Are you a contented and engaged physician?
Have you had time to even think about this recently?
This week I wish to highlight responses to numerous concerns that have been raised over several years about the level of physician morale, and about our engagement with the direction of our Health System and University.
Most of you will know that over the past year there has been a significant effort, which has continued through COVID-19, to consult with physicians about what could be improved to increase our overall morale and engagement. Many of you will have had discussions about this. In your departments and divisions. With external consultants. With your colleagues, friends and families.
Dr. Doug Kirk and his team in Clinical Affairs have coordinated these consultations, and have this week made public the
2019 Physician Engagement Survey, a detailed report on their findings and plans to improve our involvement in, and commitment to, our University and Health System. He told me, ”This is a key document for physicians, and I strongly suggest that all physicians should at least read the 8-page summary, if not the entire 70 pages of attachments.”
I agree. I have read the document in detail. It is a real reflection of the importance of physicians within our system, and the commitment of our leadership to improving our roles and influence at all levels.
The report covers four key areas and details many concrete plans and solutions that we can all implement together. These are:
- Redesign our mission, vision and values.
- Elevate the physician voice to address hassle factors.
- Improve wellness and create networking opportunities.
- Improve communication and trust.
I am confident that we can successfully implement these plans. This will involve work and changes from all of us, from the bottom up, and from the top down. Ultimately though, via this thoughtful approach, many of our longstanding concerns will be alleviated.
So, let me summarize some of the many changes we are making in relation to well-being and networking, one of the pillars supporting our work-life balance and engagement. More details are in the document, and especially the appendices, and are easily available on the
Clinician Health and Well-being website.
What we heard…
“We would like a more explicit focus on wellness for patients and staff.”
“We are behind other institutions in terms of wellness.”
“We need access to mental health services.”
“One of the factors that most influences my engagement is interacting and collaborating with
clinical colleagues.”
“We need a way to break down our silos and better collaborate.”
What we’re doing about it:
- We have secured three funded part-time physician leadership roles in the Wellbeing Office (Dr. Katren Tyler, Dr. Lisa Ho, and Dr. Sarah Louie) who are working with me to implement positive changes.
- We have developed a significant group consisting of 60-70 interested physicians are now actively involved in well-being activities in both the hospital and clinics.
- In addition to the full-time psychologist we already have who works exclusively with residents, we been funded to employ a second full-time psychologist in the Academic and Staff Assistance Program (ASAP) who will focus specifically on physicians’ needs. We hope to employ a psychologist with expertise in trauma, diversity and inclusion for this role.
- Last year we initiated the Physician Health and Wellbeing 6-month Fellowship Program and have supported 16 UC Davis Health attendees (faculty, fellows and residents) in the first two cohorts. Applications for next year’s program commencing in April 2021 are welcome now.
- We are expanding the very successful “Support U” Peer Responder Program of peer supporters to physicians. Look for the “peer supporter” badge that I am proudly wearing. We currently have about 20 physicians trained and would like to eventually have 100-200+ trained physicians, so please contact Katren Tyler or myself if you would like to be involved.
- We have a strong partnership with Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society (SSVMS) which allows any physician to have six free coaching sessions with a life coach or psychologist, and to access the September Wellness Month activities as below.
- We held Annual Physician Health and Well-being Summits in 2018 and 2019 and are planning a virtual summit this November.
- Physician Coaching Services, focused on communication skills, are available by referral and we also added an additional coach in January 2020.
- As you are reading this, you already know that the weekly Good Stuff email highlights five physician compliments. We are also creating an awards website to increase focus and attention on our many, often undersold, individual and team successes.
- Finally, we have developed a series of Physician Health and Wellbeing Resources lists about wellbeing, COVID-19 and social injustice.
Do please read the report. And look for areas where you can personally be involved, either individually or through your department or team. And don’t hesitate to give feedback.
Thank you for all that you do.
As someone who has lived and worked as a physician researcher in a variety of health systems across three continents, I am proud to work with my colleagues here at the best and most successful University in the world – the University of California.
After an admittedly difficult several months let’s see if we can treat September as a month of wellness and focus on the needs of ourselves, our colleagues and our families. Join me and a number of other UC Davis faculty, fellows and residents and take part in a series of activities offered by the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society, as shown below. We are all members of the SSVMS, and while this is of necessity a series of virtual events, rather than in-person, they cover a wide range of issues and topics of interest and importance to all of us. So please join your colleagues from around the region, form new friendships and find out what physicians from around the region are doing to help support themselves, their families and their patients during the pandemic. I look forward to seeing you there.
Click here to register for the
Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society (SSVMS) September Wellness Month activities.
