A Cuban Delegation

I had the privilege of leading a group of U.S. delegates on a People to People trip to Cuba. The goals of the trip were to learn about the Cuban culture and their health care system and outcomes, with particular emphasis on women’s health and the role nurses play within the system. Our group of delegates was made up of nurses, physicians, psychiatrists and a judge, representing clinical practice, education, research and legislation. The depth and breadth of what we experienced and learnt far exceeds the time we spent in Cuba. Prior to our trip, we reviewed articles written by Cubans and non-Cubans, and during our trip, we listened to and absorbed knowledge from Cuban leaders, physicians, nurses, politicians and guides. We witnessed firsthand the different levels of health care that make Cuba successful in increasing life expectancy, eliminating HIV, decreasing maternal and infant mortality rates and decreasing amputations due to diabetes. This particular blog will reflect on the group’s shared impressions and learning experiences. Here are a few shared insights from our group:

• The hallmarks of the entire Cuban political system are focusing on free education for everyone (mandatory until 9^th grade), preventative health care and insuring gender equity in all systems.
  
• Three levels of health care at community, province and specialty hospitals based on individual needs, guarantee access, prevention and better health outcomes.
  
• Cuba spent 10% of their GDP on health, as compared to 17% for the U.S., and both countries have similar life expectancy (78 years) and infant and maternal morbidity and mortality rates.
  
• Cubans have a very strong sense of identity tied to their country and a great deal of demonstrated pride in their achievements in spite of limited resources.
  
• Everyone we met was excited and hopeful about a more normalized, reciprocal relationship with the U.S.
  
• Health diplomacy, sending doctors and nurses to work in other countries, is used as a means to establish solidarity, to promote good will, to generate revenues for the country, and when needed, to help other countries as humanitarian gestures.
  
• Cuban family nurses and physicians live in the neighborhoods they serve and personally know most of their patients. They assess individual risk levels, they increase compliance and they promote self-care. Together, health care professionals and patients are responsible for health care.
  
• Intersectional collaboration and integrated services are values shared by all.

I am grateful to the members of the delegation who traveled with me, experts and leaders in their own fields, engaged and totally present throughout our adventure.

Sigma Theta Tau Award: Nurses Make a Difference

I was honored to receive the Nell J. Watts Lifetime Achievement Award from Sigma Theta Tau during their 43rd Biennial Convention in Las Vegas, NV (November 7-11, 2015). This award meant a great deal to me for a number of reasons.

First, because I am honored to carry the namesake of a very action oriented, voiced leader, Dr. Nell Watts, whom I admired not only from afar, but had the honor to be in her presence and audience on numerous occasions.

Second, because it was humbling to be among a distinguished and transformative group of colleagues and award recipients, in particular, my dear friend and colleague from Colombia, Nelly Garzón Alarcón, who is a former ICN president and is an incredible Latin American leader.

Third, because I am receiving this award from Sigma Theta Tau, a powerful organization that has numerous members and chapters in  many countries – who do and can have a strong voice to make a difference, particularly for the gender inequities and injustices that nurses suffer from worldwide.

This is the best time for nurses to make an impact for care providers and care receivers. We are better educated, we develop the knowledge and evidence for quality care and we have individual and collective voices that could make us, 20 million globally, an incredible force for equal access and for quality care.

In the time it takes you to read this blog, 5 women will have died from pregnancy complications that could have been prevented, 5 girls will have been forced and sold into marriage, 1 girl will be trafficked into servitude and many nurses will be hired to work in sub-optimal environments and paid 25% of what they are entitled to – and we can make a difference in all of these areas.

Devaluation and under compensation do not only affect nurses’ sense of wellbeing. It influences nurses’ abilities to function up to their full capacities in providing quality care for people, especially those who are the most vulnerable. 

By remembering our social mission and our contract with society for providing equitable and quality care for all, regardless of gender, culture, heritage, race and educational and economic abilities, we can make a difference.

We must recognize inequities, refuse to put up with oppressions and use our strong collective voice to empower, to lead, to partner and to deliver care up to our full capacities. We must continue to refuse, as a collective, to be oppressed, devalued and undercompensated. We can make a difference in creating a just world for girls, for women, for caregivers and for nurses.

I accepted this award on behalf of all nurses who have a strong voice as we, individually and collectively, continue to work toward another lifetime of achievements.

A Humbled Living Legend

Recently, I was honored to receive the Living Legend Award, given to me by the premiere nursing organization, the American Academy of Nursing, whose members are considered the movers and shakers, the policy makers, the knowledge developers, the top clinicians and the preeminent health care leaders in the world. Receiving this award from such a distinguished group was definitely a career highlight and a memorable moment. I was particularly honored to share the stage with other honored Living Legends who are visionary and transformative.

Those who nominated me, Azita Emami, Sandra Weiss, Nancy Woods, along with Living Legends, Claire Fagin and Angela McBride, are not only the leaders of the leaders who have made a transformative impact on our discipline, but they are also my dear friends. I continue to be enriched by their personal and professional presence in my life.

I give a great deal of credit to where I am now to my legendary husband, Mahmoud Meleis, to whom I owe more than any words can express.  An Egyptian born husband who thought he knew what was ahead when we fell in love during University of Alexandria summer camp, but had no idea what he got himself into when we got married. 50 years later he is still trying to figure it out.

I also want to acknowledge our wonderful sons, Waleed and Sherief, and their wives, Paula and Deena, who are busy managing their careers and their five children’s many activities, but on their behalf and representing all of them, Sherief came to share the celebration. Thank you Sherief.

When I got the news about this special award, a quick tape of my career journey rolled through, with events and people who were instrumental in shaping it.

I kept coming back to the question, what if?

What if I did not take a risk and enter the brand new, first baccalaureate program in nursing in the Middle East, Africa and Europe at the University of Alexandria?

What if Rockefeller Foundation did not invest in nurses in developing countries, and what if I did not receive a Rockefeller scholarship to come to this country for graduate education, which taught me the value of financial support for the have nots?

What if my loving and protective parents and my one and only sister, Maissa, did not let me leave Egypt and sacrifice not seeing me for 10 years, contending to hear my voice over the phone every six months, because of their belief in the value of education?

What if Agnes O’Leary, my UCLA advisor, did not insist on a summer internship that included Kentucky frontier nursing services, a Santa Fe Hispanic clinic, among other innovative programs, which made me passionate about equitable access?

What if Gamal Abdel Nasser was not the President of Egypt? We definitely would not have made this country our home. I would not have learnt about the challenges for immigrants and for becoming bicultural.

What if Burton Meyer, Ralph Turner and Frank Sooy did not invest the time, energy and effort in mentoring me in research, theory and leadership?

What if Lulu Wolf Hassenplug did not proactively recruit me to teach at UCLA, but insisted that before she hires me, I must interview and get offers elsewhere?

I would not have had the privilege to know and learn from Luther Christman and Martha Rogers, who became a dear friend until she passed.

What if Dorothy Johnson did not ask me to teach her first theory course in the country, through which with my students we discovered the silos in which theorists, researchers and practitioners lived?

What if my best friend Sadia, who was the daughter of the doorman, was not sent away by her loving family to get married at the tender age of 12 and I never saw her again?

What if women from so many cultures did not share with me their life narratives, which included oppression, subjugation, as well as resilience and inner power – which made me passionate about empowering women?

What if I didn’t have the privilege and opportunity to learn about scholarship, citizenship and leadership from many distinguished colleagues at UCLA, at UCSF, at Penn and dozens of other universities, which made me a staunch supporter of different types of scholarships?

What if I was not nominated for this organization (American Academy of Nursing) almost 40 years ago and become engaged in issues that are dear to my heart with so many accomplished colleagues?

Each and every one of these events and people was instrumental in providing me with the intellectual tools and the confidence to do what I did. They inspired, challenged and supported me.

So what if?  My answer is quick and simple. I would not have enjoyed the privileges of becoming an American citizen, voiced and free to speak my mind, and, I would not have enjoyed being welcomed into so many hearts, homes, universities and organizations.

But also, I would not have experienced disadvantages and the lack of privilege as a minority immigrant woman from a developing country who never lost her accent, who was marginalized at times, excluded at others, because of gender, heritage, and more recently, probably for my religion.  I would not have painfully learnt about prejudice, embraced those profoundly transformative experiences, owned them and transcended them.

My colleagues, members of AAN, as well as those in other organizations, have been instrumental in the positive outcomes of this journey.

But there is one particular group of people to whom I owe much to what I became and what I have achieved.  They are my mentees.  They also did not know what they got themselves into!  These mentees never exceeded my expectations, but they definitely exceeded my capacity. They became the leaders and the movers and shakers around the world.

What if I did not mentor this remarkable group of scholars and leaders? Sandra Weiss, Azita Emani, Kathy Drecup, Marianne Hattar-Pollara, Deanne Messias, Marty Douglas, Pat Stevens, Joanne Hall, Siriorn Sindhu, Ameporn Ratinthorn, Eun-Ok Im, Alice Reizrian, Doris Schaeffer, Karen Schumacher Naomi Seboni, Pat Jones, Maria O’Rourke, Chris Coleman, Pilar Bernal, Jude Spiers, Paulina Van, Diana Jennings, among many more around the world.

They have been the sages in my stage and I have been the guide on the side and I truly believe I am only on this stage because their stardom is shining on me. I am privileged to have them in my life as colleagues and dear friends.

I am honored and humbled and I will enjoy this L.L. until I become a D.L., a dead legend.

A Muslim Nurse for President?

I always assumed I could not be president of this country because I have 3 strikes against me. I am a naturalized citizen, a women, and I am “just a nurse.” But recently, I discovered I have a fourth strike against me – I am also a Muslim, though a nonpracticing one. I never thought that my religion had anything to do with politics, and I never considered the religion of candidates a variable when hiring, voting, reviewing or evaluating students, faculty, administrators or politicians. Why would I, when the reason I immigrated to this country was to practice freedom, to celebrate diversity, to honor equity and to deepen my learning!

The recent dialogue regarding religion, specifically about Muslims, the generalizations uttered about who Muslims are, and what they can and cannot do, is most disturbing! What if a negative view of religion became a factor for how to care for patients, how to teach students, how to hire staff, or, how to relate to people in general? Knowing a person’s religion should be a positive force to honor different beliefs, food preferences and celebrations - but it should never, never be used as negative rhetoric for voting against an individual. Or, so I always thought, studied and acted, until these recent dialogues by those who are vying for the highest public office in this country. A true embarrassment!

Just like gender inequities drove my passion to be a voice for women, and, to work wherever I went on strategies for equity and justice, and just like seeing how women’s work was devalued, degraded, undercompensated and marginalized ignited my passion to find ways to insure that women’s work is justly valued, compensated and celebrated; perhaps all this negative press that discriminately includes all Muslims, the good, the bad and the indifferent, will drive a new passion for me to be a voice for Muslims and for Islam. Generalizations are suspect, and speaking of all Muslims and of Islam in the same breath as terrorism is dead wrong! To have this constitutionally unfounded dialogue about how we cannot have a Muslim as a president just adds to our long established prejudices that we cannot have a woman as president, a Catholic as president or a black as president.

It is time to confront and shed all of these unfounded, disrespectful and hurtful stereotypical generalizations that do nothing but derail more productive conversations about how to make all Americans work and produce up to their full capacity, based on their education and our country’s work ethics.

I know I still will not become president of this country, first and foremost based on our constitution (I am a naturalized citizen), and I also know I am not qualified because of my life experiences, preparation and talents, but not because I am a women or a Muslim. Islam has never been a strong part of my identity as an Egyptian American nurse, but, just as gender became a strong driver in my work, voice and advocacy, perhaps now Islam will as well. Becoming a voice for marginalized populations has always been one of my deep-seated passions and a major component of my identity, and recent rhetoric targeted at millions of Americans who are Muslims has positioned them as a vulnerable and marginalized population.

And by the way, the Muslim world is celebrating Eid-al-Adha. Let’s wish them/us happy and peaceful years ahead. And may the spirit and the teachings of this incredible, global Pope, who advocates for justice, equity, inclusiveness and sustainability, provide the antidote for the divisive rhetoric promulgated by some in our country.

My Residency at The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center

The Rockefeller Foundation played an instrumental role in my life and for my career. It was their scholarship support, through the University of Alexandria, that jump started my graduate education at the University of California, Los Angeles in the 60’s. And once again, I find The Rockefeller Foundation playing an important role at this juncture in my life. I just returned from a one month residency/fellowship at the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, Italy, which I received to continue working on areas for which I have a deep seated/lifelong passion, with the goal to connect all three of them: women and health and the urbanization transition and the history and structure of the discipline of nursing.  

My experiences just prior to and during the residency are an important context for my residency goals, and definitely added to its timeliness and significance. I completed the term of my deanship at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Nursing and was in transition to focus on unfinished business, as well as to build on my scholarship. Therefore, this Rockefeller residency, during this important career transition, meant a great deal to my husband and myself. I hoped that the residency would be a period of restoration, regeneration and rediscovery. The intent was not to go back to where I was before the deanship, rather to use the time to integrate my scholarly and leadership experiences, to move to the next phase of my being, and to jump start that phase by building on my passionate interest in women' health. More specifically, to explore progress made, or lack of it, in health care for women in urban areas. I also wanted to think about the role that health care professionals, particularly nurses, can play in developing enabling urban environments that empower women, facilitate their daily lives, and enhance their health and well-being. With 20 million nurses globally, 90% of whom are women, and at the cusp of the announcement of the sustainable millennium goals, it was imperative to pause and consider a futuristic action agenda.

It will take months to sort out the impact of my residency and, to complete all that I started while in Bellagio. In future blogs I will continue to reflect on the residency, on the network that emerged and on short and long term accomplishments.

Join me on a professional trip to Cuba

I will have the honor and privilege to lead a group of multidisciplinary colleagues on a professional and cultural People to People trip to Cuba, November 27 through December 5, 2015. This trip is part of the People to People Citizen Ambassador Program with a focus on health care for women and the professional role that nurses play. It will provide an incredible opportunity to learn about health care, discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the Cuban health care system in reaching the 2015-2020 Sustainable Development Goals and in implementing the recommendations set forth in the Harvard-Penn-Lancet on Women and Health.

I have been asked why are you taking the time to lead this delegation and what will we accomplish? Briefly, here are some of my reasons and thoughts on outcomes:

I had the honor to plan and lead colleagues and friends on professional (Egypt), personal (Australia) and congressional (Africa) learning trips, seeing experiences through their eyes, prompting dialogues, asking and answering questions and witnessing their transformations. We learnt together, we grew together, and we inspired our hosts to do the same. And now, I have this incredible opportunity to study and learn the hows and whys of Cuba’s cost effective health care, including their viable programs in the health care of women.

Nurses, mostly women, experience oppression, subjugation and inequalities that women in general experience. We will learn how and why Cuba has attained excellent outcomes in many aspects in the health of women. We will visit clinics and community organizations that are designed to serve and care for women. We will explore how the resources for health care for women simultaneously focus on developing and empowering them.

We will have the opportunity to discuss recent publications from The Lancet on interprofessional education and on women and health and dialogue about creative ways to implement recommendations. 

The Cuban culture, food, music and arts have always intrigued and fascinated us. We will learn about and enjoy different cuisines, music, dancing, theater, art, customs and clothes. Personally, I have become a true foodie, a connoisseur of multinational clothing and dance, but I failed terribly at singing. But, I know we are fortunate to have some delegates who have heavenly singing voices.

The bottom line is that traveling is a human experience that enriches and transforms our lives. Growing up in Alexandra, Egypt interacting with immigrants and expatriates from Greece, Italy, France and the United Kingdom made me want to see and be part of the world. It is from these interactions that I learnt there are so many different ways to perceive, understand and assign meaning to phenomena. This has been reinforced in every one of the 80 some countries where I have had the honor to work, visit, teach, research and tour. 

I am looking forward to a profound learning experience in Cuba, particularly at this time of change in U.S. and Cuba relations, which raises many questions about the future of health care for the U.S. and Cuba.

I hope you will join me!  

Further details on this exciting program and registration are available at www.PeopletoPeople.com/AfafMeleis or by calling 877-787-2000.

Medicine and Nursing

IOM recently held a workshop on “Envisioning the Future of Health Professional Education,” which is part of the Global Forum on “Innovation in Health Professional Education,” which I co-chaired with Dr. Jordan Cohen up until recently.  I was filled with rejoice and some concern.  I rejoiced because the momentum started by the IOM “Future of Nursing” report and the Lancet Report on “Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world” continue to escalate.  There were tangible examples given by participants (representing global interdisciplinarity and interprofessionalism) of innovative ideas and dialogues about changing curricula to reflect community partnerships, interprofessionalism and flipped classrooms, among other changes.  One example is that presented by Dr. Francisco Campos (who is the former National Secretary of Labor and Education Management in Health of the Ministry of Health in Brazil) about the close linkages established between communities and schools of medicine and nursing which shaped curricula and graduates.  In Sao Paulo and other parts of Brazil, additional examples  involved the creation of joint curriculum and learning experiences for physicians and physician assistance, the inclusion of social determinants in health profession schools and joint programs to train faculty from medicine, nursing and dentistry to become leaders in interprofesional education.  These examples were from the University of New Mexico, the University of Iowa and East Carolina University.

That being said, my enthusiasm and excitement about the apparent “working together, learning together and learning from each other” crashed with another presentation.  This one was about developing a new model for medical education in which students learn to be navigators for patients.  In order to train medical students for this role, they are taught to listen to patients’ life stories, probe for lived illness experiences and explanatory models and reflect on and analyze these stories so they may create and implement plans for patients’ lives.  So here I ask my nursing colleagues, does this sound familiar?  How fantastic that a medical school developed this model for truly engaging students in the lives of their patients and the empowerment of their patients!  While this part of the innovation is to be lauded, where is the part about working with, and learning from the other distinguished schools within the same university?  Nursing curricula has included advocacy for patients, uncovering life experiences, reflecting on meaning and exploratory frames of reference of patients and students who are taught how to and when to ask and interpret findings.

Nursing faulty in many institutions reach to, learn from and work with colleagues in numerous disciplines including medicine.  Nursing students are expected to read and use knowledge from medical journals.  It is time to expect the same form medical faculty.  We should not have to create new untested models.  Instead we should build on, improve and enhance existing ones.

To my medical faculty colleagues,

If you want to teach about patient centered care, reflective clinical judgement, patient advocacy, social determinants of health, building effective patient relations, check nursing literature and reach out to your nursing colleagues.  They will be more than happy to partner and collaborate.  They have been waiting for this!

Reflecting on the Joys of May at Penn

Seeing the green trees sprouting, the early morning birds chirping and the pink cherry blossoms erupting are reminders that it is May in Philadelphia.  May at Penn is magical!  While the absolute highlight is seeing the Kimmel Center packed to the brim with families who have traveled from all over the world and from all corners of the U.S. to celebrate their daughters, sons, siblings, parents, partners and friends graduating with coveted undergraduate and graduate nursing degrees, there are many other events that make May Penn Nursing’s favorite time of year.  Celebrating faculty who received awards from students, peers and administrators and reviewing their academic year’s extraordinary accomplishments with awe have always been a humbling experience for me.  Then there is the end of the year gathering of our engaged, efficient and effective staff and celebrating them and their accomplishments.  It is always heartwarming to celebrate the fruits of their partnerships with faculty and students which culminate in recruiting the best class, graduating award winning students, providing exemplary education, winning financial support for our scholarly mission, and bringing health, healing and smiles to our elderly at LIFE.  The impact of the staff’s work is felt in every corner of our school.  But “May Joys” do not end there!  Seeing our University alums and their families on campus again, hearing their reflections about the Penn experience and listening to their life stories completes the circle for the joys of May.

 

Congratulating and celebrating students, faculty, staff, alumni and families, what “May” is about.

Ah, the Joys of May at Penn!

On my mind...

When I received the purple legacy book and the album from the May Gala, it made me reflect on my unending gratitude and of all who contributed my deanship.  I continue to be deeply touched by all the words, love and generosity. I am humbled to have been the recipient of the warmth and friendship of alumni, the board of overseers, colleagues, students and mentees. I consider myself the luckiest person in the whole world and I continue to bask in the support that this Penn institution has given the School and me all through my deanship. 

After the many intense collaborations and warm friendships I have forged, for numerous people, the question is, "What is she doing now?" Therefore, I decided to share a narrative of my first year post stepping up from the deanship. Here are some highlights of what I have been thinking about and doing:

• Spreading the message about interprofessional education and supporting the development of action plans for transforming education in Portugal, Colombia, Thailand, Turkey, Germany, Mexico and South Africa.

• Spreading the message about the vital role of partnerships and collaboration with other schools, organizations, boards of overseers and alumni locally and globally.

• Listening, dialoguing and exploring indications of progress in women’s health. For example reviewing policies against harassment and violence, identifying best strategies implemented by different countries to increase access of women to reproductive health as well as girls’ access to education, and listening to women’s voices.

• Examining progress in the education of nurses and in the policies that enhance their scope of practice.

• Here is an important development. Mahmoud has been able to accompany me and has been almost equally engaged with colleagues and students in most of these countries.

• Celebrating our 50^th wedding anniversary with our 5 grandchildren in Aruba.

• Joining Mahmoud in Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea in Egypt to celebrate Christmas and the New Year.

Finally, as much as I am grateful for my wonderful send off by you, I am also very appreciative of your generosity and warmth in welcoming our new dean, Dr. Antonia M. Villarruel. You are a gift to her and she is an incredible gift to our school.

On becoming a former dean

I am always asked: 

Do you miss being the dean?  (Not really!) 

How does it feel not being the dean? (I love being a former dean!) 

What are you doing now that you are retired? (I am not retired yet! I am on a sabbatical leave.) 

How is your book going? (I am not writing a book at this very moment!)  

I was inspired by some publications related to stepping up to come up with what I miss and what I do not miss about being dean, and what I like and what I do not like about my new role as former dean. (Hansen, 2004 and Shipley, 2003)  I must preface my lists, however, with how much I enjoyed my deanship and that I considered it an honor to have served for 12 ½ years as the dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania.  I also considered it a true privilege to have worked with an incredibly stellar group of faculty; to have hired some 43 new faculty whom I consider the future leaders of the School and the discipline as a whole; to have partnered with the most loyal and effective staff, as well as the most brilliant students, who are the future movers and shakers in health care.  How could anyone leave this # 1 School of Nursing without missing a great deal?  Yet, now that I am giving attention to other projects and initiatives that are near and dear to my scholarly heart, I consider being in the role of former dean as equally, if not more so, the best role that I have ever embarked on and adopted.  So let me first start with what I miss about being the dean.

What I miss about being the dean?

• People, people, people - and the tons of relationships that come with the deanship

• My immediate leadership team, dean colleagues and VP’s and our joint problem

solving and policy forming sessions

• Advocating for faculty promotions

• Making strategic faculty awards and appointments

• Connecting faculty with exciting, new national and international opportunities

• Welcoming and bidding goodbye to students upon admission and graduation and seeing the Kimmel Center full of excited and happy faces at graduation

• Meeting with parents and hearing their experiences

• Fireside chats with students at my house

• Announcing celebratory faculty and student awards

• Dancing during celebrations where staff desperately tried to teach me line dancing - to no avail

• Welcoming international colleagues and telling them about our stellar faculty, bright students and effective staff

• Identifying systems and process issues and insuring we have sustainable action plans

• Interactions with many constituents – Board of Overseers, Alumni, Trustees, Communities, National Deans, etc.

• Successful fundraising for the School

• Hosting alumni events and gatherings

• Presenting State of the School Address with the pride attached to the accomplishments of our communities and seeing our auditorium full with campus leadership, colleagues, students and faculty

• Witnessing and being humbled by the generosity of our School supporters and friends

• My parking spot to which my car was programmed to get to

• Not having to carry my office key with me everywhere I go (the dean’s office was always open)

What I do not miss about being the dean?

• A grueling 24/7 structured and packed calendar without enough time for each appointment

• Having to say No to School community’s aspiring proposals due to budget, policies, time, etc.

• Continuous thinking and working on budget and fundraising with inability to meet all demands and all strategic goals

• Using plane and train rides for thinking time and for making to do lists

• Complaints from, and about, faculty, students and staff from faculty, students and staff

• Chicken and salmon meals, hence skipping many celebratory meals

• Due to time constraints, giving similar and slightly refreshed welcome and goodbye remarks throughout the years

• Having to close the School because of University decisions for snow days when important meetings, classes, etc. are planned

• Not being with family for important celebrations and not being with close friends due to scheduling issues

What I absolutely love about being a former dean?

• Having blocks of time to think, read, write, revisit, debate and challenge ideas, old and new

• Reflecting on my intense deanship role and career and processing the meaning and outcomes of strategic decisions

• Being invited to speak about transition theory, interprofessional education and women’s health, and witnessing global progress in each of these areas

• Reconnecting with my international colleagues, friends and family

• Having time to go to lectures and attend conferences and enjoy hallway serendipitous conversations and reconnecting with many old students and colleagues without having to rush conversations because of next urgent deanly appointments, deadlines or meetings

• Working in my spacious home office while watching kids playing in Fitler Square

• Decreasing the piles of files, articles and books (accumulated over several years) by sorting, reading and sending to the right people

• Accommodating my grandchildren’s schedules instead of vice versa

• Being considered the wise/experienced consultant, but not the implementer of strategies, ideas and actions

What I don’t like about being a former dean?

• Questions about what it is like being retired, when in actuality I am working and on sabbatical (Hansen, 2004)

• Not participating in School and University events by choice, hence missing dialogues, debates and people

References

Hansen, H. Reese. "Some Thoughts on Stepping Down after a Long Term of Deaning." University of Toledo Law Review. Vol 36 (2004): 69-72

Shipley, David E. "Resigning as Dean-Stepping down or Stepping Up." University of Toledo Law Review. Vol 35 (2003): 189-193