Last keynote talk of #CAPCSeminar19: a panel discussion on the future of PC with @rabowm, @MichaelDFratkin, Donna Stevens, Tammy Kang, and @BettyFerrellPhD. My notes, trying to relate to previous points:
We worked for so long to get more referrals, now we’re trying to figure out how to deal with so many. I wonder if people have bought into our message or is this another example of us having a messaging problem and others taking advantage of our eagerness to care for sick people?
If programs are small, it’s important to stay focused from the very beginning on what the goal and scope are. Eg. @MichaelDFratkin says: “We provide access to specialty PC” emphasis on the specialty. We can’t do everything when we’re small.
Defining value isn’t just about the $. It can be about the partnerships created to meet the needs of seriously ill people, it can be about finding someone else’s problem and being the solution. We don’t exist in isolation.
If expanding access is important, could leadership value time to educate others? This could be another way to measure productivity rather than pure clinical productivity. One idea (a way to help when demand > capacity) is to have dedicated office hours.
It’s important that while we have to show value to others, we also have to show value to our teams that are doing the work. Why are we doing what we’re doing? Why is it important?
This gets to the importance of self care and preventing burnout or moral injury. Tammy Kang says they don’t talk about “work-life balance” but “sustainability”. Not just program sustainability but self and team sustainability, which is fluid over time.
It’s important to be VERY intentional and operational about self care, asking every team member: “What is your self care plan?” Being specific to include ALL dimensions: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual.
We don’t take care of patients, we take care of people. And we’re all people, too. We need to focus on taking care of us as people just like we focus on taking care of our patients as people.
Professionally, it’s important to remember that not all team members have easy paths to advancement which can be unfulfilling. We need to be intentional about helping ALL team members realize projects and ideas to advance our teams and their professional lives.
Finally, so insightful that I put it in its own tweet: Burnout, or moral injury, which seems like a better term, is about working in systems that don’t sustain us. It happens to us in #hapc a lot whether we want to admit it or not. It’s not just about doing generic “self care”
“Teaching the canary MBSR won’t help if there’s no oxygen in the mine.”
We need to find what gives our selves and our teams oxygen and breath and be INTENTIONAL about focusing on that, not just when we have time. We can’t do all this sacred work if we’ve forgotten to breathe.
We need to find what gives our selves and our teams oxygen and breath and be INTENTIONAL about focusing on that, not just when we have time. We can’t do all this sacred work if we’ve forgotten to breathe.
