Announcements are listed in reverse chronological order.

***9/19/09 Seniors/Pediatic Board Exam: Your pediatric board exam in October 2010 costs AT LEAST $1760 (this was the 2009 cost) and typically you need to register by the end of February to avoid late registration fees. We just thought you might like to know in advance, as this may take some financial saving/planning

***9/19/09 Valley help: The VMC folks would like to remind everyone that the in-house hospitalist in the NICU is available for help/advice/consultation. This has come up a few times with difficult interactions with the ED (i.e. they want to admit, you do not - and they want a BIG voice or another thought) and with NICU issues overnight (this resource has been used very well so far). Please also be VERY clear with this person (who is SUPER helpful but also busy) WHAT you need (i.e. clinical expertise, a second eye on an X-ray, a discussion with an ED attending, etc.).

***9/4/09 One swab is enough: We are switching from two swabs/two viral transport media (VTM) per patient to one swab/one VTM per patient. We will be able to do all necessary tests (DFA+- PCR and culture) with one swab/VTM. The new respiratory collection kits have been reconfigured.

***9/1/09 TB testing: If you haven't already done so, call Occupational Health for a TB test appointment or go to the satellite office located on the ground floor (basement) of SHC (H0118). Read policy

***8/17/09 Holiday Schedules
The holiday schedules are up. For those of you who have been with us in past holidays, you will notice that this is quite different in some respects to what has happened in the past.

***8/10/09 From Becky Blankenburg: Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) information
We just sent you a link to the Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) on the MedHub website.  We heard your frustrations with the AAP Pedialink website for the ILP's, and have moved them over to MedHub this year, to make them much easier to find and straightforward to do.  It should only take 15-20 minutes to complete. Please complete your ILP by September 15, 2009.

We recently emailed your advisors to remind them of their roles and responsibilities, but thought you might also want to know what they are expected to do.  The advisors' responsibilities include:
(1) Meeting with you twice a year (minimum -- more if needed/wanted) -- first meeting by October 1, 2009.
(2) Review your ILP once a year.
(3) Help you with career planning.
(4) Review/approve any away electives.
(5) Provide any other support you need and help connect you with resources.

In addition, you are lucky to have Bill Rhine as your class Associate Program Director, and he will be very helpful to you as you navigate residency, plan your future careers, and deal with the "real life" issues that take place during residency. Please feel free to email any of us, if you have any questions.

***Contact precautions for flu symptoms (fever + URI): A surgical mask and eye protection, gloves and a gown are recommended for patients with flu-like symptoms. For aerosol producing procedures, an N95 mask, eye protection, gloves and a gown are recommended.
Flu policy for residents with symptoms.

***From Mitch Gevelber at SVCMC: Hello Northern California Society of Adolescent Medicine members.And interested others!
Our next meeting will be Wednesday August 26 at 6:30PM at Mings Restaurant conveniently located off 101 at 1700 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303. Our guest speaker will be Deb Levine, founder and executive director of ISIS. If you attended last year's national SAM meeting you may recall Deb's energetic and informative talk on teens and the internet. ISIS (Internet Sexuality Information Services, Inc) is a nonprofit organization developing technology for promotion of sexual health and healthy relationships, and to prevent disease transmission. Their mission is to provide leadership, innovation, educational resources and research in online sexual health promotion. Deb was involved with the creation of the well known resource Go Ask Alice. (www.isis-inc.org) I expect Deb's presentation to be fascinating. Please invite trainess and others who may be interested!
Cost: Professionals (member or nonmember): $20
Trainees: $10
Please RSVP to me at mitchell.gevelber@hhs.sccgov.org

***07/31/09 Celebrate World Breastfeeding Week by Joining the AAP Section on Breastfeeding and Receive a Free Gift!
During World Breastfeeding WeekBW (August 1 - 7, 2009), the SOBr is offering a free gift! Each new member will receive your choice of a Breastmilk Solutions Video (at least a $65.00 value) http://www.breastmilksolutions.com/order.html . You will be contacted after you join to select the video of your choosing! Membership is $35 per year for Fellows and $10 per year for residents. http://www.aap.org/breastfeeding/sectionOnBreastfeeding.html#membershipInfo

***07/29/09 Holiday Scheduling
1.  Q4 ROTATIONS (PICU, NICU, Vward, VNICU, Kaiser): In the ICUs, and some of the q4 call months, the q2's still exist, but only x2 (no more q2 call for 3 calls). 
2.  BMT will be staffed by ONE resident 6A-6P x 4 days during the holiday period, with hospitalist coverage overnight.  Normally the BMT resident works 2 weekends in this manner, and gets 2 off = 4 days off; this algorithm will involve 3 weekends of work, but 4 consecutive days off over a holiday.
3.  ONCOLOGY: as this is a busy service, there will be 2 day-time residents throughout the holidays, with one night-float person.  The day-time residents who ARE NOT on the primary team (pre-holiday schedule) are there to help with rounds/consult calls/work-flow, but may be dismissed by their colleague earlier than the typical NF sign-out if all is calm.
4.  WARDS for INTERNS:  There will be ONE day-time intern covering Blue/Yellow and ONE day-time intern covering Red/Green.  If the intern is on the the primary service, she will cover 4 days; if she is NOT normally on the inpatient service, she does only 2 as she is acting as extra help.  At night, the night-float system will work similarly.  PLEASE NOTE that the night-float folks in the intern role will need to help pre-round and drop notes to help out the day-time intern who would otherwise need to round on 2 teams.  The night float intern IS NOT expected to stay past 7am - and SHOULD NOT DO SO.  Also note that some intern ROLES are not being filled by interns alone -- please pay attention to this!
5.  WARDS for SUPERVISORS:  Again, there will be ONE day-time supervisor for Blue/Yellow and ONE day-time supervisor for Red/Green.  If the night-team has a rough night, it is up to YOU to help the day-time interns get the pre-rounding done.  At night, there will only be ONE night-float supervisor as there is on any given night in this hospital. 
6.  ED:  If you are scheduled to be in the ED (Rogers, Stevens, Casares, Marron, Rooholamini, Tracy, and ED res), please discuss with the person of your same training year (EM PL3 counts as a Peds PL2 - and typically takes those same shifts) when you would like to be off and work out a compromise or come to us to help you work out a compromise.  KATHY ENG is also going to do 2 shifts during one holiday of her choosing.  The ED schedule that you create should provide 24-hr coverage for 12/24-12/27 and again for 12/31-1/3, otherwise, it should work like a normal block.
7.  WBN/ACC/DBP/Adol:  If you are on these rotations, please note that the coverage needs are not extremely clear per the attendings at this time -- PLEASE check back with us AND the rotation director before you make travel plans.
8.  JEOPARDY:  Resident Reserves are acting as extra help residents both holidays, so they are not available for typical RR duties.  KATH TARLOCK is OFF entirely from 12/31-1/3 and ALISA VAN CLEAVE if OFF entirely from 12/24-12/27.  Both RR will return to RR duties from 12/28-12/30, and when not filling extra help roles, will be available as extra-back-up jeopardy (i.e. Kath on 12/24 jeopardy).  Those of you on regular jeopardy are on regular jeopardy, and yes, are more likely to be pulled than the RR since they now have other duties.  When you make your schedule, consider that it will a rolling system, but influenced by where Kath and Alisa need to be on a given day during the holiday period -- carry your pager according to where you are in the pool with a glance at when these 2 are working -- i.e. all of you should check the RR call schedule for this period.  Otherwise, those on joepardy are expected to be IN town for the holiday you have agreed you will help cover - per your agreement with your colleagues.

The overall schedule:
You will all work as though it is a normal month until 12/23, then these HOLIDAY schedules will take effect from 12/24-27, and again from 12/31-1/3.  PLEASE NOTE: 12/28-12/30 are NORMALY WORK DAYS!!!  If you are in clinic or on a ward team, you ALL come back to work on 12/28 like it is any other Monday - and the teams are all restored to normal coverage.

Please let us know your questions/concerns.  While they are wonderful, the holidays are always a bit stressful as all of us face pressure from family/loved ones to be available "like someone with a normal job" would be.  Please understand that this is our best effort at making that happen for the program as a whole.

***07/27/09 CLARIFICATION ABOUT DAYS OFF
We have been combing AMION for gremlins and have found a few (you were already notified if this affected you, so don't panic now). This email is meant to clarify the days that you should see as a pseudo-weekend day when at LPCH or VMC (Kaiser and PEC should be similar to LPCH, but check with folks when you are there these months). These are ALSO the days that you should look to see if you are on call -- because they would be full days like Saturdays if you are working. Of note, AMION is now set up to show LPCH days off; VMC has many more, so save this email as a reference -- we will let you know in the weekly schedule the week prior to a "holiday", but if you want to make plans, might be nice to know this in advance.

LPCH Days OFF:
July 3-4
Sept 7th
November 26-27
December 24-27 (if you are off -- more to follow)
December 31 - Jan 3 (if you are off -- more to follow)
Jan 18
Feb 15
May 31

VMC Days OFF:
July 3-4
Sept 7th
November 11
November 26-27
December 24-27 (if you are off - more to follow)
December 31 - Jan 3 (if you are off - more to follow)
Jan 18
Feb 12-15
March 31
May 31

***New wards signout time
Juniors and Seniors - So, after much deliberation, we are changing the sign out for Ward Supervisor on the floors of LPCH (Green, Red, Blue, Yellow, Oncology) to 5:30pm. This change is not a reflection on your work habit, but more of the last couple years work hours violations. It is much more in line with when the Supervisors need to be at work - meaning, the Ward sups need to be in around 6:45-7:15am, not 6:15-6:45 am. There were numerous ward supervisor violations for 10 hours off between shifts on the Wards over the past 2 years. Under the new policy - the Night Float Ward Supervisor/Oncology Night Float needs to be Out of the House by no later than 7:30AM.

***New website
Check out this Quick Start guide to the new website.