “It’s too early Rosa” as they try to hide their smiles from me. If I get one of my co-workers to smile, then that is a win for the day. From there its go time, rain or shine. With COVID invading our communities around the world, many are scared and concerned with the possibility of contracting the virus. Our facility is one of the few clinics to offer both the PCR COVID test and also the antigen COVID test. With that said first half of my day is seeing 15 patients every hour on the hour for antigen testing. The skill of multitasking is an absolute must, as our normal urgent care services are still being provided. We are also performing the PCR COVID test which can take some time to complete as infection control is reinforced. Balancing the elements of good ol’ Texas humidity and heat only add a pzazz to the already exhausting day. I leave my shift around 8:30 p.m., sometimes closer to 9 p.m. I head home to then sashay out my scrubs, remove and wipe everything all outside my home. All clothes are immediately washed and I proceed to scrub clean into the shower. I try to unwind and then off to bed early and repeat all over again the next day.
Reminiscing on past events, presentations and programs during my time with MSC SCOLA, I realize that the ones that instilled the most growth where the ones that strayed from the original plan. These detours allowed us as a team to rethink, regroup and reproach the end goal with a different perspective. When things don’t go as planned, it shines light on areas that required improvement and those are experiences I still draw on today. My time at Texas A&M allowed me to walk away with the ability to acknowledge when something is and isn’t working and be willing to accept that and adjust course.
If I could, I would work on strengthening my decisiveness most. More and more, we are being asked to make decisions with less and less time for consideration and consultation. I've never been a particularly decisive person so this has challenged me, especially with the acuity of cases that keep presenting to our inpatient wards.
Integrity is the core value that best represents my work on the frontline. I firmly believe that if you interlace integrity in everything you do, then the quality of respect, excellence, leadership, loyalty, service and diversity will outlast any circumstance. We did not choose the circumstances we are currently in nor where we prepared for how it would affect us all. One thing that is for sure is that we still have control of how we can act and react to the given circumstance. We have the choice to be compassionate, caring, prudent but above all honest and unvarying moral. Doing the right thing in a time where there is much left to the unknown, we must never allow for our moral compass to waver.
There are so many favorite memories but coming together as a committee was always fun! We always tried to have food and snacks at our meetings. I remember one time we all brought pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) and had hot chocolate as we hand painted our MSC CAMAC shirts for an event. Always laughing at every meeting and we kept the fun in everything we did as a team.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my personal experience and for all the other frontline workers. Thanks and Gig'Em!
by jarrexi
Chief Operating Officer 2004-2005, EVP Leadership Development and Service 2003-2004, MSC ALOT Group Leader 2002-2003, MSC ALOT member 2001-2002
As the sole gastroenterologist at Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune, I'm charged with leading the GI department and making sure that we are always available to handle any GI emergency for our region. I'm proud that we've been able to do this with fewer personnel and more limited resources. We have had to dramatically change our clinical practice model due to the social distancing requirements for COVID-19. We've gone to a nearly 100% telemedicine model for outpatient visits, trying to maintain contact with our patients without exposing them to the risks of the coronavirus. It has been especially challenging since a lot of our hospital staff are deployed to other parts of the country helping the relief effort in some of the coronavirus "hot spots."
Through my MSC experiences, I learned that the best plans don't always win. Often, the plans that succeed are those that are able to adapt to a rapidly changing situation. While it's important to plan strategically, it's equally important to be able to change that plan in a moment's notice if the situation changes. It's also critically important to create a team culture that is adaptable and cohesive. If you wait until a crisis arises to work on your team culture, you waited too long. My team has been able to adapt and overcome because we've spent a long time training together, learning together, and becoming a more cohesive unit. It requires leadership to achieve that, and that starts long before any crisis arises.
I would focus on delegating. That was one of the hardest things for me to learn. I tend to want to take on all challenges myself and not pawn work off on others. What I've come to learn in the last 15 years is that I'm not always the best suited to handle a particular task, so by not delegating the task I may be limiting the success of the team. Also, failure to delegate prevents the personal growth and development of my team members. Being able to delegate to trusted team members in the current situation is invaluable.
Each of the core values are important. I can't think how I would even choose one. Imagine a wheel with seven spokes representing each of the seven core values. If one was missing, you'd have a misshapen, non-functional wheel. You can't function without all of them. You can't even be weak in one of them. You have to have them all.
During my junior year, I was part of the core team tasked with designing a new organizational structure for the MSC Council. It was an amazing experience to be a part of constructing a strategic vision for such a large and complex organization. That structure lasted for 10 more years, which is quite a legacy.
If anyone is serious about being a leader in their future industry, get involved and stay involved in the MSC! My time there was formative in a way that I couldn't get any other way. I'm a great physician by virtue of my medical training, but all of my business leadership skills came from my time in the MSC. Thank you to the MSC staff and students that spent so much of their time and energy training me to be a leader. I'll never forget it!
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