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.
