With the team form the VA
McGuire Hosital, during the Amputee & Prosthetic Clinic
With the team from the Children’s Hospital at VCU – meting before the
Feeding Clinic
Right now, I am in the process or arranging the non-local professional affiliation
which should take place in May and I hope to get to the Rehabilitation
Institute of Chicago, the best rehabilitation facility in USA.
During the Global Leadership
Forum in Washington I met with the B&H Embassy representative and
learnt about the previous cooperation
between the University of Maryland and hospitals in Bosni and Herzegovina. I am
trying to explore this option as the University of Maryland has the Institute
for Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Surgery and may be a good long–term partner
for our Institute
There are many other subcomponents
of the Program and I will list only few, which are more related to my Final
Project and my future work in the Institute.
- Thinking strategically:
Two days’ workshop, adjacent field visits, training in CARF standards
which require that any Organization applying for accreditation must have a strategic
plan – all have laid ground for
formulation of my Final Project that I will carry out upon return from USA. It will be facilitation and coordination of
the Strategic planning process in the Institute, resulting in the Strategic Plan.
The Institute has grown rapidly in last decade, many new services
emerged. We have operational plans but not really a strategic one. During the winter
break I discussed the necessity for strategic planning with my superiors and
several colleagues back home. Despite our differences in opinion about future
of the Institute, we all agree that it is a high time for us to sit down and
discuss where we want to be in next three to five years. In this process the
Institute may re-define its position in the health system, re-examine its
purpose and priorities in near future, keeping in focus the best interest of
population we serve.
Not only my knowledge about the strategic thinking, then also a
knowledge about the organizational change, negotiation, project development,
monitoring and evaluation will all be
applied in this process. Few days ago I applied for the American Management
Association Workshop - Facilitation of
the Strategic Planning Process, and it would be perfect is my application
is granted.
I am additionally equipped with documents and the open source links
(e.g., from the VA Strategic Planning Division). I am grateful that my Final Project
was accepted by the Humphrey Program and that I enjoy the support of the
consultants from Richmond. Discussions prior and during the strategic planning
for the Institute will go far beyond walls of the Institute as we are leaders
in rehabilitation, orthopedic surgery and barromedicine and as such, we have a
strong influence on the health policy.
- Research
and Project development
During my months in USA I got an insight into research and other kind of
projects, mainly health and management related, from many different angles. I
became aware that many teams are working full time on research / projects only
(clinical and non-clinical). Back home, it is still a luxury which we cannot
afford and our clinicians are struggling with competing tasks of clinical work
& research. However, I think that there are many opportunities for our
teams to get involved in joint projects with USA partners. I established good
contacts with Centre for Rehabilitation Science and Engineering at VCU (CERSE)
and there research themes which are of common interests. Also, the National Institute
of Health (NIH) has grants which could enable such cooperation in
research.
Going one step down, there is a need to put more effort to keep up with
a practice which is supported by the evidence form research. My Institute is
affiliated to Banjaluka University and it is our obligation, as teaching and
leading hospital. Along this line, Humphrey Seminars about analysis of
scientific articles and ethical aspects of research with human subjects were very
useful. Some novel approaches, such as transparency in research and shifting
peer review upfront, in order to get feedback on study design early on in the
research process, instead in moment when results are about to be published, were
a real eye-opener for me. Also, I am glad I learnt more about the qualitative
research as it is very resonant and appropriate type of research for the
rehabilitation process.
The Institute “Dr M. Zotović” has a good reputation in general, but also
as a trustworthy partner in many small-
and medium scale projects. Still, when compared with our capacities, our
project portfolio is underdeveloped.
There are several reasons for it: as a governmental organization
(despite being not for profit) we often cannot access the available
international funds for projects so we try to cooperate with NGOs and get
involved that way, second, we never made project development as one of our
priorities, thus we are not intentional about that kind of expertise in the
Institute.
My previous involvement with different projects helped our teams to
develop and implement various projects, small and bigger ones, focusing either
on education of rehab teams or research in field of disability. But it is a
small number of projects. With more
protected time for project development, with new contacts & partners from
the USA I hope we could realize some of the ideas which I have in mind right
now:
1.
Visit of professors from
the VCU Dept. for Physical Medicine and
Rehabilitation and VA Hospital to Bosnia
and Herzegovina coupled with lectures on the Rehab Conferences; exchange of
residents and other team members (major expenses being is their time and air ticket, the Institute
can provide accommodation and local travel);
2.
Linked to 1. would be
training in use of outcome measures in Rehabilitation Goal Setting Process and
evidence based practice reviews;
3.
Project with Sheltering
Arms Rehab Dept. about the most functional and beneficial equipment in neurological
rehabilitation – how to review the scientific literature and make good
decisions for purchase.
4.
Feeding Clinic for Children
who Fail to Thrive – introductory training by qualified instructor from the
Pediatric Feeding Institute (we met at the Children’s Hospital at VCU)
5.
Research project with
CERSE, together with organization of persons with disability about the need for
education: How to approach to person with disability. Primary target group
would be residents of various medical specialties
6.
Organization of the
Strategic Negotiation Skills for various stakeholders in B&H
Personal experience of the Fellowship
It is difficult to separate the personal and professional parts of the
Humphrey Fellowship as these are so closely interwoven.
What I know for sure is that I am very happy that I landed in Richmond,
a big and yet very manageable and warm town. Nature is amazing, the entire
Virginia is a state in the forest, I adore green and squirrels jumping on
streets of Richmond downtown.
Within the framework of the Individual
Professional Plan which we revise quarterly, we outlined our personal goals
also. Some of my were to keep healthy and in a good shape which I managed to
do, primarily thanks to our good accommodation in Dorm, with a fully equipped kitchen
and full access to the excellent programs in the Carry Street Gym.
Also, the quality of my life in Richmond was so much better because
early on I became a member of the Meetup group James River Hikers (JRH). Dennis Bussey, the JRH leader is a very
valuable partner of the Humphrey Program at VCU and hope it will remain so in
the future as many fellows enjoyed various events organized by the JRH.
Welcome party for the VCU
Humphrey Fellows at Dennis’ place
I got to know Richmond surroundings and enjoy so much in hiking along
the James River. With a JRH I also learnt about the history and life in
different parts of USA. I have been in theaters, cinema and dinners.
With James River Hikers in
the Pocahontas State Park
Early
morning hike, with sun rising above Richmond
I became the Cookie Master and even made it to the Richmond
newspaper
But most important is that in Richmond I met people whom I believe will
remain my friends for a lifetime. I think all of us feel privileged with
opportunity to socialize with families of our coordinators, to enjoy having
their children around with us and feel so accepted and trusted. Again, I hope
to have a chance to host some of them during their visits to Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
In Richmond I met with several people and families from different parts
of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Professor at VCU, restaurant owner, truck driver,
real estate owner – and I was really proud and pleased that all of them made it
and have good lives here. They like both Richmond and Virginia. Socializing
with them offered me another flavor of life in Richmond and USA. With them I
enjoyed in many things which cultural life in Richmond offers and I am really
glad they live life to fullest here.
Virginia History is amazing, with glorious and less glorious periods and
I love to learn about it. At many
occasions (e.g., lectures in the Virginia Historical Society, VCU Office for
Community Engagement) I heard about and witnessed the conscious efforts to
bring the heavy burden of the past times out in the open and deal with it.
These efforts on reconciliations and development of mechanisms which will
ensure equity and diversity on different levels are very interesting for me. I
find them pretty universal and, to some degree, they could translate and be
used to improve the situation in Balkans. Also, it is always good to know that
others have problems too and that we are nit “unique”.
It is also interesting this experience made me less fearful. If somebody
told me a year ago that I would walk the streets of Chine town in Brooklyn at
10:30 p.m., with a girlfriend only and feel safe, I would not believe. The same
is with finding my way out in a big city (e.g., Seattle).
I like meeting and getting to know people from different cultures. Now I
understand even more that it takes lots of time and patience for us to
understand each other but it is worth the effort. On the flip side, we often
have the same values and wishes: health, supportive family, peace, prosperity,
integrity and chance for everybody to educate and develop throughout the
lifetime.
This year all of us lived “artificial lives” as we were looked after so
well and did not worry about daily necessities. So I am aware that I may have a
“pink glasses view” of the life in USA. In discussion with my friends from
Richmond I tried to point out some of aspects of American life style that are
not so good, like too much salt and sugar in food, sometimes too big
houses and cars, waste of energy on air
conditions etc., but they are quite defensive of all these things which they
are used to. Everything is so smaller in Europe so that may be a major
difference in our perception.
Final remarks
During my Fellowship I articulated the biggest challenge for me: To get the task done, to get it done right while
preserving the relationships in the team. It is even more difficult in
international setting so there were many situations to master my skills.
The Strategic Negotiation
Skills Workshop:
with colleagues from
Morocco, Mozambique and China.
This year was also an opportunity to step back from my everyday
professional life and to and reflect: what was it that I was doing right and
what was not so right or good. I got a chance to learn through so many
channels, to interact with people I would never meet otherwise, to improve my
intercultural competence, my tolerance, communication and hopefully leadership
skills.
At one of the VCU workshops I heard the sentence: The biggest value I have are the
people I know. I totally agree with it. Though Humphrey Program I met
so many brilliant professionals and unique people that my value has multiplied
few times.
We were (and still are) working a lot, but still I feel re-energized and
ready to pure this energy back into the life of my Institute, to serve clinical
teams and, indirectly, all our patients and wider community.
My family and friends are missing me. However, they have been supportive
and are happy for me being so content with my Humphrey Year, a once in a life
opportunity.
As soon as I am back home I will actively promote the Humphrey and other
Fulbright programs and help young professionals to apply. Not everybody can be
accepted but everybody can take advantage of going through the process and
become more aware of one’s own wishes, strengths and weaknesses. In other
words, to use it as a developmental opportunity.