2. A very warm “welcome back” to Kristina Patskan, who is a recent grad of the Cardiac Sonography Program at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario. Her first day of work in the Echo Department at SBH was Monday, December 12th. Kristina previously held a position as a Cardiology Technologist at SBH prior to focusing her education on sonography. Please help us welcome her back to the program!
3. We have 2 new RNs in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab at SBH: Welcome to both Courtney Maley (formerly from ICCS), and Will Devlin (from SOGH). We’re glad to have you with us and hope you settle in quickly to your new roles!
4. After working meticulously for the past three years with the Interventional Cardiology Research Group, Dolores Friesen is retiring. She has worked at St. Boniface General Hospital since her graduation from the St. Boniface School of Nursing in 1983. Dolores has worked in several areas including CVT, Medical ICU/CCU, Surgical ICU, PARR, Emergency, and Critical Care Float Pool. She has been a staff nurse as well as CRN in the SICU and CVT units and has been a research nurse since 2007, at first with Nephrology and then successfully transitioning into Interventional Cardiology. She has diligently developed the Interventional Cardiology Research Nurse role that has expanded rapidly and successfully over the last three years.
A tea in her honour will be held on Friday, December 23 from 1:30 – 3:30 in room CR3017. Dolores, we will greatly miss you and wish you good luck in your retirement as you spend more time with your beautiful grandchildren!
5. Jan Mawhinney, who has been picking up a lot of casual shifts in the Pacemaker & Defibrillator Clinic over the years since her “retirement,” has decided to move into true retirement from nursing. We will miss her, and wish her all the best!
6. A warm welcome is extended to Kiran Atwal, who has accepted the position of Interventional Cardiology Research Nurse at SBH, effective January 9, 2017. She brings experience in Cardiology, MSICU, and Interventional Cardiology. Kiran will be based in CR3123, phone number: 204-258-1322, pager number: 204-931-2385, and email address: katwal@sbgh.mb.ca. Please help us welcome her to her new role.
7. Update on leadership searches: There are three leadership positions within the Program currently in the process of being filled: Medical Director, Cardiology; Section Head, Cardiac Surgery; overall Medical Director, Cardiac Sciences Program. For all three positions preferred candidates have been selected, and for all three, contracts have been drafted and are being considered by the applicants. Formal announcements about all three are expected early in the new year.
8. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Section of Cardiology and the Cardiology residents (especially Dr. Raj Sharma) for hosting a festive and funny Holiday Rounds on December 14 at SBH. In addition to receiving entertaining greetings from the various groups within Cardiology (who knew they had such wicked dance moves?), attendees were treated to some hilarious “doctored” video clips (like “The Godfather” aka Dr. John Ducas). There was a rousing game of Family Feud involving docs from the Cath Lab, Heart Failure, EP and Echo areas, hosted at first by Dr. Justin Cloutier and then by Dr. Mahwash Saeed. Team Echo ended up the overall winner and celebrated energetically! Thanks again for the laughs…and the pizza!
