Dr. Ryan McKenna, Emergency Physician, Named the 2021 USF MCOM Outstanding GME Faculty Award Recipient!
Our department is incredibly proud of Dr. Ryan McKenna, who was awarded the USF Morsani College of Medicine Outstanding GME Faculty Award this year. This competitive award was established in 2019 by the GME office to recognize the work of exceptional Faculty at USF and is open to nominations for faculty from all departments. Dr. McKenna serves as core faculty and is the Simulation Director for the Emergency Medicine residency program. The synopsis below is a compilation of comments in his nomination letters:
Dr. McKenna “maintains a steadfast commitment to instilling deeper medical knowledge and advancing…clinical and procedural acumen.” His “particular passion for teaching airway skills instills the confidence in us, as residents, to perform even the most difficult intubations knowing that we have multiple backup plans in place.” He “frequently offers a dissenting voice by presenting the other side of issues that seem concrete – not necessarily because he stands firmly on one side or another – but to enhance our critical thinking and reveal that many issues in Emergency Medicine are often shrouded in multiple layers of complexity.” Dr. McKenna also serves as a mentor and current role model for residents and alumni. He “goes above and beyond the call of duty to teach” and is “someone you would want to care for your family.” He is “a strong advocate for engaging in policy decisions at the state level, often traveling to Tallahassee to become personally involved” and his “encouragement and support helped Matthew Beattie, a 2020 graduate of our program, to become President of the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association of Florida (EMRAF) last year”. Dr. McKenna also serves as a “national leader in simulation education serving on multiple committees, accrediting organizations, and events sponsored such as the American College of Emergency Physicians.” Residents and faculty commend him for his leadership in adapting and, yet, enhancing simulation education during the COVID pandemic. He has “taken simulation a step further and made it a multidisciplinary” and inter-professional approach.
In this blog, we will share just a few of the reasons why Dr. McKenna was so deserving of this award.
Dr. McKenna Developed One of the Best Simulation Programs in the Country
As emergency physicians, we are required to perform many high stakes, low frequency, procedures and are expected to function in very stressful situations. In response to this challenge, Dr. McKenna has developed an incredible simulation program for our residency program with residents regularly citing the simulation training as one of the most valuable aspects of their education.
A group of EM residents practice pericardiocentesis, a potentially life-saving procedure to remove pathologic fluid from around the heart, in the cadaver simulation lab.
Another unique strength of our simulation program is the opportunity for interprofessional collaboration. Under Dr. McKenna’s leadership, there have been multiple interprofessional simulation based training sessions with TGH nurses, technicians, local fire rescue medics, and even the Tampa Bay Lightning medical staff. In the spirit of collaboration, last summer Dr. McKenna and Dr. Okuda and the team at CAMLS partnered with Immertec, a Tampa startup, to study the effectiveness of virtual reality for procedural skills training.
An interprofessional group runs a mock code at the simulation center.
Dr. McKenna leading an interprofessional simulation-based training session for the medical staff for the Tampa Bay Lightning, a multidisciplinary group of physicians, athletic trainers, and Tampa Fire Rescue paramedics who provide care to the team and referees.
This year Dr. McKenna also established the Interprofessional Simulation Fellowship at USF Health CAMLS, and he is preparing for his first fellow, Dr. Nicole Abdo, who will begin the fellowship this fall. Dr. McKenna is quick to recognize the mentorship and support of Dr. Haru Okuda, an internationally recognized emergency physician and healthcare simulationist, who is the Executive Director of USF Health’s Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS), as well as the president of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. Dr. McKenna also credits the support of the team at CAMLS for their tireless support and help keeping him on track. The collaboration between Dr. McKenna and CAMLS has made our simulation experience among the best in the country. Simulation is an important component of preparing emergency physicians to successfully perform on shift when it matters and the value that Dr. McKenna adds to our residency program cannot be overstated.
Dr. McKenna’s Ability to Adapt During Covid Kept Providers Safe.
During the Covid pandemic when many simulation programs were canceling operations, Drs.McKenna and Okuda recognized the need to adapt the simulation training environment. This year, to maximize the experience for all residents and in response to the challenges of Covid-19, Dr. McKenna split the simulation training into smaller groups of residents, knowingly and happily accepting the increased workload because he was convinced that it would provide both the best and safest experience for the residents. Dr. McKenna worked with Dr. Okuda and the CAMLS team to develop airway management videos to educate providers about how to safely intubate a patient with COVID-19. In-situ COVID-19 code blue simulations were also conducted at TGH, which enabled our department to quickly train TGH employees, identify latent safety threats, and test systems prior to caring for patients in these spaces. We believe this proactive approach, which emphasized team member and patient safety, was one of the preventative measures responsible for our very low ED provider infection rates.
Dr. McKenna’s Dedication to the Field of Emergency Medicine Expands Beyond USF
Dr. McKenna is known for encouraging his residents and colleagues to become engaged in advocacy for the specialty and to find their niche in emergency medicine. Every year he devotes time to attending “EM Days” with the Florida College of Emergency Physicians to advocate for emergency medicine and to meet with state legislators in Tallahassee. He serves on the Florida College of Emergency Physician (FCEP) Education Committee and Governmental Affairs Committee, as well on ACEP Council. In addition, he has served as faculty for the ACEP Sim Training Course and is co-chair for the SAEM Simulation Fellowship Approval Task Force.
The Final Reason Why We Wholeheartedly Believe He Deserves the USF Outstanding Faculty Award…
Dr. McKenna is dedicated to mentoring residents and junior colleagues with many residents approaching him when they need advice or assistance. Dr. McKenna genuinely cares about the residents he teaches and his colleagues around him and will always find the time to discuss future careers, finances, fellowship or job applications, or other personal matters. His warmth, kindness, and willingness to help is one of the many reasons he is an exceptional faculty member, teacher, and physician. When a group of residents were discussing nominating Dr. McKenna for this award, one succinctly said, “When it comes to resident advocacy and the transfer of medical and life knowledge, I don’t think anyone does more, or cares more, than Dr. McKenna.” As a program we could think of no one who was more deserving of this award!
About Dr. McKenna
Dr. McKenna completed medical school at Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University. He went on to complete his emergency medicine residency at the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville. Following residency, he pursued a Simulation Fellowship at Mayo Clinic Florida. He joined our Core Faculty Team in 2017 as the Simulation Director for USF Emergency Medicine. He currently also serves as the Fellowship Director of the Interprofessional Simulation Fellowship at USF Health CAMLS.
About the Authors
This post was written and edited by Dr. Enola Okonkwo, Assistant Program Director at USF Emergency Medicine, and Resident Physicians, Drs. Catharine Cantrell and Michael Weaver.