Barratt wins Distinguished Faculty Award in Professionalism
The McGovern Medical School Office of Professionalism has named Michelle S. Barratt, MD, MPH, professor in the Department of Pediatrics, the 2023 winner of the John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Distinguished Faculty Award in Professionalism Education.
“It is a great honor to receive the John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Distinguished Faculty Award in Professionalism Education,” Barratt said. “I have taught at McGovern Medical School for over 30 years and have focused on the professional identity formation of medical students, residents, and faculty in a variety of initiatives.”
Barratt has fostered the growth of mature professional identities of McGovern Medical School trainees for more than three decades. She has addressed a variety of highly important goals of professional maturity as developing a humanistic mindset and how to adapt to professional failures.
Barratt is the co-director of the Healer’s Art elective for first-year medical students and served as a presenter in The Care of the Soul: Service as a Way of Life. For pediatric residents, she has led discussions on error and the importance of sharing failings to allow individuals to push past shame and to pay forward to other learners a way to avoid the same error.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barratt has begun sharing ongoing emails for a resiliency-building initiative called Wellness in the Time of COVID. For faculty, she has led training on Difficult Learners that promotes faculty development in assessing professionals and also helps support faculty morale with discussions of personal and professional growth during division meetings.
The John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Distinguished Faculty Award in Professionalism Education is awarded to faculty who have established one or more successful programs for promoting education in aspects of professionalism for learners enrolled in McGovern Medical School undergraduate or graduate programs. Recipients of the award receive $2,500 and are honored at an award ceremony where they provide a brief presentation on their contributions.
Examples of professional education programs include but are not limited to: professional identity formation, faculty development in assessing professionalism, organizational professionalism efforts, resiliency building initiatives, assessing and remediating professional lapses, interprofessional education, and failing successfully.