GRATITUDES IN THE MIDST OF CHANGE
As I sit here, preparing to write the September blog for the Ohio-Kentucky Consortium, I am looking at a picture of a dear friend, Dr. Peter Mosher, who is wearing his Cincinnati Reds baseball cap and smiling back at me on a card that symbolizes what it means to be thankful. On the back of this card is a passage entitled "Gratitudes" in which he talks about his thankfulness for the people and blessings in his life. At the time of penning the passage, he was the leader of our Consortium and though since writing this passage, he has passed away, I am forever thankful that he graced us with his presence and leadership style that called us to work collaboratively.
With this in mind, this week many of us received an email from ACAPT, sharing with us what has happened since the Clinical Education Summit in Kansas City, Missouri last October. Pete led an effort in writing an article that contributed to this Clinical Summit. It is moving to think about how many people came together to not only write several articles to help guide our work at the Summit, but to also attend the Summit to address the ever-mounting clinical education issues. As a result of our combined efforts, the Summit resulted in agreement on "7 guiding principles, 11 harmonization statements, and 4 innovation statements." Thus, the great news conveyed in the ACAPT email is key action steps from the Summit are occurring and these are important to bring to the top of our minds as we prepare for the October Educational Leadership Conference (ELC) in Baltimore.
To summarize, there are four main topics that I wanted to bring to your attention:
First, the ACAPT email included a discussion about two strategic initiative panels being formed. The highest priorities from the ELC regarded integrated clinical education (ICE) and student readiness for clinic. Outstanding leaders have been identified to lead these panels and as a consortium, we encourage you to consider volunteering.
The next topic was identification of potential resource groups. With the formation of the National Consortium of Clinical Educators (NCCE) and the work of the Education Sections Clinical Education Special Interest Group, these entities can work together to contribute to the overall success of these endeavors.
The third topic was to develop an action framework. There's a meeting that's scheduled after this year’s ELC that will help facilitate these two groups to work in concert with CAPTE, ABPTRFE and the five ACAPT consortia to make sure that the talent that we all have come to center stage and we avoid duplication of efforts.
The final topic of interest was implementation of post- Summit programming at ELC. This topic focused on creating a shared culture of teaching and learning through partnership. This one is very exciting as well knowing that a panel of clinical site leaders will discuss their perspectives on the culture of partnership on the final day of ELC.
So I would like to close with "Gratitudes" for our profession. We are thankful for our professional association and the new horizon that focuses on collaboration, collegiality, and partnership to bring clinical education to the next level. We are thankful for volunteers, clinical instructors, CCCEs, clinical administrators who are willing to share their knowledge, talents, and skills for the greater good. And we are thankful for each other in the professionalism and support we give to one another each and every day so that we can insure every student is prepared to excel in our profession.
Lastly, thank you, Pete, for teaching us every day the blessing of being thankful.
