Level-Up

“The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease” -William Osler.

Remembering who it is we serve gives us all the chance to level-up.

Listen First

It has become easier to spread false information today than ever before.

Pandemic-era providers learned that the hands-down #1 way to counter misinformation is to listen first to understand why the patient believes the false information and where they might have learned it.

Listening and empathy come first. There is no conversation if it starts with an adversarial tone.

Which Medications Are Not Needed Anymore?

Although 80% of adults ages 50 to 80 years old are willing to be deprescribed medications, 90% expect providers to review their medications to make the first move.

Deprescription becomes a missed opportunity because they’re waiting for each other to initiate the conversation.

Trailblazing With Framework

Pro tip: no project/initiative ever made sense at inception…until it did. Or didn’t. The only way to predict the future is to make it.

Even if you’re trailblazing here, it’s already been done somewhere else. They all use some sort of project framework which is some version of the EPIS framework:

• Exploration Phase
  • Identify care gaps
• • Literature review
• • Understand local laws
• • Review evidence-based practice
• • Identify current care
• • Survey stakeholders
  • Collect data from EHR
• Preparation Phase
  • Engage stakeholders to:
    • Create goals and objectives
    • Scope new service
    • Create deliverables
    • Explore funding
    • Determine staffing
    • Develop documentation plan
    • Plan implementation
• Implementation Phase
  • Initiate new service
• • Monitor volume
• • Monitor workflow
  • Gather team support:
    • Share plan
    • Communicate benefits
    • Elicit feedback
• Sustainment Phase
  • Assess outcomes
• • Share outcomes
• • Adapt workflow
• • Determine opportunities
  • Consider expansion

Take Control of the Workforce Trend

About 50% of nurses are thinking about leaving their jobs. Same with physicians. For pharmacists, not only is the turnover high, but there was a 36% decline in pharmacy school applicants from 2013 to 2021. We can seize the controls and pull the nose up by effectively preparing the new batch of professionals for reality.

Which aspects of PGY1 and PGY2 residency training do pharmacists appreciate the most? The ones where they receive attention and get a chance to give attention: they appreciated mentorship (especially with lecture preparation), precepting and coprecepting opportunities, and CE presentations. All of these can be worthwhile if centered around elevating pharmacy practice, optimizing patient care, encouraging innovation, protecting the well-being and resilience of the workforce, and empowering all pharmacists to elevate their practice, scholarship, and contributions to the profession.

Find Them and Care for Them

Patients with major depressive disorder who didn’t receive any treatment were ~1.5-2x costlier to payers compared to those who received antidepressants and/or nonpharmacological treatment.

Stigma, antidepressant safety and effectiveness, severity of depression, patient and physician preferences, access to mental health care providers, and health care cost may all serve as barriers to accessing treatment.

Find them and get them the care they need. You’ll be glad you did.

Letting Them Know What Good Work They Did

We are desperate to do good work.

We also hardly get acknowledged for what we did right.

Too often we inflate our own contributions, while diminishing the other party’s.

Goodfinding is a posture. It’s unnatural but healthy. If we’re intentional about goodfinding to counter all the existing blaming, heaven would be brought to earth.

When Talking More Means Talking Less

Proactive communication about project details can help save everyone’s time by avoiding further back-and-forth and confusion:

1. Acknowledge receipt
2. Clarify a timeframe
3. Give regular status updates
4. Send your weekly or daily plans
5. Provide alerts about issues

Living a Life Online

Many of us consume information online, not realizing it may be completely distorted by a vocal minority that generates almost all of the content.

The ‘90-9-1’ rule suggests that 90% of users only ‘lurk’ or read content, 9% reply or repost with occasional new contributions, and only 1% frequently create new content.

Before believing what they write, be clear about their agenda. Everyone wants your money and attention.

Climb

‘Shteig’ is a Yiddish word which means ‘climb.’ The spirit of the word refers to growing, exerting effort, moving forward, and gaining ground—not materially, but intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

We inspire each other to Shteig.