Cedars Medical Center Selects 3 Employees for New Emerging Leadership Program

Over a period of several months, under the leadership and direction of Beth Brill, HCA East Florida Division HR Vice President, and Charlene Ingwell, RN, MSN, Director of Workforce Development and Organizational Development, a group of Chief Nursing Officers and Human Resource leaders from the HCA East Florida Division developed a program to address future succession planning. The program, known as The Emerging Leadership Program, was designed to grow, groom, and develop future leaders and began in August 2006. In total, there are 12 interns in the program, representing 5 of the 13 hospitals and 2 from IRL in the East Florida Division.

Top Row (l-r) : Avril March, Daphne Charles, Pamela Gordon.
Bottom Row (l-r) : Gary Mcclelland, Kim Mccartney, Jorge Toledo

Once the curriculum was developed, the Program was advertised internally to employees in all East Florida Hospitals. Immediately, employees started sending in their applications. At Cedars, the applicants were asked to participate in panel interviews with Associate Vice Presidents, Nursing Directors, and Staff Nurses. At Cedars Medical Center, 3 RN’s were accepted into the program – Kim Mccartney, RN, MSN, Gary McClelland, RN, and Jorge Toledo, RN.

The Emerging Leaders have each been paired up with a preceptor who will guide them through the program for the next year. Kim’s preceptor is Daphne Charles,RN, Nursing Director for one of Cedars’ Orthopedic Units. Gary’s preceptor is Avril March,RN, MSN, Nursing Director for one of Cedars’ Acute Care Units. And Jorge’s preceptor is Pamela Gordon,RN, Nursing Director for Cedars’ inpatient Dermatology Unit. Over the next year these preceptors will play a significant role in the success of Cedars’ Emerging Leaders. Mentors and interns meet with the CNO every other week to monitor the progress of the intern, plan for upcoming experiences and projects, and support the leadership roles of these individuals. “It is a well-worth investment of our time to commit to the development of these nursing leaders. This model of formal training and experience can only benefit the interns and the institutions in which they will work, once the program is completed,” says, Silvia Stradi, RN, MSN, Chief Nursing Officer at Cedars Medical Center.



13 students recently graduated from Jackson Memorial Hospital’s School of Radiologic Sciences. Alfredo Bringas received the JRCERT Valedictorian award as well as the Academic Excellence and the Outstanding Achievement awards. Sherrell Hill and Cesar A. Alvarez were the recipients of the Mallinkropt Clinical Excellence award.

First Row (l-r): Sherrell Hill, Alba L. Pulido, Alfredo A. Bringas, Renee Richards, Tyrone Rudio and Christopher Cendan.
Second Row (l-r): Jean Ronold Booz, Ricardo Garcia, Romona Smith, Cesar A. Alvarez, Mark S. Martin, Roby M. Chelagiri and Jim Kelly, pose for a picture after the 2007 School of Radiologic Sciences graduation at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Sponsored by the Jackson’s Radiology Services/Diagnostic Imaging Division, the Radiologic Sciences program has been educating students since 1955. The program provides cutting-edge instrumentation, techniques and clinical applications. The mission of the program is to provide comprehensive didactic and clinical education to enable graduates to acquire the entry-level skills required of a Radiologic Technologist.

(l-r) Tometra Meadows, B.S., R.T., Clinical Coordinator, Department of Radiology; Alfredo Bringas, winner of the JRCERT Valedictorian; Clinical Excellence Award Winners Cesar Alvarez and Sherrell Hill; and Courtney Glenn, M.S.M., R.T., radiography program director, JHS School of Radiologic Sciences, pose for a picture after the 2007 School of Radiologic Sciences graduation at Jackson Memorial Hospital.



HCA is proud to announce their second course of the Nursing Emerging Leadership Program starting in October, 2007. This eighteen month program is an ongoing commitment to provide leadership for the development and education of clinical nurse managers/directors as well as providing a succession plan for employees retiring from management positions within the division. The Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) is designed to recruit nurses with high leadership potential from South Florida as well as from within HCA East Florida Division.

This program provides leadership skills specific for the healthcare industry through didactic and hands on training. A mentor will be provided for each intern in the program. The Emerging Leadership Program educates future managers/directors to a high level of competency which provides success and job satisfaction within their own work environment. The comprehensive evidence based curriculum includes communication, human resource management, financial and regulatory management, systems thinking, interpersonal effectiveness, personal mastery, and caring.



They’re not just good at patient care. Miami Dade College’s (MDC) physician assistant students are also masters at answering hard questions. On May 26, they proved knowledge truly is power by winning second place at the 2008 Student Academy of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (SAAAPA) National Medical Challenge Bowl held in San Antonio.

MDC qualified for the Challenge Bowl after winning the state championship title in February for the second consecutive year. At the national competition, team members Victor Quiñones, Jeffrey Abucay and Oswaldo Franco beat out squads from Duke University, Cornell University and Charles Drew University of Medicine, among others.

(l-r) Oswaldo Franco, Jeffrey Abucay, and Victor Quiñones.

“It’s a big accomplishment for us,” Quiñones said. “We became the crowd favorite because we were the underdogs.”

The competition consisted of two rounds of trivia, leading up to a final showdown. Participants from all over the country were quizzed on general medicine, such as the common cause of pneumonia, as well as more advanced knowledge.

“It’s very competitive,” said Dr. Peter Gutierrez, chair of the MDC physician assistant program. “Forty-eight teams participated, and, of those, most were students in masters-level programs.”

The vigorous physician assistant program at MDC trains students for in-demand careers performing various aspects of medical care, such as theory, instrumentation, diagnosis, treatment, and administration of medication under the supervision of a licensed physician.



The Barry University Center for Community Health and Minority Medicine recently opened as the new physical facility housing the School of Podiatric Medicine and the graduate Physician Assistant Program. The center provides the school with an increased capacity to attract and train medical students from diverse backgrounds and enables the school to serve the medical needs of the medically underserved populations of South Florida, the state, and the nation.

Q&A with Dr. Chet Evans, D.P.M., Dean for the School of Podiatric Medicine, Barry University

How will the Center improve education and training opportunities for careers in medicine?

Dr. Evans: The Center’s central mission is to train the next generation of health professionals to provide health care for the many minority and medically underserved communities of South Florida. The Center will serve more than 400 health professional students with two state of the art classrooms and a new physical assessment lab with a full range of diagnostic equipment. The Center has offices and meeting rooms for the faculty and staff of the School of Podiatric Medicine and the Physician Assistant Program.

There has been one new podiatric school opened in Arizona and another school will open in 2009. What does the future look like for a career in podiatric medicine?

Dr. Evans: Yes, the newest podiatric medical school will open at Western University of the Health Sciences in Pomona, California in fall 2009. The future looks very bright for podiatric physicians who now provide 40 percent of all foot related health services in the United States. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects job growth of about 16 percent in podiatric medicine between 2004 and 2014. The Podiatric Medicine Workforce Study, conducted by the Center for Health Workforce Studies in the School of Public Health at the State University of New York at Albany, suggests that the per capita demand for podiatric physicians will increase dramatically as the population ages, due to the greater risk of foot problems among the elderly and the U.S. health crisis created by the surge in rates of diabetes and obesity. Just to increase the supply of doctors of podiatric medicine (DPMs) sufficiently to keep pace with population growth podiatric medical schools would have to nearly triple their production of graduates. Moreover, to meet the increasing demand for foot care services generated by the increase in the elderly population and expected increases in obesity and diabetes, an even more dramatic increase in podiatric graduates would be needed.

Describe career opportunities in medicine in the State of Florida.

Dr. Evans: Two new allopathic medical schools recently opened at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and Florida International University in Miami. The opening of the two schools is to help address the nationwide shortage of physicians, especially in Florida. With the increased aging of the population and the large influx of immigrants, there is a health care professional manpower crisis. In addition, there is a lack of residency training programs in Florida. Unfortunately, after graduation many allopathic physicians are forced to train out of state and often end up practicing there. Because of the shortage of physicians, is an increasing demand for other primary care health professionals, including physician assistants and nurse practitioners. The expansion of the School of Podiatric Medicine and Physician Assistant Program at Barry University is governed by each programs’ accrediting body. The availability of resources to train students determines the ability to expand educational programs.

Why is medicine a great career choice?

Dr. Evans: There is a tremendous need for physicians and primary care health professionals of all types both in Florida and nationally. When the economy is in a downturn, there is usually an upswing in the number of applications to medical school. Medical students report feeling like they can control their own destiny when asked why they apply during hard economic times. Florida has one of the highest rates of ‘diobesety,’ the combined epidemic of diabetes and obesity. Physicians and other primary care practitioners are needed to care for the many chronic illnesses associated with these two diseases including kidney disease, hypertension, gangrene, non-healing wounds, and vascular disease, among others. In addition, primary care practitioners are needed to promote health education and disease prevention. At this time, health education and disease prevention is just as important as treatment. I highly advise students seeking a career to help others and to achieve a stable economic lifestyle, to choose the field of medicine.