aaem.org
Spotlight On...
Kerry B. Broderick, MD
Kerry B. Broderick, MD was an Emergency Nurse at Northwestern University Medical Center. She returned to Medical school at Rush in Chicago and subsequently completed an Emergency Medicine Residency at the University of Chicago. She currently is on Staff at Denver Health Emergency Department where she has assumed numerous roles including Student Education Director, Associate Residency Director. Currently she is Director of Student/Intern and Fellow Education. Dr. Broderick is an ABEM examiner, on the National and International ACEP Education Committee and currently serves on a task force for SAEM on the examining 'Women in Academic Emergency Medicine.'
TG: Dr. Broderick, you have recently been awarded a grant to look at interventions by ED personnel to address alcohol use by patients coming into the emergency department. Can you tell us about it?
KB: Substance use and misuse has been an interest of mine since I was an Emergency Nurse at Northwestern in Chicago. I feel that we do a great job talking to patients about their 'lacerations, fractures, etc.' but we almost never talk about the disease behind the injuries or illness, namely substance abuse. This is my 3rd grant for SBIRT - Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment. This grant will help expand beyond the emergency department to the women's care clinic and school based high school clinics to increase universal screening for substance use. Through our baseline National Alcohol Screening Day, which was April 5th this year] we know we have a baseline 44% screen positive rate of ED patients using the NIAAA criteria. [Men: 4 or more drinks per occasion or more than 14 drinks per week; women: 3 or more per occasion and more than 7 per week.] Hopefully, this grant will create a police level change surrounding universal screening and intervention leading to health insurance reimbursement for this important part of our profession.TG: The "Two-Minute Intervention" is the cornerstone intervention for your project. How can we learn how to use the two minute intervention?
KB: There is an interactive website through my colleagues in Boston, MA [www.ed.bmc.sbirt.] This shows a longer version. My goal is for practitioners to practice it until they can get it down to 2 minutes so it will be more reliably used. There is no mystery; it is really just starting a conversation around substance use and connecting the ED visit to a patient's substance abuse when present.TG: A.C.E.S. - Art, Chaos, Ethics, Science - is a seminar group that you helped start at Denver Health to address the personal experience of working in emergency medicine. How has your participation in A.C.E.S. affected your daily attitude and mindset at work?
KB: I always felt that we concentrate on teaching our residents, students, and nurses about the science part of medicine but not about the human side. It is the human side that really intrigues me. How do you keep your faith after seeing what we see day after day? How do we develop mechanisms to not 'burn out' and not lose our compassion for our patients? The concept started over a glass of wine at a colleague's home with her husband and the idea took on a life of its own. It gives me an understanding that there are other health practitioners who also struggle with these issues. The more openly we address them; the better we are able to learn to cope.TG: What advice would you give to medical students and residents looking for mentorship in emergency medicine? Any special advice for female residents seeking mentorship from female colleagues?
KB: Go out and pursue mentorship actively and early. Mentorship is a two way street. You need to give to get! You won't ever find one perfect mentor but maybe a few. Women may have a tougher time finding a woman mentor as here are fewer women in emergency medicine. Don't be afraid to ask for some guidance. Any issue you have, believe me your potential mentor has seen or had herself. Women do have unique issues around leadership, relationships and family.