February 25, 2010—
Over the course of two years, artists from North Dakota and South Dakota collaborated with the Bush Foundation to explore new ways of supporting the professional development of artists in the region through the Dakota Creative Connections grant program
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Doctor Jon Wempner knows the Bush Medical Fellows Program inside and out; he was a fellow in 1979 (the program’s inaugural year) and then the program’s director from 1983 to 1999.
Until last year, he served on the program’s Policy Board, which selects the fellows. At the selection seminar for the 2006 fellows, Wempner offered 15 suggestions for preparing for and experiencing a Bush Medical Fellowship.
Develop the skills of being an adult learner. —“I was used to having people spell out my curriculum for me,” Wempner said. “When I was taking my fellowship, it was so foreign to me to assess my own needs and develop my own resources.” He now sees how important such skills are to being effective in the leadership activities that follow the learning.
Carve out time for a real break. —Wempner talked about Jerry Blake (’86), who moved his entire family from Sioux Falls to Boston for a year while he attended Harvard. Blake had to drag his kids at first, but it ended up being a great experience. And Brian Campion (’87) described his fellowship to Wempner as a time of transition both personally and in his relationship with his spouse. Wempner said, “Whether the fellowship is a month or a year, you have to carve out that time and it has to be dedicated. You need to have vacant space for things to come in and get processed.”
Get a mentor or, better yet, several mentors. —Kay Schwebke (’03) is a fellow who Wempner thought made good use of mentors. She serves patients who are coinfected with HIV and Hepatitis C or B. Her fellowship strategy was to connect with leaders in related fields throughout the country. Although she only spent a relatively short time with each of them, it was enough to develop a personal connection so she could call on them later. She now runs the Hennepin County Coinfection Clinic.
Network with other fellows to enrich your program. —When finalists come to the selection seminar they often connect in a powerful way with other finalists who are on the same track. And if they don’t, fellowship staff is not shy about suggesting these connections to potential and current fellows. Some groups have formed as a result; the fellows who practice alternative medicine, for instance, meet on a regular basis. The program’s fall gathering also gives fellows a chance to meet across cohorts.
Use the Bush Foundation name as a door opener. —Carl Patow (’04) came to Wempner’s mind as a fellow who reported success in using the Bush Foundation name. Patow has a prominent position with HealthPartners, but where that influence doesn’t help him he uses his fellowship as a door opener. Wempner said the person you’re trying to get access to “may not know anything about the Bush Foundation but still the mention of the fellowship makes them realize that someone has put a stamp of approval on you.”
Use the time to develop professional relationships. — Wempner said, “I spent a lot of time with Ernie Reese, who was the director of the Hennepin County ER. I participated in their rounds and learned along with their residents. That gave Reese a closer association with my ER. I would end up referring patients to Hennepin County, which surprised my colleagues—they’d say, ‘you’re going to lose patients to a big center.’ But the opposite happened. Because Reese knew me and my group he would often say ‘you can take care of that—try this or that’ so we retained more patients.”
Make sure there is value to the community. —Applicants sometimes ask “what can this fellowship do for me?” but fellowship staff push them to figure out what their community needs are and build on that. Wempner thought Ken Riff (’03) was a good example of this transaction.
Riff is a vice president for Medtronic, an engineer and physician. He was interested in developing a system that could help practitioners blend alternative and allopathic medicine but when he arrived at North Hawaii Community Hospital to set up his project, he saw as well a strong need for contemporary cardiac medicine. He tried to find a good consultant to advise him but the fee was steep. Using his Medtronic and Bush fellowship credentials, Riff got the CEO of the consulting company on the phone. The CEO wasn’t too interested at first; he admitted he was talking to Riff from the 18th hole of a golf course near his western Hawaii condo. Riff saw his lever and used it: “If you had crushing chest pain while on this green, what would you do?” There was a pause. “Well,” said the CEO, “maybe we can work something out.” Riff is finalizing details for bringing contemporary cardiac services to that community.
Learn early how to build a team. —Beside Riff, who’d learned how to get that CEO on his team, other fellows have built powerful and effective teams that have paid off exponentially on the learning from fellowships. One is Merle Hillman (’03), who created and leads a disaster medical team that helps victims of disasters, like Hurricane Katrina.
Incorporate personal development into your fellowship. — Early in Wempner’s directorship he went to a program called “Physicians in Transition” with the idea that he would audit the course and check it out for fellows. He ended up participating, and it changed the direction of Wempner’s life, helping him decide not to continue leading his clinic but instead move someone he was mentoring into that position. “It turned out to be more rewarding. I found I had more power and influence.” Now the personal development omponent is a formal part of the fellowship experience through a program called “Courage to Imagine,” a retreat series that helps fellows reflect, clarify their values and goals, and explore next steps in their careers; it was created and is presented by Val Ulstad (’96).
Seek and listen to your intuition. —Wempner talked about realizing how often his inner self would talk to him if he just lay in bed for a while in the morning. The same thing happened in the shower or in the car. He got so he took his tape recorder along on his daily commute; if he got home before the ideas stopped, he’d circle the block.
He said fellowship staff encourages fellows to find ways to use their intuition. “Physicians, by and large, are very literal and sequential people. Things go from their eyes and ears to their cortex. They don’t let it bounce around in the deeper parts of their brain very much. I think they can learn to use their intuition and once they do, it’s good.” He added that accessing this intuition is something he believes female doctors do better than men, although the males are learning by example.
Take care of your personal relationships. —Wempner said, “If you have a strong relationship going in you’ll have one coming out.” The fellowship is a time of opportunity and a time of risk. You can use it to strengthen your family life, as Blake did when he transported his entire family to Boston. In contrast, some relationships falter. A couple may have known a split was coming and the growth of the fellowship lets them take the risk of separation. And while painful, such change can be positive for both parties.
Have fun. —Wempner remembered a time early in his fellowship when he was out having fun in the middle of the work day and he ran into someone from the Foundation. He let his alarm at being “caught” end his good time then, but now he encourages fellows not to forget to loosen up and have fun. During those times creativity creeps in. And a lot of inspiration can happen in the fishing boat.
Take risks. —The list of fellows who’ve taken risks (and the list of the risks themselves) is long. Wempner mentioned Kelley Jewett (’05), a family physician who wanted to improve health care for poor, inner-city people. She completed a master’s in public health, then decided not to go back to her old clinic; instead she thought of the time she had spent working in Africa and determined she would seek out a clinic that served the African population to whom she felt so connected. Today she is medical director of the New Americans Community Health Center in Saint Paul.
Remember your fellowship continues after the money run outs. —Wempner reported that some fellows delay their final reports because they don’t want their fellowships to end. They needn’t go to such extremes. Once you’re a Bush fellow you always have the right to call yourself that. And the skills fellows learn—how to set goals, assess needs—stay with them long after their final report is moldering in our file. Make room for serendipity. The principle of synchronicity is always at work, Wempner believes. Once you begin to focus in on something there’s a lot of help that comes forward in ways you might not have expected.
Take David Larson (’00), for example. He is an ER doc who wanted to upgrade his cardiac skills. He read an article about standardizing care for heart attack victims. That same night he found himself at dinner with Tim Henry, a cardiologist from the Minneapolis Heart Institute. They discussed the article, and Henry challenged Larson to develop care standards for his small, community hospital and agreed to mentor him through the process.
Then one night a person came to Larson’s ER with chest pain; he called Minneapolis Heart and Henry just happened to be on duty. They decided to implement the protocols, beating the standard of 90 minutes that night and inserting a stent that saved the patient from heart damage. Now Larson’s program is called Level 1 and is used by community hospitals in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Ka Vang
David Larson
Bill Allen
What is a Bush Fellow?