Friday, March 8, 2019

APPD LEAD

Just over a year ago an email about APPD LEAD popped up in my inbox. I had heard about it at APPD meetings and had seen information about it on the website, but didn't really know much about it. Around that same time, I was in search of a leadership training program that would enhance the skills I already have while teaching me some new tricks. Two of my colleagues said that APPD LEAD would be a great fit for me and I should go for it.

What the heck, right? Turns out that was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

The LEAD in APPD LEAD stands for Leadership in Educational Academic Development. Its intended audience is program directors, associate program directors, and fellowship directors. It is an intense, 9-month program aimed at several different facets of a program administrator's life - curriculum development, organizational leadership, professional development, and scholarship. 

My involvement in LEAD has changed me in ways I never would have otherwise imagined. Every ounce of it has been with purpose and has been meaningful to me both personally and professionally. Each activity is carefully curated with a specific purpose in mind. It is a small group which makes developing relationships (especially to this classic introvert) facile. I have received incredible guidance and mentoring through LEAD, and I am vastly more confident now in my skills as a leader than I was last year at this time.

I have no idea where my career will take me, but what I learned through LEAD will stay with me forever.

I could proselytize more, but you can click here and learn more about APPD LEAD!

Friday, February 15, 2019

The article that started it all

As part of my participation in APPD LEAD, I needed to develop a project. Over the last 5 years I have become more interested in provider well-being and mitigating burnout. Most of the research on burnout currently focuses on the causes and consequences of burnout. Professional fulfillment is a newer take, and focuses on factors that lead people to enjoy their work in the hopes that this diminishes burnout.

In early 2018 Mickey Trockel along with other colleagues at Stanford published an article entitled, "A brief instrument to assess both burnout and professional fulfillment in physicians" in Academic Psychiatry. I was led to this article from the National Academy of Medicine's Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub, an online repository of resources pertaining to provider well-being. 


We had not previously measured burnout in our residents, and I was intrigued about the possibility of also measuring professional fulfillment in our residents as well. This poster is the result of creating and carrying out this project.


Link to article


Link to Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub

If you have questions or comments, please email me!