FLOURISH Summer 2018

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Promoting Health & Wellness

Summer 2018

A Peace Of Mind EMU Students Find Clarity With Medical Practicum

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Making A Difference In Our Community Dr. Hall is RETIRING while Dr. Dean and his TEAM will continue to Make a Difference in your oral health!

Curtis G. Dean, DDS, David C. Hall, DDS Pam, Mallory and Liz

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Promoting Health & Wellness

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Summer 2018

Staff Corey Tierney, Editor Justin McIlwee, Staff Writer Shelby Mertens, Staff Writer Vic Bradshaw, Contributing Writer Daniel Lin, Photographer Jennifer Dehoff, Design Rhonda McNeal, Advertising Director

Flourish is a publication of the Daily News-Record Copyright © 2018 231 S. Liberty St., Harrisonburg, VA 22801 For advertising information, call 540-574-6220.

Have an idea for the next issue?

Send ideas or suggestions to editor Corey Tierney: ctierney@dnronline.com

Students use a university program to make sure medicine is the field for them.

Cover Photo: Amber Shank poses for a photo after completeing EMU’s pre-professional health sciences practicum.

Photos courtesy of Andrew Strack

Q&A With A Certified Life Skills Coach

Medical Marvel Sentara RMH uses a new robot to pick medications in their pharmacy.

Virginia Cutchin discusses habits and how to change them in a healthy way.

Daniel Lin

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‘A Step Forward’

Daniel Lin

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W Q&A With A Create Healthy Habits:

Certified Life Skills Coach By: Justin McIlwee Photo: Daniel Lin

e all want to be healthy. Whether it’s losing weight to fit into that bathing suit, changing your diet or wanting to be in a healthier emotional state, we aspire to get our health in balance. But sometimes we need help. And more times than not, we need to change more than just our diet or how much sleep we get at night. We need to dig down deep and change our habits.

Virginia Cutchin, the director of Transition Success Consulting and a certified professional coach, explained that focusing on a person’s entire life, such as sleep, breathing, money, relationships, diet and more, can help a person achieve that level of health they’re looking for. Whether you want to make major life changes or you’re just looking to improve your quality of life, Cutchin offers advice to make bad habits a thing of the past.

Q:

What is a health and wellness coach?

A: There are lots of people who call themselves that and do a variety of things. My particular health coaching is respecting a person in whatever circumstances they find themselves and helping a person make changes in their life that require minimal expense, minimal time, minimal sacrifice. It’s fitting as much reasonable health and wellness, balance, centeredness into your life, because the fewer changes you make, the more often you will do them and the more natural they feel.

Q: What does the “health” part of health and wellness entail?

Virginia Cutchin, a health and wellness coach, poses for a photo in front of the Harrisonburg Farmers Market.

“[Health] is making little changes so that the way you do everything is the way you want everything to be done.”

— Virginia Cutchin

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A: The health part of it is so personal because there are people who have a particular body type and a particular blood type and a particular metabolism. My health coaching takes into account where that person is and how they define wellness.

One of the things I’ve observed is that the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. If your eating is out of whack, maybe your bank account or your checkbook is imbalanced, or maybe you have a messy kitchen drawer.

[So, health] is making little

changes so that the way you do everything is the way you want everything to be done.

Q: What does the “wellness” part of health and wellness involve?

A: Wellness is whatever lifestyle helps you maintain a feeling of concentration, focus and balance, as often as possible. I help people find their personal equilibrium. For example, it might be having a tiny breakfast and a big dinner or a big breakfast and no dinner, or eating five times a day or two times a day. Whatever works for them, it’s helping them find and maintain that.

Q: When someone comes to you, how do you assess how best to help them?

A: The first session is always free and is the session where we decide if we can work together.

Is it a good fit? We all have different skills and gifts, so that first meeting is an opportunity for the potential client to decide if they want to work with me and I want to work with them.

I start by asking, ‘Where are you now? Describe to me what’s going on now, and describe to me what your goals are.’ If they’re at all hesitant, I would ask them, ‘Well, what’s stopping you? What has to happen?

Q: What is a habit?

weight, do a fad diet. You will lose weight, guaranteed. If your goal is permanent habit change in a way that nearly guarantees you don’t have to remember to make these changes, it just becomes something that you do, then it’s going to take longer. Physiology just isn’t any different than that.

A: A habit is a choice that gets repeated. When they are repeated, they get reinforced and they get rewarded somehow.

Q: What is a tip or two that you would give readers to start on the path to changing habits?

What has to change for you to make this decision?’ Because sometimes, somebody has told them, ‘You need a health coach.’ For me, coaching is not for people who need it, it’s for people who want it, because the motivation is different.

Q: Why do you encourage people to change habits instead of pursuing fad diets and things like that?

A: They have to know that there’s a benefit. With fad diets, it’s not enough time for habit change. Repeated efforts at habit change take about six weeks. If your goal is to lose

A: One thing I start almost every client with is decluttering. Once they decide they want to work with me and I want to work with them and this is going to be a great fit and it’s going to be energetic, then I say, ‘OK, pick something in your life, whether it’s your wallet, your kitchen drawer or your closet, and declutter that place, because

you have to create space.’ So much of habit change — in the early stages anyway — requires energy. You can’t welcome new energy until you provide space for it.

Another tip is to do it with joy. If somebody says, ‘You know what? It’s my best friend’s birthday,’ or, ‘It’s my spouse’s birthday. I really shouldn’t have that cake, but I really want to participate.’ I’m like, go for it, because what will depriving yourself do? ... Do it with joy, do everything consciously, make your choices consciously and figure out what it is going to do for you. You can get back on track tomorrow, but participate in the festivities tonight, no harm done.

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Q: What advice or Celebrating a culture of recommendation would E X ELLEN CE you giveCsomeone who Celebrating a culture of

sees habit changing as negative reinforcement, to show them that the negative reinforcement won’t last?

A: I always ask them, ‘OK, you want to make these changes.

What will that do for you? I’m curious, why do you want to make these changes?’ Besides the obvious, people might say, ‘I need to fit into my bathing suit for summer,’ or, ‘I need to reduce anxiety.’ It makes them think a little bit more. I always focus on the pro rather than negative. I will also tell them, ‘Everything in moderation, including moderation, right?’

Ultimately, whatever decisions you make, do them with joy. w To contact Virginia: 703-898-7783 virginia@transitionsuccess.net Blog: Wholelifehealth.info

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Leah Lapp (left) shadowed Dr. John Wenger at a family medical practice in Harrisonburg. Dr. Wenger graduated from EMU in 1985.

RJ Ocampo (left) shadowed at Valley Pediatric group in Verona.

He shadowed Dr. Kurtis Sauder, who’s an EMU alumnus.

‘A Step Forward’ EMU Practicum Allows Students To Experience Medical Professions First-Hand

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By: Shelby Mertens

Photos courtesy of Andrew Strack

mber Shank, a senior clinical laboratory sciences major at Eastern Mennonite University, is fascinated in the human anatomy and how the body functions. So, she decided to pursue a career in being a pathologists’ assistant, but she wasn’t sure if she could handle everything the job comes with: dead bodies, blood and organs.

Shank, 25, was able to gain confidence in her ability to become a pathologists’ assistant through EMU’s pre-professional health sciences practicum, a semester-long internship in which students shadow health professionals in their chosen field. Shank did her practicum at Augusta Health in Fishersville twice a week during the spring semester. “I job shadowed the five pathologists there, and then they have one pathologists’ assistant, so I spent my time shadowing her, too,” Shank said. “I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I could deal with it, but it was actually really great.”

Pathologists examine and dissect dead bodies to perform autopsies and determine causes of death, but they also perform lab tests to help diagnose diseases in living patients. “I got to see my first dead person at Augusta Health when I was up there,” she said. “They let me view the morgue and take me through what an autopsy would be like.”

All pre-professional health sciences students are required to complete the practicum before graduating. The university arranges the internships based on the student’s interests, whether it’s physical therapy, pharmacy, veterinary care or other medical fields.

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“[It’s] intended to give them a real-world look into the careers that they’re interested in doing,” said Kristopher Schmidt, a biology professor and the adviser of the PPHS practicum program at EMU. “We give them an opportunity to examine whether that’s something they want to do. Sometimes, people will end up doing that, sometimes they’ll end up changing because they’ll realize there’s this or that aspect that they don’t love. But basically, it’s a chance for us to give them an opportunity to decide what’s best for them.”

Unlike most university programs, which require students to find internships themselves, EMU’s pre-professional health sciences program matches students with internships for them based on their connections in the area. “[There’s] a pretty wide range of opportunities for them, which I think is pretty excellent, because basically, a student can come in and say, ‘I want to do this. Is there a possibility?’ And generally there will be,” Schmidt said.

Most students wait until their senior year to complete the practicum, however, Schmidt said seniors make up about half to three-quarters of the students. There were 11 students who completed a practicum this spring.

The experience gave Shank a peek into the daily lives of those working in the field of pathology, watching them cut out and dissect anything from kidneys to breast cancer tumors. “I got to experience the day-to-day lives of those people,” she said. “They let me do everything that they do, and just to experiment with that and being around the equipment and that kind of environment.”

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Amber Shank shadowed Dr. Julie Plumbley, the chair of the Augusta Health Pathology Department, and several other pathologists and pathologist’s assistants – an experience that helped her determine her next steps.

Besides learning the ins and outs of the job, the biggest thing for Shank was the reassurance she received in her decision to pursue being a pathologists’ assistant. “It solidified my decision one hundred percent,” Shank said. “I think we all can see ourselves in a career, but this internship opportunity allowed me to spend 35 hours in the field I’d be in every day, and I loved every minute of it.”

The students completed “reflective work” as part of the practicum, Schmidt said, which includes writing a paper and giving a presentation about their experience. Then, if they’re seniors, they’ll apply to professional schools or work on finishing their degree. “The idea is that this is a step forward for them in their career path,” he said, which is exactly the case for Shank.

“I think we all can see ourselves in a career, but this internship opportunity allowed me to spend 35 hours in the field I’d be in every day, and I loved every minute of it.”

— Amber Shank

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After she graduates from EMU with her bachelor’s degree in the fall, Shank will attend Sentara RMH Medical Center’s School of Histotechnology to earn a certification in histotechnology starting January 2019. Histotechnologists work alongside pathologists’ assistants to prepare tissue and organ specimens for viewing under a microscope.

“I chose histology because it’s directly correlated with what I want to do,” she said. “My goal is to be a pathologists’ assistant, and I want to work with the medical examiner, so my ultimate goal is to perform autopsies and causes of death.” The one-year histotechnology school at Sentara RMH will allow Shank to get her foot in the door and prepare for her next step, which is graduate school.

She then hopes to complete the two-year pathologists’ assistant program at Eastern Virginia Medical School. w Flourish Summer 2018 5

We are Sentara RMH.

At Sentara RMH Medical Center, it’s not the state-of-the-art technology, the award-winning heart program or superior orthopedic services that define us.

It’s the people that make us who we are. It’s the dedicated physicians, nurses, housekeepers, technicians and so many others that are the heart of who we are and what we do.

We are Sentara RMH. sentara.com

Your community, not-for-profit health partner

6 Flourish Summer 2018

A Medical Marvel

A new robot sits, ready to fill orders for patient medication at Sentara RMH Medical Center.

The hospital is the second in the world to be equipped with this technology.

Sentara RMH Uses Machine To Manage Meds

T

he newest addition to the Sentara RMH Medical Center pharmacy department came at the deeply discounted price of $1 million and shouldn’t make a mistake.

The hospital is the second in the world to install the Omnicell XR2 Automated Central Pharmacy System, a robot that picks prescribed medicines and places them in bins for delivery to patient rooms. The drugs are put in locked cabinets that nurses access with their badges.

Pharmacy manager Jamin Engel said the system will reduce the time pharmacy workers spend dispensing and checking patient medicines so they can focus on more

By: Vic Bradshaw patient-facing aspects of their jobs. “The more products we can put on the robot, the less time we spend dispensing meds,” he said, explaining that technicians otherwise would have to pick the drugs and pharmacists would have to check each order. “They are able to go into more clinical functions.”

Sentara RMH has used robotics in its pharmacy for 17 years. Its previous system could hold 12,000 doses; the XR2 holds 60,000.

Bill Thomas, the pharmacy team coordinator who led the XR2 project, said pharmacists will check each medication order the robot prepares through July as part of its deal

Photos: Daniel Lin with Omnicell, based out of Cranberry Township, Pa. After about two weeks and 40,000 doses picked, it hasn’t made an error. “The [first] two weeks,” he said, “we have shown that it’s 100 percent correct.”

Safer System The hospital’s old robotic technology, Engel explained, still required a lot of manual labor.

Pharmacy technicians would take tablets from bulk bottles, place them in foil packets, label them and place them in the spot where the robot would pick them as orders came in. Human error in the labeling process could lead to a patient receiving the incorrect medication.

The XR2 uses medications

packaged by the manufacturer.

They’re placed in trays the robot accesses, and it reads barcodes to make sure it’s about to pick up what’s ordered.

Once the drug is properly identified, gripper heads with suction cups on the end extend, pick up the medication and place it in a bin. Nurses also scan each barcode before giving them to patients, providing another checkpoint to ensure no errors are made.

The robot picks the oldest medicines first, Engel said, and prepackaged drugs have a longer expiration date.

Therefore, the new system should help the hospital reduce expired-drug waste, already less than 1 percent of what it spends Flourish Summer 2018 7

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on medication.

Thomas said the old robotic system had a capacity of about 525 medications. The hospital already has 600 stocked in the XR2 and more should be added. “I think 90 percent of all the meds can fit on it,” he said.

“When it comes to the meds being dispensed, we’re trying to get 99 percent dispensed through automation.”

Because it’s helping prove how accurate the XR2 is, Engel said Omnicell knocked about $800,000 off the unit’s estimated price.

‘Really Groundbreaking’

Sentara RMH pharmacy technician Dana Harlow stocks a tray with medication for the hospital pharmacy’s new robotic system.

Sentara RMH pharmacy manager Jamin Engel retrieves medications pulled for a patient by the pharmacy’s new robot.

The first XR2 was put into use at St. Luke’s University Hospital in Bethlehem, Pa., Engel said. Sentara Healthcare has a long relationship with Omnicell, he said, and the company needed a site like RMH with a centralized distribution process. It takes drugs to patient rooms rather than requiring nurses to go to a medication vending machine to get them. The process allows

nurses to spend more time with patients.

The XR2 is only used to provide medications for hospital patients. It does not pick medications for the outpatient pharmacy.

While physicians order medications, Engel said pharmacists determine dosing, order labs to see how they’re working and adjust the dosage when necessary. By not having to check medications once the test period is done, they’ll be able to focus more on that part of their job. Pharmacy technicians also play a role in direct patient care at different points in their stay, and now they can spend more time on that instead of packaging medication.

The robot promises to turn the local hospital into somewhat of a showplace. Omnicell plans to bring people to Harrisonburg from Europe in June to see the XR2 in action in the hopes that it will be embraced there.

“They are very confident, and we are, too, that this is a really groundbreaking innovation for

“The [first] two weeks, we have shown that it’s 100 percent correct.”

— Bill Thomas

Flourish Summer 2018 9

pharmacy,” said Engel, “and they’re coming to see how they can apply it to the European market as well.”

Meanwhile, the hospital’s old robot has done what many 17-year-olds do — head off to college. Engel said many of its parts were taken to be repurposed in James Madison University’s robotics lab. w

Jamin Engel opens a tray stocked with medications inside the pharmacy’s new robotic filling system.

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