<p>The Department of Emergency Medicine announces the recipients of the 2021 Graduation Awards. </p>

2021 Graduation Awards

Department of Emergency Medicine Oct 01, 2021

Kevin Rodgers Excellence in Clinical Teaching

The Kevin Rogers Excellence in Clinical Teaching awards recognize three faculty members. One from each of our academic health center sites. Dr. Kevin Rogers was passionate about clinical teaching and truly the definition of excellence in this area. Anyone who had the pleasure of working with him was profoundly impacted by his teaching and is a better physician because of him. These awards are given to faculty members who exemplify that excellence within their clinical teaching, they are chosen by the residents as those who have most significantly impacted their learning at the bedside, those who model the types of physicians we hope our residents will be some day.

Kevin G Rodgers Excellence in Clinical Teaching - Riley - Dr. Ben Nti

There are few more welcoming faces to see than this year’s winner for excellence in clinical teaching at Riley, Dr. Ben Nti. Ben’s good humor on shift is legendary and is only matched by his clinical acumen. He is a fierce resident and patient advocate, and residents agree that they always walk out of a shift knowing something new. The residents truly appreciate Ben’s perspective on the many unique patients and situations at Riley, and his passion for his job is inspiring.

Kevin G Rodgers Excellence in Clinical Teaching - Eskenazi - Dr. Matt Rutz

This year’s winner for excellence in clinical teaching at Eskenazi is Dr. Matt Rutz. Whether low acuity or high acuity, residents know that a shift with Matt will be both educational and high energy. No matter the topic, he has something to teach on the subject, and can point learners toward additional resources on any topic they may encounter. Further, his energy is infectious in the department. He makes allies of his team and is able to help lead through even the diciest of patient situations. Any discussion of him would be remiss without mentioning ultrasound, and residents are almost certain to have their ultrasound skills improved by the end of a shift with Matt.

Kevin G Rodgers Excellence in Clinical Teaching - Methodist - Dr. Katie Trammel

This year’s winner for excellence in clinical teaching at Methodist is Dr. Katie Trammel. Katie Trammel works as a nocturnist and always makes a night shift more enjoyable. She is fun to work with and takes the time to invest in residents personally. Furthermore, she is simply a rockstar in the department. She truly embodies the type of physician residents hope to become. She is cool, calm and collected even in the most critical situations. She is able to talk through clinical reasoning in a way that allows residents to be autonomous in their decision making but also push them to consider additional options and learn something new. Her previous experience in community practice gives her a unique perspective and additional learning points to share.

Outstanding Off Service Teaching Faculty of the Year - Dr. Ilana Porzecanski

In addition to the wonderful teaching residents receive in the emergency department, they also consistently receive outstanding teaching on their off-service rotations. The Outstanding Off Service Teaching Faculty of the Year Award is given to a faculty member from an off-service rotation who has gone above and beyond in their teaching of emergency medicine residents. This year’s winner is Dr. Ilana Porzecanski. Dr. Porzecanski is one of the critical care nocturnists who residents work with on their ICU night rotations. This rotation is always a favorite of residents, as they get to hone some of their critical care skills at an upper level. Dr. P does an outstanding job of facilitating this process. She is incredibly smart and detailed as she challenges residents on their critical care reasoning in admissions and is a talented proceduralist who has taught many tips and tricks. Above all, she is a strong advocate for residents, empowering them to take ownership of their education. The residents all admire her as a strong clinician who always does the right thing for her patients.

Emergency Department Service Award - IUH Methodist EMTC Secretaries

It takes many roles beyond physicians to make the Emergency Department run, and we are blessed to have so many wonderful support staff at our ten EDs . Each year our residents choose one of these non-physician groups of people for the Emergency Department Service Award, a group that our residents admire greatly and who helps them take the best possible care of our patients. This year’s winner of the Emergency Department Service Award is the IUH Methodist EMTC Secretaries. This amazing group of people help coordinate the chaos that is the Methodist ED. From paging consultants, to fielding phone calls, to coordinating admissions, they are constantly working to make the department flow and providers’ lives easier. When working a busy shift, it’s an added bonus knowing that they have your back and can easily turn a challenging shift into a more bearable one. Even though they are constantly busy, they still somehow find the time to joke around and make the culture of the department that of an amazing place to work.

Resident Consultant of the Year - Dr. Kyle Lewellen

As physicians in the emergency department we interact daily with other specialties and consultants. We greatly appreciate the help that our co-residents of other specialties provide to us in the department. The Resident Consult of the year award is given to a resident from a different department chosen by the EM residents.

This year’s winner is Dr. Kyle Lewellen with General Surgery. Kyle is truly a one of a kind and always a pleasure to consult in the ED. He is genuinely one of the most gracious, hard-working, kind, intelligent and humble surgeons our residents have the pleasure to work with. They know that Kyle always puts patient care first and they have complete trust that he will do what is best for them. Kyle has a heart of gold, which he pours into his work and care that he provides. He is always approachable, dependable and willing to help his fellow colleagues no matter how much he already has on his plate. The residents are truly lucky to have such an incredibly knowledgeable and thoughtful colleague to learn from and lean on.

Impact Award - Recruitment - Dr. Chris Olson, resident

Recruitment is the Life Blood of the Residency. And, recruitment this year was a little different. As you may be aware, the whole world shut down for about 14 months. This required a rapid and drastic redesign of our whole recruitment process and interview day.

Despite the challenge, our residents stepped up. Tweets went flying, an Instagram was started, and we developed a pretty outstanding recruitment website. When we say “we” developed a pretty outstanding recruitment website, what we really mean is “Chris Olson” developed the best residency recruitment website in the country. Chris took the reins and built, from the ground up, a password protected interactive, informational website for all 300 applicants who interviewed with us. He built the content, sourced images for virtual tours, embedded videos from across GME, and generated over 300 unique usernames and passwords so that each applicant could see the best of what IU had to offer. This will benefit the residency enormously for years to come. It is quite fitting that we honor that contribution with an IMPACT award.

Impact Award - Mentorship - Dr. Jackie Jansen

Mentorship is vital to the continuous evolution of Emergency Medicine. At some point in their lives, we hope that each resident takes on a passion project; something that is important to them and positively affects the community in which they live, serve, and/or work. Before she left, a recent graduate developed a mentorship program, a passion project, focused on preventing imposter syndrome. This program had a profound impact on the women in this residency. However, it seemed difficult to find someone who would lead the program with as much passion as its creator. This was not the case for the Preventing Imposter Syndrome Club. Jackie took over this program with at least as much passion as Dr. Wagner. She kept it going and made it even better. Jackie has shown her commitment to mentoring and elevating women in medicine throughout her residency in every aspect from her innovative scholarly work on parental leave policies to the incredible mentorship she has provided to fellow IUEM residents.

Impact Award - Leadership - Medical Directors

11957-Showalter, Cory 9499-Arnold, Tyler 39364-Nevel, Adam Dr. Cory Showalter & Dr. Tyler Arnold - Riley
Dr. Tyler Stepsis & Dr. Andy Beckman - Eskenazi
Dr. Steve Roumpf & Dr. Adam Nevel - Methodist
(from left to right)

This impact award is a group award and goes to those who are instrumental in providing an outstanding clinical experience, the medical directors. Even in normal times it takes a special person to be on call 24/7, to maintain composure while handling complaints from every direction, to sit through countless meetings, to demonstrate a true passion for dashboards, and to get fired-up about AIDET. To do all of that in the middle of a pandemic is truly amazing. You all are exemplars of leadership, and we promise we are not just saying that to get a more favorable shift schedule. Thank you so much for everything our medical directors do for the residency.

Impact Award - IUEM Values - Dr. Paul Garverick and Dr. Hallie Brown

The IUEM residency program has endorsed a number of core values in the program aim including clinical excellence, collegiality, integrity, self-motivation, and leadership. Two of the impact awards go to two graduates who exemplify these values in extraordinary ways. Each of them had multiple nominations from their peers for representing what it means to be part of our family. When residents walk into a night shift and they see either Dr. Hallie Brown or Dr. Paul Garverick, they breathe a sigh of relief because they know no matter what the night brings they will make it better.

Hallie was unbelievably supportive of her co-residents in her formal leadership role and as a shoulder for others to lean on. Her ability to impact those around her has made positive change in the program and IUEM is a better place because of Hallie. She truly brings out the best in others.

Paul is humble and hardworking, leading by example. Whether it was trading a shift to help a colleague, picking up one more holding room patient at the end of his 1-10 shift or staying even keeled and positive in the face of a department that’s burning down. He is the kind of partner we all would like to practice with, a true team player!

Resident Teacher of the Year – Dr. Tony Bucca

The Indiana University emergency medicine residency program prides itself on great clinical educators and that starts with the residents. Every year IU medical students praise the enthusiasm and teaching ability of our residents. The Resident Teacher of the Year award is given to the resident who receives the highest evaluations from the graduating medical student class. This year’s winner is Dr. Tony Bucca. In their evaluations, medical students praised Tony’s approachability, patience, and outstanding feedback. While it is a little bit inexplicable that they were referring to someone who models his academic persona after Dr. Ben Hunter, we trust that won’t diminish the prestige of this award too much. Congratulations to Tony!

Chisholm-Rodgers Legacy Fund Clinical Teaching Award – Dr. Katie Trammel

This is the third year we have been able to present one of our outstanding faculty with the award and monetary stipend established by the Chisholm Rodgers Legacy Fund. The award recognizes an Emergency Medicine faculty who spends the majority of their work time involved in clinical teaching of our residents and students and demonstrates excellence in clinical education. This year’s recipient, Dr. Katie Trammel, exhibits just that. She is one of our faculty members who forms the backbone of clinical development in our learners. Here are a few things our learners said about Katie:

"Amazing teacher and mentor. Balances autonomy and education. Great role model. Cares deeply for her learners."

"Absolutely freaking baller. That is all"

"I can only hope to practice EM like her someday."

Please congratulate Katie - we are so grateful for her dedication to our learners.

The views expressed in this content represent the perspective and opinions of the author and may or may not represent the position of Indiana University School of Medicine.

Author

Department of Emergency Medicine

The Department of Emergency Medicine delivers patient care of unsurpassed quality and advanced emergency medicine through education, innovation and discovery in a collegial environment that promotes intellectual and professional growth.

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