5 research outputs found
Views of institutional leaders on maintaining humanism in today’s practice
Objective
To explore leadership perspectives on how to maintain high quality efficient care that is also person-centered and humanistic.
Methods
The authors interviewed and collected narrative transcripts from a convenience sample of 32 institutional healthcare leaders at seven U.S. medical schools. The institutional leaders were asked to identify factors that either promoted or inhibited humanistic practice. A subset of authors used the constant comparative method to perform qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts. They reached thematic saturation by consensus on the major themes and illustrative examples after six conference calls.
Results
Institutional healthcare leaders supported vision statements, policies, organized educational and faculty development programs, role modeling including their own, and recognition of informal acts of kindness to promote and maintain humanistic patient-care. These measures were described individually rather than as components of a coordinated plan. Few healthcare leaders mentioned plans for organizational or systems changes to promote humanistic clinician-patient relationships.
Conclusions
Institutional leaders assisted clinicians in dealing with stressful practices in beneficial ways but fell short of envisaging systems approaches that improve practice organization to encourage humanistic care
How Physicians Draw Satisfaction and Overcome Barriers in their Practices: “It Sustains Me”
Objective
Major reorganizations of medical practice today challenge physicians’ ability to deliver compassionate care. We sought to understand how physicians who completed an intensive faculty development program in medical humanism sustain their humanistic practices.
Methods
Program completers from 8 U.S. medical schools wrote reflections in answer to two open-ended questions addressing their personal motivations and the barriers that impeded their humanistic practice and teaching. Reflections were qualitatively analyzed using the constant comparative method.
Results
Sixty-eight physicians (74% response rate) submitted reflections. Motivating factors included: 1) identification with humanistic values; 2) providing care that they or their family would want; 3) connecting to patients; 4) passing on values through role modelling; 5) being in the moment. Inhibiting factors included: 1) time, 2) stress, 3) culture, and 4) episodic burnout.
Conclusions
Determination to live by one’s values, embedded within a strong professional identity, allowed study participants to alleviate, but not resolve, the barriers. Collaborative action to address organizational impediments was endorsed but found to be lacking.
Practice implications
Fostering fully mature professional development among physicians will require new skills and opportunities that reinforce time-honored values while simultaneously partnering with others to nurture, sustain and improve patient care by addressing system issues
Intervenir sobre la cultura organizacional: ¿qué aspectos se pueden considerar?
La cultura organizacional (co) es un macroconstructo que involucra una gran variedad de componentes y funciones organizacionales (Warner, 2014). Reyes y Moros (2018) señalan que tiene su origen en el estudio realizado en Hawthorne por Elton Mayo y otros investigadores de la Escuela de las Relaciones Humanas de la AdministraciĂłn, en el que buscaban identificar la influencia de las condiciones fĂsicas y ambientales en el desempeño individual. Para Reyes y Moros (2018), la co se siguiĂł desarrollando en los años setenta con Pettigrew, para ser entendida como un sistema de significados que tanto pĂşblica como colectivamente es aceptado para operar en un tiempo y por un grupo determinado. Los autores la definen como “… un sistema de significados compartidos por los miembros de la organizaciĂłn, los cuales son el resultado de una construcciĂłn social constituida a travĂ©s de sĂmbolos y como tal deben ser interpretados”1a ediciĂł
A Multi-Institutional Longitudinal Faculty Development Program in Humanism Supports the Professional Development of Faculty Teachers
The authors describe the first 11 academic years (2005–2006 through 2016–2017) of a longitudinal, small-group faculty development program for strengthening humanistic teaching and role modeling at 30 U.S. and Canadian medical schools that continues today. During the yearlong program, small groups of participating faculty met twice monthly with a local facilitator for exercises in humanistic teaching, role modeling, and related topics that combined narrative reflection with skills training using experiential learning techniques. The program focused on the professional development of its participants. Thirty schools participated; 993 faculty, including some residents, completed the program