Some Program Details

Post directions to help participants find the meeting room. Arrange a small sign-in table adjacent to or just inside the meeting room. Include a sign-in sheet with room for name, e-mail and preferred contact method. Sign in yourself to model how you want the sign-in done. Supply name tags or tent cards. Remember that name tags are difficult to read from across the room. Readability problems are compounded if you let participants create their own identification. If you preprint their identification, use a larger font for the first name than for their family name. During the program you will be trying to dismantle barriers to developing relationships, and using first names helps.

Pre-program Tips

To prepare for the program, arrange for a conference room. I like to have the tables in a U-shaped arrangement. Flip charts and marker pens are ideal. Instead of a flip chart you can use a computer and LCD projector to capture the comments of the participants. Using the computer you can print out their comments easily, but I think that participants prefer the flip chart method. Arrange for seven hours of category I continuing medical education (CME) credit. Assemble 2-pocket folders for each participant containing an agenda for the day, a Course Evaluation form, the CME certificate, and possibly a brochure about other programs that you might be offering in the near future. Copies of readings and three case scenarios should be given to the participants at appropriate times during the program and therefore not inserted into the 2-pocket folder before the program. Bring a copy of the book (Remen, R.N.: Kitchen Table Wisdom, Riverhead Books, NY 1996). Mark the story pp. 169 – 172 for reading to the participants. Begin praying for the participants as soon as you know about your program plans. If you do not pray, meditate keeping the participants in mind and visualize wellbeing and wholeness for them.

Two Categories of Physicians to Consider

Physicians generally find Spirit in Medicine useful, but there are two categories of physicians for whom it has special value. First are physicians who are burned out or burning out. Physicians today are under assault. They invested many years to develop their skills, often at great personal cost. Now their work is under growing legal and bureaucratic scrutiny, and they find their incomes, their respect in society, and their job satisfaction deteriorating. When you see them in the clinic, their symptoms are varied. Some show fatigue, lassitude, coolness, and aloofness. Others fail to control anger. Yet others become dominating and abusive as they try to bolster a flagging self-esteem and regain a feeling of control. The second category is physicians’ groups that are newly formed, growing very quickly, or experiencing group dysfunction.

Bringing Physicians to the Conversation

Recruiting styles vary. I worked from a list of the staff physicians and called them explaining the costs and goals. I reported the comments of previous participants in Spirit in Medicine. Using an invitation list helped me insure that I also contacted physicians beyond my personal acquaintances. The medical staff was large. My early attitude was frustration at the low response rates and the need to make so many calls. I soon discovered that those calls were valuable, that there were physicians who needed to talk about practice issues, hospital relations, divorces and children on drugs. Some physicians will resist your invitations, but invite anyway and repeatedly. Several physicians participated only after declining as many as five invitations. A dictum in pharmacy sales is that a physician needs to hear about a new product an average of 29 times before prescribing behavior changes. What does that mean for your recruiting calls? As the word gets out about the quality of Spirit in Medicine, recruiting will become easier.

Recruiting

Physicians are busy. The first challenge with Spirit in Medicine is to persuade physicians to attend. Try to facilitate the program with 6 – 15 participants. An average of three physicians will fail to attend even though they registered. If you recruit 18 and all of them attend, the program will still work well, but adjust the schedule to allow a little extra time for each segment. Brochures, fliers, e-mail announcements and posters improve the physicians’ awareness of the program, but about 0.1% of them register in response. About one in five physicians commit to attend when they receive a personal invitation from you or the hospital’s chief executive officer. Therefore, plan on making 90 personal invitation fill your first program.

Recruiting

Physicians are busy. The first challenge with Spirit in Medicine is to persuade physicians to attend. Try to facilitate the program with 6 – 15 participants. An average of three physicians will fail to attend even though they registered. If you recruit 18 and all of them attend, the program will still work well, but adjust the schedule to allow a little extra time for each segment. Brochures, fliers, e-mail announcements and posters improve the physicians’ awareness of the program, but about 0.1% of them register in response. About one in five physicians commit to attend when they receive a personal invitation from you or the hospital’s chief executive officer. Therefore, plan on making 90 personal invitation fill your first program.

Spirit in Medicine

Spirit in Medicine is an excellent program to use as a first step for the new physician champion. You acquire group facilitation skills, learn group dynamics and learn what enlivens and deflates your physician colleagues. Physicians begin to trust you and your physician care initiative when they realize that they are getting something useful from your program. Spirit in Medicine was originally called Medicine in Search of Meaning and distills some of the concepts from a book by its creator (Bazan, B., Medicine in Search of Meaning, Caritas Communications, 1999). At St. Vincent Hospital I renamed the program because our local physicians resisted the “touchy-feely” name, and the rate of registrations improved. I modified a few other features for our local audience. I learned to facilitate the program from Dan Dwyar. I recommend participating in the program first. Next, lead parts of the program with a mentor before working independently.