Greetings colleagues,

Welcome to the fall 2019 edition of Academic Matters, the e-newsletter of the University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville.

Wellness remains a priority among leadership. For nearly two years, we have been instituting new programs and restructuring old ones to better serve employees. As part of that, special offerings have become available for physicians, who face unique challenges when accounting for clinical demands, academic responsibilities and other duties.

In an Academic Matters article earlier this year, David J. Chesire, Ph.D., reported that burnout rates between 45% and 54% among physicians is the new norm, according to studies. The cost of burnout includes elevated levels of depression and suicide.

We want to remind faculty physicians, residents and fellows that there is a host of resources available if they ever need help, including the Center for Healthy Minds and Practice, or CHaMP. Chesire directs the center, which opened this year on the UF Health Jacksonville campus in the former cancer building just north of the South Garage on Jefferson Street. It’s near the credit union on the first floor of the parking garage. The building is centrally located, yet has discrete access.

Having engaged employees is critical to any organization, and what becomes clear is that there’s a wellness component to it. As we improve wellness services, we also want to help shift the culture, shed stigma and remove taboo regarding mental health and well-being.

WELL-BEING INDEX

All faculty physicians, residents and fellows at the College of Medicine – Jacksonville recently received an email inviting them to take part in an assessment from the Well-Being Index.

The assessment is an opportunity to better understand your overall well-being and areas of risk compared with other physicians across the United States. Information about local and national resources is provided, as well.

The assessment is 100% anonymous and confidential. Individual information and scores are private and won’t be shared with UF Health personnel or anyone else. The only information obtained is aggregate data, which will help influence conversations concerning future wellness initiatives.

For more information and the Well-Being Index and overall well-being efforts on campus, contact Mark McIntosh, M.D., M.P.H., medical director of employee wellness at UF Health Jacksonville, at mark.mcintosh@jax.ufl.edu.

REGIONAL MEDICAL CAMPUS

Discussions continue about the creation of a regional medical school, which would accommodate full-time third- and fourth-year UF medical students on campus. For many years, we have been hosting students from UF and other institutions, although they are only here on a rotating basis.

We are working with UF faculty and staff in Gainesville to develop specific goals and objectives for our educational program. A task force is focusing on curriculum design, faculty development and funding structures to meet the needs of a cohort student population. We aim to launch the regional medical school by 2023.

In addition, we are still evaluating space on campus to accommodate additional students and house the Office of Student Affairs, which is now a separate entity from the Office of Educational Affairs.

More information, including detailed recommendations from the task force, will come in early 2020.

NELSON’S PRESENTATION

On Oct. 18, David R. Nelson, M.D., senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health, presented at our enterprise’s fall Leadership Development Institute. The event brought together key personnel from our campus’ three colleges, two hospitals and practice plan for a full day of leadership development.

Nelson’s talk focused on UF Health’s role at the university at large, the importance of education and research, strategic needs for our clinical enterprise and discussions about our structure and governance. His talk truly emphasized the importance of the One UF, One Vision concept and how Jacksonville fits in to achieving that vision.

DEPARTMENT CHAIR POSITIONS

The college’s leadership team has been actively searching for department chairs for surgery and neurology and reviewing candidates from two outstanding pools. We hope to make announcements by the time the next edition of Academic Matters is released.