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February 2006
Minutes of the Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Meeting of the School of Medicine Committee on the Status of Women and Minorities. See handouts from this meeting (in .pdf).
Attending: Dr. Delores Clements, Ms. Maria Curran, Mrs. Kay Davis, Dr. Shoba Ghosh,
Ms. Carol Hampton, Ms. Donna Jackson, Dr. Cathy Kelso, Dr. Wendy Klein (co-chair),
Dr. Janet Niemier, Dr. Neal Roberts, Dr.Rita Shiang (co-chair)
- Presentation on the VCUHS initiatives to increase staff retention
Kay Davis, RNC, MSN , Director of Nursing Professional Practice, and Maria Curran,
VP Human Resources, VCUHS were gracious enough to come and share a power point
presentation on the VCUHS initiative to invest in staff for increased retention. The
program has been very successful and has saved money for VCUHS. They presented
some strategies such as enhancing services and benefits that may be applicable to
retention of SOM faculty.
They announced that the VCUHS has just been awarded Magnet accreditation status!
There are less than 200 worldwide medical centers that receive this status. VCUHS has
also received the "Companies that Care" Honor Roll in 2006 and was a finalist for the
Richmond Chamber "Employer of Choice" in 2005. They also received the
"Best 100 Companies for Working Mothers" award from Working Mother Magazine in
2004 and 2005.
(The Davis-Curran PowerPoint presentation is posted on the COSOWAM meeting
minutes for February 2006 here.)
- Discussions following presentation
Issues discussed in light of the presentation were how the SOM could address the
differences in benefits and services within departments, the university and the VCUHS
and how the SOM can apply the strategies presented to its current structure.
It was suggested that the SOM could approach the VCU Workforce Development Office
for support and suggestions. Another suggestion was to review staff/faculty benefits and
incorporate this information into a gap analysis. Additionally, it may be beneficial to
quantify the cost of turnover versus the cost of retention as a presenting point to the dean
and VCUHS board in support to enhance investment in faculty/staff. Some data on cost
of faculty turnover will be looked at as part of the work on the COSOWAM Faculty Exit
Survey.
Some concerns included how to overcome the constraints of being a state agency.
Recently, VCU Human Resources consolidated their offices to the Monroe Park Campus
and they no longer have an on-site presence on the MCV Campus. It was expressed that
there are discrepancies between the university and VCUHS and that there lacks unity
between te two and within the university itself; for example there are many differences in
terms of benefit plans between departments.
A first step to address the above concerns could be to enhance communication within the
departments in the SOM. Steps have been taken specifically to improve the e-calendar. The VCU Telegram was also created recently. Many members feel that there is excessive
information in the telegram and that it might be more effective to have something similar
but more tailored to the SOM. It was suggested that it may be helpful to approach the
communication issue as an “emergency preparedness” issue. Dr. Jan Chlebowski,
Associate Dean for Graduate Education, is the point person for the SOM working with
VCU and SOM IT personnel in bringing the e-calendar of events more readily to SOM
faculty.
- Research infrastructure – Dr. Arti Pandya
It was suggested last meeting that the committee invite Dr. Gordon Archer, the new SOM
Associate Dean for Research, to discuss issues regarding research infrastructure such as
faculty support and inefficiencies internally regarding research grants.
Dr. Pandya prepared a list of questions related to research infrastructure in preparation for
meeting with Dr. Gordon Archer. These questions were both emailed and distributed to
the committee members at the meeting. Members were asked to review the questions. It
was mentioned that the committee ask Dr. Archer about membership on the various
committees related to research. Carol Hampton will be inviting Dr. Archer to a
COSOWAM meeting and will be sending the questions to him in advance.
It was discussed that the committee should also invite Dr. Frank Macrina to meet with the
committee in order to address the unmet infrastructure needs of research faculty.
- COSOWAM studies update
The benchmarking data summary will be available in March.
- Reminder
Register for the 14th Annual WISDOM conference, March 17, 2006
- Other
- If anyone is interested in being the representative for the communication committee
working with Dr. Chlebowski (e-calendar), please email Dr. Klein, Dr. Shiang or Ms.
Hampton.
- Dr. Shiang will be meeting with ARAMARK who is conducting a market analysis. It
is expected that this is part of planning related to establishing a faculty dining room on
the MCV Campus.
*NOTE: Next COSOWAM Meeting: March 15th. Also, thanks to Andy Gillis for
providing the laptop and projector.
Prepared by: Mireille Truong, M’08
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