My respiratory therapy (RT) week tradition is to sit back, reflect, and thank those who have positively impacted my life and career over the past twelve months. Please forgive me if I have missed your name in this blog post.
I have the opportunity to work, volunteer and take a moment to write this note because of the support of my fantastic wife, Jessica. She is a strong woman who has done an incredible job raising our daughter. Thank you Sophia for being a good girl and making good choices ( any Brene Brown fans here who get this reference? 🙂 ). Thank you, Sherry, my mother, for continuing to share your love and energy with my family despite everything you have gone through over the past two years.
John Meloche of Melotel Inc., I appreciate your sponsorship and support of my online presence.
Carolyn McCoy, Andrew West, Gino De Pinto, Kelly Hassall, Sue Jones, Andrea White-Markham, Julia Infantino, Sheery Tse, Jody S. , Anna E, Sam G. , Mieke F. , Julie Brown, Dr. Mika N. , Bernie Ho, Carolyn G. , Ronald Chan, Dr Y. Shukla, Dr D. Dancey, Sarah Dawe, Rosa Grande, Monique V.H., and Dr Effie. Thank you all for your support.
Thank you to the followers of this blog who continue to support and motivate me.
“This course has allowed me to understand myself better and shed light on my strengths and weaknesses as a facilitator. I have also learned about elements that make one a good educator. This knowledge has allowed me to identify my past great preceptors, and look up to them as my role models. In addition, this course has taught me various coaching approaches, frameworks and tools to implement at work with my students.”
October 22, 2021
The above quote is the summary paragraph from my final assignment submitted for the Clinical Educator certificate provided by The Michener Institute at UHN (PD-813). I greatly value the systematic, useful and real-life coaching and feedback strategies and techniques taught in this class.
Why am I posting about it?
I wanted to bring attention to the importance of supporting students and how important it is to do it right. By posting about this I hope to nudge and remind those who were planning to attain additional training in this topic.
What was not mentioned in the final assignment is the fact that my father unexpectedly passed away from a massive heart attack 3 days after I enrolled in the course. There was no way that I would have had the time, priority or concentration to complete the course at that time. I am thankful to the Continuing Education team at The Michener Institute at UHN who accommodated me by extending the deadline. Months later I began studying the content again. Having a newborn made things challenging once again, but I managed to enjoy and complete the course. If I was able to complete this certificate under my circumstances, I am sure you can as well.
Farzad Refahi
Dec 4th, 2021 https://respiratory.blog/clinicaleducator/
My respiratory therapy (RT) week tradition is to sit back, reflect, and thank those who have positively impacted my life and career over the past twelve months.
Please forgive me if I missed including your name in this blog post, as it has been a very unique and unusual year for me. It has been a bitter-sweet year for sure. We unexpectantly lost my father to a massive heart attack. Also, the RT community lost Kevin Taylor, a great leader and advocate. I want to express eternal gratitude to Kevin Taylor and my father, Mohsen Refahi. My mother, Sherry, and wife, Jessica, have been strong and supportive, and they have my utmost love and respect. My wife and I had our first child around five weeks ago. I am currently on parental leave and loving every second of it. My wife is a lovely person, and my admiration and respect have grown beyond possible levels. Thank you to the PFT RTs at Markham-Stouffville Hospital for accommodating my time off (with a special thanks to Carolyn Greer).
Respiratory therapists, in all settings and positions, continue to help during this pandemic. I recognize and applaud you for your dedication and hard work!
My online presence is because of followers like you who have taken the time to view and share my content. Thanks for including me in your journey of growth.
John Meloche sponsors my website. Despite his busy schedule and family responsibilities, he does not hesitate to lend a helping hand. So shout out to MeloTel Inc.!
The following individuals have been very kind to me; they include me in different and exciting projects: Carolyn McCoy, Micah Kooperberg, Elizabeth French, Carly Brockington and Andrea White-Markham.
I also recognize the work of RTs in the background who support our profession, including instructors, clinical educators, researchers and administrative staff. Some of the names that come to my mind are Carole Hamp, Kevin Taylor, Andrew West, Paula Smith, Nancy Garvey, and Cheryl Connors.
I have also enrolled in the Clinical Educator certificate program through The Michener Institute. While going through the course content, I recalled three exceptional preceptors I met during my clinical years (2013-2014). While I mentioned them in my final written assignment, they also deserve public recognition: Sandra Said, Ron Boudah, and Gary Ackerman.
Dan Pinard, thanks for taking the time to answer my technical/equipment questions.
Sheery Tse, you continue to remind me of the CE opportunities. I appreciate it!
Deidre Kelly, I appreciate that you made the decision to highlight an RT, and the respiratory therapy field, in York University’s magazine.
This post is dedicated to my father. He was a kind hearted man who worked hard to have a humble and good life for the family. My father and mother have been a great role models for my brother and I. While he was taken away way too sudden and soon, I am blessed to have had him in my life.
I sure have got lost in the feeds of different social media platforms… Have got anxious about having the phone notification light blinking and not being able to look at my phone… Have made impulsive Amazon purchases… Have procrastinated by watching back to back Standup Comedy shows on Netflix… and have unfortunately made empty and impulsive, reactionary or inappropriate comments out of feeling of void? or lack of attention? I believe that while social media platforms and apps serve a purpose, they can still be programmed to be addictive! I can say that my addiction to social media and phone is stronger than the one to coffee/caffeine.
I have recently unsubscribed from a lot of junk emails or modified my notification preferences. I have uninstalled unnecessary apps, turned off notifications for messaging apps, I listen to services that have few to no advertisement..etc I don’t rely on seeing feeds and posts from friends to be reminded to check in with them, I try to proactively contact friends.
