As we approach the end of another academic year, the Center would like to highlight the work of several Class of 2015 MSU College of Human Medicine (CHM) students who were recently honored at a CHM awards banquet: Alison Case, recipient of a 2015 Education and Advocacy Fellow (EAF) by the American Medical Student Association, and a 2015 Arnold P. Gold Foundation Gold Humanism Honor Society student inductee; Stacie Clark, a CHM Class of 2015 Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society student inductee; Virginia Corbett, a 2015 Arnold P. Gold Foundation Gold Humanism Honor Society student inductee; Erika Phelps Nishiguchi, a 2015 Arnold P. Gold Foundation Gold Humanism Honor Society student inductee; Yasaswi Paruchuri, recipient of the 2015 Excellence in Public Health Award by the U.S. Public Service Professional Advisory Committee, and a 2015 Arnold P. Gold Foundation Gold Humanism Honor Society student inductee.
Center Professor Dr. Leonard Fleck spoke of his work with Alison Case, Virginia Corbett, and Yasaswi Paruchuri:
“Medical students have massive amounts of material they must master and numerous skills they must acquire. In spite of that, many of these students find time to engage in extra-curricular or co-curricular activities that have considerable social value. Three such students were Alison Case, Virginia Corbett, and Yasaswi Paruchuri. Together they created, as first-year medical students, the Social Responsibility elective. The goal of this elective was to broaden the sensitivities of medical students to the broader social responsibilities that would require the attention and energy of themselves as future physicians. The elective was well-designed, engaging and thought-provoking. It was a valuable addition to the medical education of the students who participated, even though it would not earn any of them even an extra point on Step One of Boards. Finally, all three of these students deserve additional accolades for the many social projects they themselves engaged in after the course itself. They practiced what they preached.”
Center Assistant Professor Dr. Karen Kelly-Blake on her work with Stacie Clark:
“Stacie Clark has worked with me on two separate projects here at the Center. Currently, our work is a secondary data analysis of patient-clinician encounters. Ms. Clark has been instrumental in developing the codebook and in identifying and defining the themes that are emerging from the data. She will also be the second author on the manuscript resulting from this study. She is professional, interested in learning new skills and concepts, and willing to lead various assignments. She has been incredible! I am so pleased and proud that I have had the opportunity to work with her, and I expect that she will continue to make CHM proud in her future career endeavors.”
Center Director and Professor Dr. Tom Tomlinson on his work with Erika Phelps Nishiguchi:
“Erika was a tremendous help to me and to Sparrow Hospital as we worked on revising the hospital’s code policy to eliminate the use of “partial codes,” substituting a “pre-arrest plan of care” in its place. Even now, as she prepares to begin her Pediatrics residency at Seattle Children’s Hospital, she continues to work with me on developing a training program in having productive end-of-life conversations with families whose loved one is in the ICU. She’s a joy to work with, and I’m privileged to know her.”
Center Assistant Director Libby Bogdan-Lovis on her work with Yasaswi Paruchuri:
“During her second year of medical school Yasaswi Paruchuri participated in a research collaboration for The Journal of Clinical Ethics, Special Issue on Place of Birth Fall 2013, 24(3). For that issue she co-authored (with Ray De Vries, Saraswathi Vedum, and fellow CHM student Kathleen Lorenz) “Moral Science: Ethical Argument and the Production of Knowledge about Place of Birth” (pp. 225-338). Ms. Paruchuri later worked with Center for Ethics faculty in her third year, when composing her short history “Virginia Apgar: Our Jimmy.” That brief history of Virginia Apgar, known best for her pioneering development of the eponymous postpartum “Apgar” scoring system to assess the postpartum status of the newborn, reveals a lesser known side of Dr. Apgar’s very interesting life. The piece was accepted for publication in the spring 2014 issue of Hektoen: A Journal of Medical Humanities. Ms. Paruchuri then continued her exploration of neonatology’s history through a research elective on the history of neonatal resuscitation during a University of Washington, Seattle Children’s Hospital NICU rotation. These initiatives reflect Yasaswi Paruchuri’s passions – she experiences a depth of understanding and caring for humankind that is manifested in her multifaceted pursuits, embodying CHM’s mission to “serve the people.””
MSU Bioethics 