Career Challenge

The Hospitalist. 2010 November;2010(11):

November 1, 2010|The Hospitalist

Whether it’s directing a quality-improvement initiative on the hospital floor, training new recruits, or presenting metrics to hospital administrators, demonstrating leadership is a key competency for hospitalists. And, despite how it looks in the movies, most leaders are trained, not born.

That’s the foundation of SHM’s Leadership Academy program, a series of intense, four-day programs designed specifically to help hospitalists develop their leadership skills in a hands-on environment.

The demand for continued leadership training has been so high that SHM has developed a third leadership course for hospitalists who have completed either of the original tracks. CME credits are available for all three Leadership Academy course levels.

Chapter Updates

Low Country South Carolina Chapter

The chapter joined forces with CME University and conducted a CME event Aug. 14 in Charleston, S.C. Attendees listened to Dr. George Karam and Dr. Steven Deitelzweig speak on MRSA infections, VTE prophylaxis, and hyponatremia. The discussion was very focused on the hospitalist, and the Q&A format allowed for more audience interaction. Pre- and post-questionnaires were distributed to help outline the objectives of each topic.

Connecticut Chapter

The chapter met June 3 at Thali in New Haven, Conn., and featured two speakers. Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, an internal medicine physician and founder of Doctors for America, spoke about his role in shaping healthcare reform legislation. There are about 50 million uninsured Americans and about 14,000 Americans losing their health insurance each day, he said. He also discussed the variety of reasons why the AMA pushed back against universal health insurance. He finished his speech by describing what the new health reform has in store for hospitals, and noted that there are more doctors involved in advocacy than ever before.

Amir Jaffer, MD, FHM, division chief of hospital medicine at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, discussed several cases about anticoagulation, including some pre-op and post-op scenarios.

The meeting concluded with a discussion about SHM membership and leadership of the Connecticut chapter.

The new course, March 11-14 at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, will follow the same four-day format as its predecessors. For updates and to register, visit the “Hospitalist Leadership Academies” page of the SHM website, www.hospitalmedicine.org/leadership.

“This is about building skills and growing momentum,” says Tina Budnitz, MPH, senior advisor for quality initiatives at SHM. “Participants walk away from Leadership Academy with newfound tools and the motivation to use them to lead important projects in their hospital.”

For Budnitz, the new academy course is a natural extension of the existing program. “Developing leadership skills is an ongoing process, so it makes sense to provide new material and new insights to hospitalists,” she says.

A Better Way to Communicate

The new course will bring in leadership experts and will help established leaders manage their hospitalist teams, says Leadership Committee chair Patience Agborbesong, MD, SFHM, who plans on attending the Las Vegas academy.

“It came into being because people were asking about other topics,” says Dr. Agborbesong, lead hospitalist at Wake Forest Inpatient Physicians in Winston-Salem, N.C. “We were getting the same questions from attendees asking for more. Hospitalists were saying, ‘Now what? I feel like I still need to develop these skills.’ ”

One of the key sessions in the new course focuses on advanced communications—a critical skill for hospitalists with long-term career aspirations. In the session, scientist-turned-filmmaker and author Randy Olson will offer his unique perspective on how clinicians and scientists can improve their communications with team members, hospital administrators, patients, and the public. After laying the groundwork for better communications, Olson will lead the hospitalists through a highly interactive set of exercises that culminate in participants presenting back to the group.