Series Description

Creating a Culture of Well-Being at an Academic Health Center

Reports from various sources indicate that chronic stress and burnout is prevalent in the health professions, affecting over half of primary care practitioners and even more in several specialties. This trend may begin earlier with the observed decline in empathy during medical student and residency training and the alarming rates of burnout in medical and other students in the health professions. 

As educators, administrators and academic health leaders grapple with developing interventions to address these issues, evidence is emerging that programs aimed at fostering resilience and stress reduction such as mindfulness, reflective capacity and appreciate inquiry, also lead to increased empathy and improved well being. Furthermore, the AAMC, ACGME and other national organizations are working to improve the learning environment and facilitate the creation of a culture of well-being at academic health centers. 

The IAMSE 2017 Winter Web Seminar Series has an impressive panel of leaders who will share their expertise on trainee stress and burnout and curricular interventions that have been shown to address these issues. The series is designed to help faculty, course directors and administrators understand the issues and hear about successful approaches and innovations to improve the health and well-being of students, residents and faculty. We hope that this series will bring these serious issues to your awareness and provide you with possible solutions and ideas on how to move forward at your institution.

Webinar Description

Leaders in Academic Medical Centers face a need for robust change in healthcare. They are faced with diminished resources, expanded expectations and are called upon daily to lead change and achieve the “Triple Aim” of better health, better care and lower costs. Leaders of change also face increased stress and burnout. Thomas Bodenheimer’s, “Quadruple Aim” challenges leaders to prioritize their own health in order to effectively promote the health of others. By applying the continuous quality improvement (CQI) process at the personal level, leaders can demonstrate the knowledge and skills to lead change while simultaneously promoting personal improvement.

This session will focus on describing strategies for leading change at the personal level. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on the components of the process of change, their own resilience, personal vision and to strengthen their commitment to personal health choices. They will critically analyze and prioritize areas for personal improvement and define global aims, SMART objectives, actionable steps, timelines, challenges and resources for sustainability. The process begins with a personal needs assessment and ends with an actionable personal improvement plan. Participants will be supported to implement their personal plans and to partner and disseminate tools with team members and colleagues at their home institution.

At the conclusion of this seminar, the participant will be able to:

• Describe the importance of achieving “The Quadruple Aim”
• Discuss Strategies for Leading Change Personally and at the Team level
• Adapt the model for systems improvement as a framework from which to apply personal health improvement.

Speaker

Catherine Pipas, MD, MPH
Professor of Community and Family Medicine, Assistant Dean for Medical Education, Geisel Medical Director, Office of Community-Based Education and Research

Biography.