You reap what you sow, and at no time has this been more evident then during the days and weeks that followed the worst natural disaster in United States history.
When I took over the residency program four years ago, I had no idea that a category 5 hurricane was going to hit New Orleans. I did know, however, that life is unpredictable; indeed, life is what happens to you while you are making plans. I knew that we have very little control over what life hands us; all we can control is how we develop ourselves to be in a position to respond to what life deals out. Knowing that, we set out to build a team. We began by defining a mission statement for our team. I then promised myself that I would select residents to be a part of the Tulane team based upon their character and their capacity for teamwork. I didn’t know a major disaster would befall our great city, but I knew that if it did, I would want resident physicians who would not crumble under the pressure of doing what had to be done to care for our patients....
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hen Hurricane Katrina hit, there were two teams of residents at each of our hospitals. On Sunday, we called the Code Grey, which is New Orleans jargon for an imminent hurricane. All two teams remained in the hospital through the hurricane and for the five days that followed. I encourage you to read the resident’s stories about what transpired during those six days. I promise you it is nothing short of heroic. The Tulane medicine residents stayed until the last patient was evacuated from our hospitals. For the last two days of this stretch, there was no running water, no electricity, and virtually no communication with the outside world. Despite “the worst conditions imaginable” the Tulane medicine residents stayed. Down to the very last patient.
So why did the residents stay? Three easy reasons:
- First, the Tulane residents are people of great character- and people of great character don’t buckle when the pressure is high. The residents were recruited for their character, not their board scores or grades. And part of personal character is commitment, both to having your team-members’ backs when times are tough, and to not relinquishing the team’s mission statement.
- Second, the Tulane medicine residency is a team, and once you have committed yourself to a team, you don’t quit: even when times get tough. And because the program outlined teamwork as our first priority from day one, we had the luxury of an incredibly strong team when the disaster hit. No one wavered because our team had been building its strength for the three years before the disaster hit.
- Third, the Tulane medicine residency is built around a mission statement. This mission statement prescribes that we will do whatever it takes, no matter how hard the work or bumpy the road, to provide the best possible care to the underserved in New Orleans. No one on our team left New Orleans until the last of our patients had been evacuated. And after the storm, while the rest of the world mourned their losses and fretted about their futures, it was the Tulane Medicine Residents that immediately engaged in staffing the relief shelters in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Over 7,000 hours worth of Tulane medicine residents’ time were devoted. Why? Because these people were still our patients, and now more than ever, they needed our help. Tulane residents were the first to return to New Orleans, even before the city opened.
So again, you reap what you sow. And at the time of the disaster, it was too little, too late to try (or hope) to build a team… to define a mission statement… to develop character. No, the script for this play had already been written. The day of the hurricane, and the days and weeks that followed, were a product of planning, development and hard work. And not planning for a hurricane- the test of our character could just have easily been a terrorist attack, or an earthquake, or a city-wide fire, or any sort of disaster. No, our planning was built on these simple principles for success in life:
1. Find people of great character. Associate yourself with these people.
2. Find a team that has a mission statement that fits with your personal mission statement in life. Devote yourself to this team.
3. Find a leader and teammates that would lay down their lives for you. Do the same for them.
4. Spend each waking moment developing your own personal character. Constantly ask yourself how you can strengthen the team by strengthening yourself.
5. And then just wait. You can’t determine what life will throw your way- all you can control is how you respond to it, and how you prepare yourself for whatever life does throw your way. Just wait, but wait comfortably, with great peace. For if you have done steps 1 to 4, there is nothing life can dish out that you can’t handle. Even the greatest natural disaster in United States history.
And this is where you come in…
We now prepare to add people of similar character to this team, and not just anyone will do. We have invested far too much, worked far too hard, to allow the team to weaken in even the slightest bit. We’re looking for people like us to join our team. Of course, no one relishes the idea of being in a storm of this magnitude, and I can’t promise you that you will have the opportunity to test your personal character the way we have. To the contrary, I think I can safely promise that during your three-year term at Tulane, you will never witness a storm like this. But I can also promise you that life will someday test your mettle in a similar way. And I can definitely promise that during your three-year term at Tulane, as a part of our team, you will learn the lessons of teamwork, character, loyalty, devotion, and strength that will be necessary for you to handle this test when it does occur. I’m sure there are many programs out there that profess that they have similar virtues- and some of them may actually have them. But there is only one program that can say it has these virtues for sure… and that program is Tulane.
If you think you are the type of person who has this degree of character deep within you…If you are the type of person who sees developing these virtues as the most important thing in your life…If you see devotion, teamwork and character as infinitely more important that proficiency in managing an acid-base problem. If you are the type of person who is willing to do what it takes to join a team of this magnitude, you are the person we are looking for.
The Tulane Internal Medicine Residency has recovered, largely because whatever was thrust upon us, we handled, and threw right back. Within a week of the storm, we had assembled our own internet communication network, and had laid out our plan for the next three months. Within two weeks of the storm, we had already done 2,000 hours of community service in staffing the relief shelters, and we had defined the professional course for each of our residents. Within three weeks of the storm, we had hospital assignments and call schedules for each of our residents, we had amassed 5,000 hours of relief work, and we had established our own charitable foundation to further the relief work. And during these three weeks, not one person quit.
By January 1st, all of our hospitals will be operational again.
By March 1st, we’ll be back to riding in our own Mardi Gras parade. Celebrating all of the hard work and devotion we have expended to reconstruct New Orleans, and most importantly, to care for our underserved patients as they return to a city with minimal hospital resources.
By May 1st, we’ll be preparing to go to the national Society of General Internal Medicine conference in Los Angeles, the national Hospitalist medicine conference in Washington DC, and the national ACP conference in Philadelphia. As with the last four years, Tulane will have the most aggregate presentations of any residency in the country. The only difference is that we’ll be telling our personal stories of how we triumphed over this catastrophy.
And by July 1st, we’ll be welcoming you, and people very much like you, to our team. Your team will be comprised of people like you… people who are ready to develop not only their professional careers, but also their personal lives. People with great courage who are willing to be part of a team that is making a difference in the world… for all of the right reasons… right here, right now.
So there you go. This is what Tulane was, is, and will continue to be. If any of this speaks to you, I would like to meet you. If you have the courage to be a part of something this real, this important, this great… I promise you the trip to visit Tulane will be worth the effort. And should you find a fit with our team, and we with you, I promise you that your three years at Tulane will develop you into the type of person you always hoped you would be. And when it is all said and done, you will have developed the character to handle whatever life throws your way. Hurricanes, or otherwise.
I look forward to meeting you.
Jeff Wiese
Vice-Chairman
Director, Tulane Internal Medicine Residency
President, Medical Staff of Charity Hospital
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