Support Groups

• Alumni Association Office

• Women's Faculty Development Caucus

• Student Employee Health Services

• UAMS Medical Staff Health Committee (Physician Health Committee)

• Housestaff Spouses' Auxiliary
  

Alumni Association Office

Founded in 1969, this organization is the present day successor to various attempts dating back to at least 1894 to have a strong and active UAMS College of Medicine alumni organization. Membership includes not only alumni but also current and former house officers, faculty, all physicians practicing in Arkansas, and friends of the College.

Activities for the benefit of housestaff depend on current needs. In the past the Alumni Association remodeled and painted the University Hospital Neonatal ICU call room/conference room, bought the combination locks for all of the housestaff call rooms at UH, helped underwrite the expense for dinner for the Department of Internal Medicine Seminar and provided the Telephone Cards for all housestaff members. We also offer financial and other support for the Interns’ & Residents’ Spouses Auxiliary.

For departments that request it, we send "Little Rock Survival packets" to all residents new to the area, containing maps and other information on Arkansas.

Administrative Staff:

The Women’s Faculty Development Caucus

Dr. Debra Fiser, currently Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, founded the Women’s Faculty Development Caucus in 1989, to address the shortage of women in the higher echelons of academic medicine. While women have been entering medical school in record numbers in the last ten years, the numbers of women in positions of leadership have grown much more slowly. It is generally recognized that to remedy this situation, women need access to networking, promotion and tenure advice, mentoring, leadership training, and other professional development opportunities. Our mission is to inspire, encourage, and enable women physicians and scientists to realize their professional and personal goals. Our professional development efforts have resulted in an expanding organization that is beginning to address the needs of all faculty in the College of Medicine. In 1997, the Women’s Caucus received the prestigious AAMC Women in Leadership Award for professional development initiatives. This award acknowledges the Caucus and the UAMS College of Medicine as being on the leading edge of professional development for women faculty in academic medicine.

In 1991, the Caucus was given a home and staff in the Office of Continuing Medical Education and Faculty Development when Dr. Lee Lee Doyle became the Associate Dean. This gave the Caucus the necessary centralization and staff to support the growing number of projects. Glenda Cooper, Director of the Office of Faculty Affairs, coordinates Caucus activities, serving as the liaison between Caucus leaders and the membership.

Caucus publications include the Absolutely Unofficial Survival Handbook for Faculty (or FIGS for Fill In The Gaps), and various advising guides. There are special events, such as the Annual Professional Development Day, held every fall with topical themes and nationally known speakers. We welcome new residents at Orientation with the FIGS books, brochures, eye chart cards, and the opportunity to talk to women faculty.  The Caucus also supports the American Medical Women's Association student organization. The project work and events are accomplished through the following committees:

· The Research Committee is concerned with the professional development of women in the basic sciences. They support women faculty and students in science through informal meetings with guest speakers, career day, and informal mentoring of graduate students. They offer an annual reception for new women scientists and post-docs and have provided strong support for Career Day. 

· The Women in Training (WIT) Committee, is charged with developing ways of delivering information to and networking with all levels of students and Housestaff. This has been a challenge with three campuses and five types of students and postgraduates (medical students, graduate students, medical residents, medical postdoctoral fellows, and basic science postdoctoral fellows). A multi-specialty panel discussion is offered biannually for medical students to help them better match a lifestyle with a specialty. Some web sites that may be helpful to women are www.mommd.com, www.womeninmedicine.com/index.cfm, www.womensurgeons.org, www.amwa-doc.org/

· The Publications Committee assists in gathering information for the Absolutely Unofficial Handbook.

· The Advising/Mentoring Committee established an informal, structured method of mentoring whereby senior women advise junior women faculty.  The purpose of this program is to provide career planning for junior faculty so they can meet the inevitable changes in academic medicine with creativity, discipline and practical solutions. Our mentoring program has been a national model.

· The Professional Development Day Committee plans the annual career development day open to all faculty and Housestaff.

· The Salary Equity Committee is charged with conducting periodic studies to track salary equity issues. 

2005-2007 WFDC Officers
President- Kathleen Gilbert, PhD
Vice-President - Mary Aitken, MD, MPH
Secretary/Treasurer – Dana Gaddy, PhD
Executive Committee: Drs. Mary Aitken, Paula Anderson, Terry Angtuaco, Laurie Barber, Anissa Buckner, Gwen Childs, Lee Lee Doyle, Jill Fussell, Kathleen Gilbert, Kim Hiatt, Cindy Kane, Diana Gaddy, Roberta Monson, Creshelle Nash, Temera Perry, LJ Perrot, Amy Scurlock, Jan Shorey, Sara Tariq, Vy Mui, Linda Worley.

Past Presidents: Laurie Barber, MD; Cindy Kane, PhD; Paula Anderson, MD; Jeanne K. Heard, MD, PhD; Terry Angtuaco, MD; Debby Fiser, MD, Debra Simmons, MD, and Linda L. Worley, MD

The Outstanding Woman Faculty Award is given annually to a woman selected by her peers for leadership, mentoring, scholarship and achievement. Dr. Debra Fiser was the first recipient of this award, which began in 2001.  Subsequent recipients are: Dr. Terry Angtuaco (2002) and Dr. Laura Hutchins (2003), Dr. Jeanne K. Heard (2004) and Dr. Jeannie Wei (2005).

Contact Glenda J. Cooper, or Tina Dobbins, in the Office of Faculty Affairs for more information at 526.4661 or visit our Web site for planned activities http://www.uams.edu/facultyaffairs/faculty_affairs/default.asp

Employee Health/Student
Preventive Health Services (EH/SPHS)

www.uams.edu/dfcm/student-employeehealth/default.htm

In order to ensure the safety and health of our employees, patients and visitors, all new employees, including Housestaff, must complete a New Employee Medical Screening within the first 30 days of employment.

Our clinic is located in the Family Medical Center building on 6^th and Elm Street. EH/SPHS has a separate entrance in this building. We are open from 8-4:30, Monday- Friday. A satellite clinic is located on the 8^th floor of University Hospital and is open 7-4:30 PM, Monday -Friday. It is not necessary to make an appointment at either clinic.

Services available through EH/SPHS include:

ANNUAL TB SKIN TESTING. ALL UAMS faculty and Housestaff are required to have an annual TB skin test, prior to the anniversary of the employee’s date of hire. For those employees who have a documented history of a past positive TB skin test it is still necessary to contact us for a TB health card in place of the skin test.

MEASLES/MUMPS/RUBELLA VACCINE (MMR). All UAMS employees must have proof of an MMR vaccine as an adult.

TETANUS/DIPTHERIA VACCINE (Td). This vaccine is not mandatory, but we highly encourage employees to receive a Td booster every 10 years. EH/SPHS will provide this vaccine to an employee, at no cost, at any time, while you are employed at UAMS.

HEPATITS B VACCINE. The series of 3 Hepatitis B immunizations are strongly encouraged for all UAMS employees who have potential for blood or body fluid exposure. Employees who have received the vaccine or who refuse it must sign a waiver.

VARICELLA VACCINE. Employees who have a negative history of varicella and have potential to cause harm to a patient if they spread varicella are encouraged to have a varicella titer drawn. For those employees with a non-reactive titer, EH/SPHS will provide the series of two varicella injections.

Employees and housestaff should feel free to contact the EH/SPHS office at 686-6565 any time they have questions regarding our service.       Alice Schneider, RNP

UAMS Medical Staff Health Committee (Physician Health Committee)

What

If you think you may suffer from potential impairment by virtue of a substance abuse, mental, or physical disorder, let us help you - your self-referral to the Committee will be handled in strict confidence

UAMS Housestaff Spouses' Auxiliary

Date page was last updated 03/20/08