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Leadership Lessons from Dr. Levey In a book published this summer, Gerald S. Levey, M.D., dean emeritus of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and former vice chancellor of UCLA Medical Sciences, discusses the lessons he learned during nearly 16 years at the helm of one of America’s premier healthcare institutions. Dr. Levey wrote the book as a business memoir intended to provide insights for leaders of all types of organizations. “The traits I identify are as relevant to business or government as they are to medicine,” he says. “Rather than going into detail about issues like cost containment, patient satisfaction and quality of care, I wanted to share how a successful leader makes decisions and the role of the leadership team in achieving the institution’s goals.” Never Be Afraid to Do the Right Thing: A Leadership Guide in an Age of Change and Challenge (Second River Healthcare Press) highlights the challenges Dr. Levey faced shortly after arriving at UCLA and being confronted with the damage caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. It soon became clear that a significant portion of Dr. Levey’s mandate would be overseeing the building of a new hospital. “In one fell swoop, the job I thought I was going to have completely changed,” he says. The book’s title derives from Dr. Levey’s favorite business admonishment. He frequently advised members of his leadership team that, more important than whether a decision turned out to be correct, was whether it was “the moral, ethical and honest thing to do.” He argues that one of the most important traits of a strong leader is the ability to adapt to circumstances. “No one knows what the healthcare system will look like 10, 20 or 30 years from now,” he says. “But the leaders of that system are going to have to know how to adapt. If, for example, Medicare or Medicaid were drastically changed, they would have to figure out how to function at a high level in such a system.” Never Be Afraid to Do the Right Thing is available from www.Amazon.com and www.SecondRiverHealthcare.com UCLA FOOTBALL GAME Mark your calendar to join other UCLA Health System employees and their guests. UCLA vs. Cal Saturday, October 29 Rose Bowl, Pasadena $25 per ticket (4 ticket limit per person) $11 bus transportation (optional) Cash Only. No refunds! Tickets on sale now through October 10 at RRUCLA Main Cashier, 200 UCLA Medical Plaza Main Cashier, and SMUCLA Main Cashier. Get your tickets while supplies last! Go to http://uclabruins.cstv.com, and click on “sports” for event information. 2011 Holiday Card Collection The Holiday Card Art Program strives to create opportunities for “kids to be kids.” Artists work with children during long hospital stays to encourage creative expression. The collection features cards of the season created by young patients who share their interpretation of holiday celebrations. A collector’s Barbie card, designed by Mattel, Inc., is also available. Proceeds from card sales benefit the Chase Child Life Program, whose specialists work with young patients to ease fear and anxiety during lengthy hospitalizations. Holiday cards are $20 per box for 12 holiday cards and envelopes. Early-bird pricing of $15 is available for cards ordered September 15 through October 7, 2011. For more information visit: www.uclahealth.org/holidaycards or email childlife@mednet.ucla.edu 2
UCLApeople Suzanne Travis, Registered Nurse, Clinical Nurse II Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital Healing with Humor Travis is an oncology nurse and a stand-up comedienne who uses humor to connect with patients. She has worked at UCLA for a total of 18 years — first as a nurse in the oncology unit at UCLA Medical Center, then as a UCLA Home Health nurse and, for the past three years, as an oncology nurse at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital. How did you become interested in stand-up comedy? Back in the early 1990s, when I was a home health nurse for AIDS patients, I had a patient who was very funny and who at the end of his life was at home still making jokes when he knew he was dying. At the exact same time, I had another patient who was a professional comic who used to listen to me make jokes about being single and being a nurse and he said, “You really should perform comedy because you’re so funny.” He encouraged me to take a class at UCLA Extension and I loved it. I started performing and soon the University Hilton gave a friend and me a space to perform on Friday and Saturday nights. We called it Club 555 and would sell tickets and donate the money we earned. Over the years, I’ve performed in countless clubs and have hosted about a dozen comedy fundraisers. How do you make your patients laugh? If a patient tells me he’s depressed or sick of being at the hospital, I might say, “Well, if you weren’t depressed, you’d be nuts!” A comment like that will make the patient laugh and think, “Thank God, it’s a normal reaction to being in this hospital.” It just erases the anxiety. If a patient has been with us for a long time and is finally getting to go home, I might say, “Are you sad about going home today? Do you want me to keep you a little longer?” Humor humanizes patients and elevates them out of the patient role where their identity may be lost. Laughter also equalizes the relationship between nurse and patient. “Humor humanizes patients and elevates them out of the patient role where their identity may be lost.” What do you like about being an oncology nurse? I believe those who choose this profession have a calling. I feel I do. Also, you see so many inspirational things in the face of all the sadness — like the 22-year-old patient I just had who would wear a rainbow-colored clown wig and walk around the station making jokes with everybody. There’s a lot of authenticity when people are faced with very serious illnesses. Everybody becomes very close, very quickly. It’s extremely gratifying. Has being an oncology nurse changed you in any way? It has changed my worldview in that I don’t think we have control over certain things. And when something comes out of left field — like a perfectly healthy young person has a shoulder ache and then finds out he has a catastrophic illness that changes his whole life — you learn not to sweat the small stuff and to really cherish the right now. What’s the hardest part of the job? Because I’m a mother, my biggest challenge is dealing with other young mothers who are very sick. They might ask me how my daughter is doing in high school, knowing they might not live to see their own child in high school is very poignant. Sometimes I cry with my patients. I’m not afraid to be with them in that moment of sadness. It’s also hard when you get close to someone who has been coming in for maybe a year and who suddenly starts going downhill. It can be very hard, but that’s where the humor comes in. At the end of an intense day, if I personally didn’t have humor or the ability to poke fun at my own self, I wouldn’t last. What are your other interests? I love to write and have an article called “Laughter and Healing” in the first issue of 4Southwest Pulse, a new quarterly newsletter created for and by the nursing staff. I know this sounds so cliché but I’m also writing a screenplay with a friend. And I love to paint. I helped paint a mural of an ocean scene in the phlebotomy area of the 200 UCLA Medical Plaza building and am hoping to get permission to paint a mural for our floor here at Santa Monica. 3
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