Healthcare is a moving train, possibly about to derail. And many physicians feel like passengers on the train rather than the engineer. It's time to take a moment to think about what is happening and evaluate the options. Create and implement a plan that gets you and your patients to your desired destination, rather than leaving you all as a crumbled wreck on the side of the tracks.
The first step is to ask yourself if your current practice is meeting your personal and professional needs and your patient's needs. If the answer is no, the next question should be, are you willing to change? Traditional practices are centered on the physician's perceived needs- this doesn't work well because if patients and staff are not well served, the physician's life gets worse - not better. This is even truer of the increasingly complex relations between physicians, employed or volunteer, and hospitals or healthcare systems.
Acceptance of change is not comfortable for many physicians. A physician mentor can help practicing physicians to acquire the new skills that are needed to navigate the current environment. Working with a mentor can help physicians to improve their listening, communication, negotiation and persuasion skills- enhancements that will pay large dividends in improved practice operations, more successful contract negotiations, and more effective mechanisms for coping with stress.
Physicians have been slow to accept the need for working with a coach or mentor. We wonder why since the rewards can be very high. Physicians referred to us because they have been promoted to more complex roles and their superiors note some development needs report that, while they find the recommendation unusual or uncomfortable to start, the availability of a trusted advisor helps them with much faster, more successful transitions. Physicians referred to us because they are 'problems' for their partners or employers admit that, while embarrassed, they are actually relieved to have some help in managing a situation they really do not understand; generally these physicians lack insight into how their communication style drives the problems that they are experiencing in their practice. They generally are very successful in changing the dynamic. Physicians who are not really sure that they want to be physicians in the current problematic environment often find simple strategies to enhance their daily experience. On the rare occasion when someone discovers that they really don't want to be a practicing physician anymore, working with a mentor can make the transition process smoother and less frightening.
Physicians, now more than ever, need to demonstrate competent leadership behaviors in multiple settings in order to be successful. These behaviors are often antithetical to the behaviors learned in medical school and residency, and effective until quite recently. So- this is a call to action. Physician - heal thyself. Become the physician that you want to be in the world we now live in. Take the first steps to controlling the train-get a mentor to show you how- and your destination will be in sight.
