Message from the Chair

This is my last message as chair of this section.

Please allow me to take this opportunity to thank all of you for this unique privilege as I pass the chair position to Dr. Thomas (Thom) Mitchel. It has been an honor to represent you all and to work with the following section officers: Thomas R. Mitchell - MD, FACEP, your incoming Chair who also was your Newsletter Editor for the past 2 years. Donald Lum, MD, FACEP, Immediate Past Chair who unfortunately will be unable to join us in Denver due to health issues. We will miss Don and we wish him well and a very speedy recovery. Otto J. Marquez, MD, FACEP, Secretary, who has expressed a desire to continue in the same position in the next leadership cycle. Otto will also represent us at the 2019 ACEP Council as the Workforce section Councillor. Thanks to Sullivan K Smith MD, FACEP, the section’s Chair-elect. These are individuals who have been highly committed and gave their precious time and energy ungrudgingly to advance the business of our Workforce section.

There are three other people who have been indispensable to me during my tenure as Chair. Mary Smith, formerly Mary Hines, is our Staff Liaison and has been more than invaluable to us as a section. She is a source of inspiration and a logistical bedrock who continues to do a fabulous job for us. Thank you, Mary. This past year we were privileged to have the indefatigable Dr. Paul Kivela, ACEP Past President, as the Board Liaison for the Workforce section. Dr. Kivela is always thinking about innovative workforce ideas. It has been a blast and a pleasure to hear him espouse some of these ideas. Thank you, Dr. Kivela. In the past 2 years, I was also privileged to work with Mr. EM  Workforce himself, Dr. Carlos Arturo Camargo. Dr. Camargo is a very busy man, but he graciously agreed to give us his time when I asked him to join us on multiple telephone call conferences and discussions about workforce issues in the past 2 years. As a bonus to our section, Dr. Camargo is our featured speaker during our section meeting. He will be presenting new, national EM workforce data – on both physicians and APPs. Mark your calendars; you certainly don’t want to miss his talk in Denver. Thank you, Carlos.

Finally, Dr. Sullivan Smith and I have had the honor of being members of the ACEP Emergency PANP Utilization Task Force in the past year. This group, with 47 members from across the country, was created by the ACEP Board of Directors and included representation from academia, large for-profit groups, independent groups of emergency physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. The mandate was to explore the role of advanced practice providers (APPs) in the emergency department (ED) and establishing recommendations for scope of practice and supervision for APP practice in the ED. After multiple meetings, online discussions and countless teleconferences this task force has just about wrapped up its work and will represent its recommendations to the ACEP Board in Denver. I will have some more to report to the section in Denver about this exhilarating experience.

Thanks everybody and see you all in Denver.

Regards,

Leslie Mukau, MD, FAAEP, FACEP