Since I started asking Penn Medicine staff to send me questions, a lot of people have asked me about career advancement at Penn Medicine. Thanks to Debora Hohorst in Accounts Receivable and Christopher Nigro in Patient Accounting for questions about climbing the ladder, and Regina Haines from Penn Medicine Radnor and Colleen Bynum from Penn Presbyterian for questions about leadership development, among others. I want to answer your questions by starting with a story.
It starts with a farm tractor. During college, I fell under one, badly injuring myself, and spent several months in the hospital recovering and then into home care and physical therapy.
For me, the accident served as both an eye-opening experience and reset button. I hadn’t been doing well in college up to that point. I was attending Millersville University, in rural Lancaster County, and the group of friends I had then were a bad influence. I sometimes joke that in my first year there, I made “the wrong dean’s list.” But the accident landed me in an environment I decided I wanted to be a part of, where compassionate medical professionals collaborated to treat and save patients — including me. That experience set me on a new path when I returned to school.
However circuitously, my accident showed me the value of education.
The list of fundamental gains that come with education runs long: self-reliance, proficiency in a technology, expertise in a subject matter. These carry the potential for better career opportunities, earnings, financial security — and often, the opportunity to make an increasingly bigger impact. But the pursuit of education is equally as valuable as the certificate or diploma earned at the end. It’s part of the equation to help them get to where they’re going. Our recent System News story about the many ways staff are advancing their education across Penn Medicine is proof of this process in action.
To go a step further, I see a valuable education as one paired with mentors, leaders, peers or whoever else supports people academically and psychologically. They teach, but also inspire confidence and open minds to think bigger, smarter.
At Penn Medicine, from the medical school to educational outreach programs in our community to professional development for our staff, our central focus is on facilitating the right connections for people who are poised to learn. It’s about populating the educational experience with exceptional mentors and teachers, pairing them with the right person, and encouraging learners to seek them out both in the familiar and the unfamiliar.
In 2006, we established the Penn Medicine Academy (PMA) to strengthen trainings and coursework to help staff develop new skills and advance their careers. For the last 14 years, thousands of employees have taken advantage of the constantly growing opportunities in clinical work, patient services, and organizational development, among others. I continuously encourage our staff to take advantage of PMA’s offerings to learn from leaders on and off campus who push people ahead with their remarkable ability to effectively communicate, embrace differences, and change perspectives.
We continually recognize our medical staff, administrators, and students for their contributions to short-term and longitudinal mentorship across the health system. Our “Master” clinicians and “Distinguished” nurses programs, for example, are filled with people who are exceptionally skilled in this role.
The Penn Medicine Pipeline Program provides a similar experience, but for the younger generation. Fifteen West Philadelphia high school students from the 2019 class recently completed the two-year program, which gives them mentored experiences in clinical and non-clinical areas across Penn Medicine. They are now off and studying at places like Chestnut Hill College and Penn State University. This year, and in years past, before the graduates left, I bestowed a piece of advice from literary giant Mark Twain that never stops resonating with me.
I’ll paraphrase: Surround yourself with those who lift you up, not put you down.
Many people did this for me, including my wife, Pam, who I met when I returned to Millersville after my accident, and others while getting my MBA and doctorate at Temple University, and dozens of people I’ve worked beside in my roles over the years at Penn.
Opportunities for education are everywhere — including in our relationships with our patients, our families, our friends, and our colleagues.