We all want to do more for planetary health both personally and professionally. The Vancouver Acute/Vancouver Community Medical Staff Planetary Health Committee is working to make that a little bit easier by launching its Green Enthusiasts Network. The inaugural event provided an overview of current initiatives underway in VA and VC and then encouraged medical staff with ideas for new projects to take advantage of current funding opportunities (see here … Read More
Welcoming our newest committee and task group members
VPSA works to achieve its goals through committees and task groups that represent issues of concern to members. We are grateful to all the members who take part in these groups. We recently recruited six new members to our Community Building & Wellness, Engaging Physicians in Indigenous Cultural (EPIC) Safety, and Substance Use Disorder Patient and Provider Experience task groups. Community Building & Wellness Task Group Drs. Seyedmahyar (Mahyar) Mohammadi … Read More
Celebrating our nurse practitioner members
We benefit tremendously from the work nurse practitioners do in Vancouver Acute and Vancouver Community. In honour of Nurse Practitioner Week, we profile two of our NP members. Lisa Kolkman is one of our longest serving NPs, having started at VGH in 2012, where she has been a fixture in our Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic. Sharon Vogan, who has 21 years as a nurse practitioner under her belt, is one of … Read More
VP of Medicine shares his secret sauce for growing leaders
Compassion. Engagement. Mentorship. Those are the three ingredients Dr. Roger Wong identifies as the key to encouraging and developing medical leaders. In an esteemed career that has spanned medicine, academia, and research, Dr. Wong has served at provincial, national and international levels and has found these three factors to be common in successfully creating new leaders. Dr. Wong, who was appointed as VCH’s Vice President, Medicine and Academic Affairs in … Read More
Learning to identify spiritual distress
Referring patients to VCH’s Spiritual Care and Multi-faith Services professionals when they are in a spiritual crisis is a no brainer. The trick is knowing how to identify that. “Spirituality is often misunderstood, and it can be difficult to recognize whether a certain type of distress being expressed is spiritual in nature, but I will be happy to expand on this,” said Spiritual Health Profession Leader Philip Murray. What is … Read More