The Gold Connection: A GHHS Podcast

In this next conversation in our Gold Student Summer Fellows series, Gold Assistant Director of Program Initiatives Michelle Sloane interviews Preethi Reddi, who is a 2022 Gold Student Summer Fellow and a medical student at the Medical College of Georgia. Preethi grew up in rural Iowa, where she developed a passion for health promotion and advocacy by seeing first-hand the impact healthcare professionals made in her community. As an undergraduate at Emory University, she conducted research through the Grady Trauma Project, which studies the impacts of stress, trauma, and resilience factors on health outcomes. She also spent a summer in London studying the British National Health Service. Preethi hopes to eventually make an impact on community health just like the physicians in her hometown, including her own mom.

Through her research project titled, “A Community-Based Approach to Addressing the Rural Georgia Maternal Health Crisis by Understanding Barriers to Early Antenatal Care,” Preethi surveyed pregnant women in Brunswick, Georgia, a rural coastal community, to learn about barriers to antenatal care. She is working on developing interventions to help alleviate these barriers.

In this next conversation in our Gold Student Summer Fellows series, Gold Assistant Director of Program Initiatives Michelle Sloane interviews Maylis Basturk, a 2022 Gold Student Summer Fellow and medical student at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Before medical school, she worked as a lab technician in a Drosophila lab at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and as a Research Associate at the Silicon Valley genetic testing startup company Color Health. Maylis's research and clinical interests include examining the intersection of chronic health conditions and incarceration at Los Angeles County Jail and developing patient education interventions.

Through her service project, titled “Keck Transitions in Health: Creating Patient Education Tools for Self-Management Workshops to Improve Health Outcomes in People Experiencing Incarceration and Chronic Health Conditions in Los Angeles," Maylis designed a community needs assessment to develop self-management workshops for justice-involved individuals experiencing type II diabetes and hypertension.

In this next conversation in our Gold Student Summer Fellows series, Gold Assistant Director of Program Initiatives Michelle Sloane interviews Mollie Marr, who is a 2022 Gold Student Summer Fellow and medical student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Oregon Health & Sciences University School of Medicine. at Oregon Health & Science University. Her PhD is in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience, and her dissertation examined the intergenerational transmission of childhood maltreatment. She plans to be a child and adolescent psychiatrist.

Through her service project, titled “Creating a care pathway for children and adolescents presenting with self-harm or suicidality,” Mollie created and piloted a vast array of resources for youth in acute care settings. In collaboration with a team from social work, nursing, and child and adolescent psychiatry, along with input from patients themselves, Mollie developed psychoeducational materials, individualized trauma-informed plans, therapeutic interventions including motor breaks, and staff training materials, each geared to support adolescents, their families, and an interprofessional team of caregivers.

This  episode continues a series of conversations with winners of the Gold  Foundation's Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest. Molly Fessler, who won second place for nursing students students in the 2022 contest,  reads her essay, "Every Patient After." That reading is followed by a conversation with Molly and Gold Foundation Editor in Chief Brianne Alcala, exploring the writing process. Molly is a four-year student at the University of Michigan Medical School and a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

Extra thanks to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)  and the Academic Medicine podcast for sharing Molly's reading of her  essay. All winning Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay  Contest are published in both Academic Medicine, the journal of AAMC,  and the Journal of Professional Nursing, published by the American  Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Dr. Hope Babette Tang-Goodwin, the namesake of our essay contest, was  an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, whose devotion to the care of the  children and infants with HIV infection in New York City was an  inspiration to her colleagues and her students. Her approach to medicine  combined a boundless enthusiasm for her work, intellectual rigor, and  deep compassion for her patients. In sum, Dr. Tang-Goodwin was an  exemplar of excellent, compassionate, and respectful patient care.

This episode continues a series of conversations with winners of the Gold Foundation's Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest. Jessica Pierce, who won first place for nursing students students in the 2022 contest, reads her winning essay, "As the Sun Sets." That reading is followed by a conversation with Jessica and Gold Foundation Editor in Chief Brianne Alcala, exploring the writing process. Jessica is pursuing her doctoral degree in Nurse Anesthesia at Oregon Health & Science University.

Extra thanks to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Academic Medicine podcast for sharing Jessica's reading of her essay. All winning Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest are published in both Academic Medicine, the journal of AAMC, and the Journal of Professional Nursing, published by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Dr. Hope Babette Tang-Goodwin, the namesake of our essay contest, was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, whose devotion to the care of the children and infants with HIV infection in New York City was an inspiration to her colleagues and her students. Her approach to medicine combined a boundless enthusiasm for her work, intellectual rigor, and deep compassion for her patients. In sum, Dr. Tang-Goodwin was an exemplar of excellent, compassionate, and respectful patient care.

This episode begins a series of conversations with winners of the Gold Foundation's Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest. Mason Blacker, who won first place for medical students in the 2022 contest, reads his winning essay, "The Light." That reading is followed by a conversation with Mason and Gold Foundation Editor in Chief Brianne Alcala, exploring the writing process. Mason is a medical student at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Extra thanks to AAMC and the Academic Medicine podcast for sharing Mason's reading of his essay. All winning Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest are published in both Academic Medicine and the Journal of Professional Nursing. 

Dr. Hope Babette Tang-Goodwin, the namesake of our essay contest, was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, whose devotion to the care of the children and infants with HIV infection in New York City was an inspiration to her colleagues and her students. Her approach to medicine combined a boundless enthusiasm for her work, intellectual rigor, and deep compassion for her patients. In sum, Dr. Tang-Goodwin was an exemplar of excellent, compassionate, and respectful patient care.

In this next conversation in our Gold Student Summer Fellows series, Gold Assistant Director of Program Initiatives Michelle Sloane interviews Etta Conteh, Yamilet Gonzalez, and Hannah Wilson, who are 2022 Gold Student Summer Fellows and medical students at the University of Central College of Medicine. Together with three other medical student team members, they developed M.E.D.S. (Medical Enrichment for Diverse Students), an innovative Orlando-based  student-led mentoring program that addresses a growing need for diverse  healthcare workers through the extension of pivotal educational opportunities for students with socioeconomic disadvantages. Over the long term, this project aims  to improve the health of underserved patient populations in Central  Florida through empowering and training future healthcare leaders from within these communities.

In this next conversation in our Gold Student Summer Fellows series, Gold Assistant Director of Program Initiatives Michelle Sloane interviews Johanna Balas, who is a 2022 Gold Student Summer Fellow and a medical student at the Rush University. Her service project, titled "Implementing a Virtual Reality Training Program for CNAs Providing Care for Persons with Dementia," integrated a virtual reality (VR)-based online and in-person hybrid curriculum in the training of certified nursing assistants (CNAs) at a nonprofit organization offering memory care and long-term skilled nursing for older adults. More than 50% of residents in long-term care facilities have some form of dementia or cognitive impairment.

In Episode 6, we officially launch our new, multi-year Gold Humanism Honor Society International Initiative, “Healing the Heart of Healthcare: Reimagining how we listen, connect, and collaborate.”

Join us for a special episode of the Gold Connection in recognition of National Suicide Prevention Month, which is every September.

We are honored to welcome Dr. Steven Wengel and Dr. Kenneth Zoucha for a wide-ranging and intimate conversation about physician wellness, the particular risk factors often built into the physician culture, and how we can help colleagues and each other in fostering wellness.

Both Dr. Wengel and Dr. Zoucha are physicians at University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Dr. Wengel is a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society Wellness Committee.

Show Notes

In Episode 3, we look to the 2021 GHHS Solidarity Week for Compassionate Patient Care, an annual celebration of humanism that will look a bit different this year, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) Director Louisa Tvito interviews GHHS chapter leaders and advisors about their Solidarity Week plans, speaking to members from The Ohio State University's Medical School and University of South Alabama's College of Medicine, as well as the Gold Foundation head of communications about how to leverage social media in this year full of social distancing and added precautions. Guests include Rana Elgazzar, President of OSU's GHHS Chapter, and Allison Akers, OSU Solidarity Week Chairwoman, and from the University of South Alabama, Karen Braswell, GHHS Chapter Advisor, and Tyler King, GHHS Social Coordinator.

Dr. Hellen Ransom produced and edited this episode.