Tuesday 21 June 2016

Cardiac Staff Matters 20/06/16

1. CCCN Manitoba’s annual Keeping Current with Cardiovascular Care occurred on June 6. Members of the planning committee and the CCCN executive are members of our own Cardiac Sciences Program: Chris Kuttnig, Estrellita Estrella-Holder, Karen Coupland, Lorraine Avery, Margaret Lukianchuk, Kiran Atwal and Jo-Ann Sawatzky. This year’s event was a success with over 60 people in attendance including registered nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, registered dieticians, physicians and cardiac technologists from Winnipeg, Portage, and Boundary Trails. Many of the speakers were our own CSP residents/fellows, physicians, and nurses. Presentations included obesity risk and management, heart healthy nutrition, inflammation of the heart, subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator, environmental effects on ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarct (STEMI), left atrial appendage closures and Winnipeg street drugs. Next year’s date has already been set for June 5, 2017. Mark your calendars!

2. We are pleased to announce that Lori Hicks will be taking on a role in the WRHA Access Office, scheduling and supporting patients awaiting cardiac catheterization. While her official start date isn’t until July 4, she has been getting oriented to the office for a few weeks now. We’re glad to have you in this new role, Lori!

3. Farewell and best wishes to Barb Pambrun, who is retiring as of June 30. Barb has worked as a secretary and then administrative assistant in the program since 2007, providing excellent support to a number of cardiac surgeons. Her dedication and organization will be sorely missed, as will her willingness and skill in party-planning! A get-together in her honour will be held the afternoon of June 29 on CR3017. Congratulations, Barb, and we hope you enjoy your well-deserved retirement!

4. Congratulations to Rolly DeJuan, who will start in a new role as Charge Technologist for EKG/Holter at Health Sciences Centre on June 27. Rolly comes to the position with experience at SBH.

5. Last week, the Cardiac Sciences Program’s Standards Committee marked its tenth anniversary. The committee held its inaugural meeting on June 15, 2006. Four current members were at that first meeting, and have been valuable committee members throughout: Dr. Keith Warrian, Dr. Nasir Shaikh, Dr. Ivan Barac and Dr. Michael Raabe. Thank you for your contributions!

6. Join us in extending a hearty “congratulations” to Brigitte Chappellaz, who recently completed training as a cardiovascular perfusionist at The Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences. In recognition of her achievement as the individual who completed the perfusionist training program with the highest grade point average, she was awarded the Board of Governor’s Gold Medal of Excellence. This award will be presented to her at the graduation ceremony on June 25. We’re very proud of you, Brigitte; well done!

7. Effective June 20th, Registered Cardiology Technologists will begin to provide the service of applying a magnet to Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) for adult patients between the hours of 0800-2300 in an area that does not have the trained personnel or equipment to safely do so independently. This service by RCTs will be available only at St. Boniface Hospital.

This service was previously provided by Pacemaker and Defibrillator Clinic nurses. The purpose of this service is to apply a magnet and monitor the patient’s rhythm during a planned or urgent operative or other procedure (i.e. endoscopy) when there is a high risk of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) which may result in inappropriate sensing and/or delivery of therapy by an ICD.

8. Cheers to Claudia MacKenzie, who has recently accepted the position a Clinical Resource Nurse for the Cardiac OR at SBH. Claudia, who has 17 years of OR experience, will start this position on July 18.

9. The ICD Support Group of Manitoba held their spring meeting at the Albrechtsen Research Centre on Saturday, June 4th, 2016. Pictured are Dr. Bill McIntyre (Cardiology Fellow), Greg Smith (Board Member), Dr. Colette Seifer (Medical Director, Arrhythmia Program), Larry Sherman (Board Member), and Dr. Justin Cloutier (Internal Medicine Resident). The lecture on Patient-Centered Research, given by Drs. McIntyre and Cloutier, was very well received.



10. And a chuckle for those of you who read through to the end:

Two paramedics described the time they went to the aid of an elderly man. As one took down his information, the other opened is shirt to attach EKG cables. “Any history of heart trouble?” asked the first.
“None,” said the patient.
Looking at the telltale scars of bypass surgery, the second paramedic wasn’t so sure. “In that case,” he said, “do you remember when the lion attacked you?”
Monday 6 June 2016

Cardiac Staff Matters 06/06/16


1. Good luck and best wishes to Bev Humphries, who is retiring at the end of the month. Bev has worked in the WRHA Access Office since 2012, supporting patients while they wait for cardiac catheterization and ensuring they are scheduled on a timely basis. Thank you, Bev, for all you’ve done; we wish you the best of everything in your retirement!

2. Dr. Riz Manji (cardiac surgeon) and Jenni Hayward (ICCS nurse) were interviewed on CTV last week about their work in Africa to help fight rheumatic heart disease. Watch this video to see the interview!

Rheumatic heart disease, which is a complication of untreated strep throat, kills and maims those not fortunate enough to be able to get the simple treatment we may take for granted. This disease devastates individuals and families that are already trying to fight poverty. Cardiac surgery can change an individual's life by allowing one to be well enough to be productive and to be able support one's family.

Team Heart, originally from Boston (Harvard Medical School) has been going to Rwanda for the past 9 years to offer life-saving cardiac surgery for those struck with RHD. There is a wait list of over 1000 but only 50 patients can be operated on per year due to facility and human resource problems. Team Heart has been given the go ahead and has land set aside to build a full service cardiac hospital where missions can come on a regular basis to perform cardiac surgery; however funds are needed to make this a reality and also to assist teams to be able to go.

Please consider donating to the affiliated Canadian organization (Canadian Humanitarian, Dr. Rizwan Manji’s Rheumatic Heart Disease Fund) to help fight rheumatic heart disease in Rwanda. Any donations above $50 will qualify for an official tax receipt.

3. Cardiac Sciences Program was responsible for the development of the monthly TeamSTEPPS Topic for June here at SBH. A huge thank you the group: Sandy Warren, Linda McLean, Barb Knight, Emily Phillips, Karen Sklavenitis and Lillian Koley. Our topic was Situational Monitoring; the group developed four submissions for the weekly SBHNewsletter, a poster detailing the concept, information that the units can use to ¡§coach out¡¨ the topic at huddles and a scenario that illustrates the concept. Barb will be ¡§coaching out¡¨ all the PTMs at their monthly meeting on Monday May 30th. Job well done!

4. TeamSTEPPS has been rolled out to the physician, surgeon and perfusionist groups in the Cardiac Sciences Program at SBH. Two sessions were held, on May 19 and 24, and 67% of the individuals in these groups have now completed the training. A third session is being planned.

5. All Winnipeg paramedics are now trained in using the Code STEMI protocol. While this protocol has been in use since 2008, not all paramedics were trained to trigger it. Dr. Davinder Jassal recently participated in a CTV interview about this. See the video by clicking here.

6. The Cardiac Sciences Program held its 14th annual Research Symposium on June 1. Dr. Sam Lichtenstein, Head of the Division of Cardiac Surgery at UBC was our guest lecturer. We had a full slate of research presentations, including 17 ePoster presentations and 11 oral presentations. At the end of the day, awards were distributed at a dinner generously sponsored by the St. Boniface Hospital Foundation. The winners of the trainee research awards are:

Best Poster Presentation (Clinical): Dr. Shuangbo Liu
Best Poster Presentation (Basic Sciences): Natalie Landry
Best Oral Presentation (Clinical): Dr. Weiang Yan
Best Oral Presentation (Basic Sciences): Navid Koleini

The Don Peters award is granted to the Cardiac Sciences trainee who best demonstrates integrity, compassion, and dedication to the care of patients as individuals. This year's recipient was Dr. Mahwash Saeed.

Also awarded by the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Manitoba was the previously announced Sanofi award, given to Dr. William McIntyre.

Dr. Olga Toleva was selected by the residents as the recipient of this year's Ted Cuddy Cardiology Teaching Award. This award is given annually to the physician who has demonstrated outstanding performance in the role of clinician teacher and mentor.

Congratulations to all!

7. The next session of the Winnipeg Critical Care Nursing Education Program begins September 6, 2016. If you're a nurse who's looking for a stimulating and challenging career change, please consider this option. You'll earn while you learn, and there are plenty of job opportunities. Here at SBH, there are vacancies in the Intensive Care Med/Surg unit, the Intensive Care Cardiac Surgery unit, and in the soon-to-be-open Acute Cardiac Care unit. Please see below for details.