News + Issues

Learning (reputation management) from Lochte

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ryan_lochteEven amidst a posse of talented teenagers on the elite U.S. team of athletes, 32 year-old Ryan Lochte managed to garner himself a gold medal in the “Irresponsible All-Around” category of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Lochte captured summer headlines surrounding the second week of the XXXI Olympiad with his law-enforcement run-in, allegedly vandalizing a public building and falsely claiming victimhood of robbery at gunpoint while in Brazil, according to August reports from USA Today, CNN and The Rolling Stone. His name was splashed across the news and social media. These same sources reported critiques of his character, his maturity and his negativity that was heaped upon the Olympics’ image. Frustrations ensued when he managed to briefly detract from the spectacle that Rio de Janeiro worked to create against a world’s apprehension around their host role. His actions and personality were under scrutiny. The media sensed blood in the water, and Ryan Lochte was no longer the predator in this pool.

Wellness

Why “Y” matters: 4.000 – X = Y

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friends around fire on beachIf 4.000 – X = Y, and X = your GPA, then solve for Y.

I know. I’m throwing two tantalizing topics your way: your GPA and performing math. However, please stow away your cringing and crying for a moment, because there’s a method to my madness.

I want you to subtract your current GPA from 4.000 and determine the number that stands between you and what academic institutions quantify as “perfection.” If you’re like me, that difference is certainly not a zero. In fact, when I solve for “Y,” it’s larger than I would like.

But, I’d like to reel in your future-specialist-type-A anxiety and offer you a different perspective to consider for 2016. I pose to you the following questions: what does your “Y” truly represent, and why does “Y” matter?

Management + Leadership

ˈden-tə-strē : An Urban Dictionary approach to patient communication

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verbose-doc-talk

Do you sometimes feel like the patient just doesn’t understand what you are trying to say to them—even if you think your explanation is perfectly clear?

In terms of the conscious language choices that we make in the patient-student relationship, it is easy to have misunderstandings, misinterpretations and misjudgments.

As students, we can become so immersed within our didactic environments that deca-syllabic words creep into the realm of “normal.” Not to mention (and don’t lie to yourself, because we’ve all done it) we have this temptation to mention that Mona Lisa margin or an elusive tripod contact. But does the patient care that the word “thermoplasticity” flows off of your tongue like silk, or that your axiopulpal line angle is impeccably tapered?