The 2018 AMGA Conference in Phoenix was once again the gathering place for medical professionals and healthcare leaders to connect with their peers, share ideas and drive the direction of their profession. The conference provided plenty of learning opportunities and excellent speakers.
AMGA Conference Themes
The two major themes of the conference were cultural transformation and stress and burnout. Speakers often contributed stress and burnout to lack of control, decreased time with patients, work life integration issues and growing administrative burdens. It’s clear providers want to spend more time with patients and less time on clerical duties—although, they are frequently working extra evening hours and weekends just to keep up. Click here to read more about "Buying Time."
Three conference sessions focused specifically on stress and burnout:
- Immersion Workshop: Physician Well Being: Strategies to Promote Engagement and Reduce Burnout presented by Tait Shanafelt, M.D., Stanford University School of Medicine.
- Engaging Physicians: Increasing Trust, Strengthening Culture and Building Resilience through a Multi-pronged Approach presented by Michael Michetti, J.D. and Susan Rehm, M.D., of the Cleveland Clinic.
- The Pathology Within: Burnout, Wellness and the Search for Meaning in a Professional Life presented by Abraham Verghese, M.D., Stanford University School of Medicine.
These sessions resonated with the audience and brought up questions that made us stop and contemplate the current state of healthcare, including:
- What’s happening to my profession and how did we let this happen?
- How does physician burnout relate to loss of engagement and medical errors?
- How do we transform our culture to align with recruitment and retention strategies?
- How does culture affect care-team dynamics, patient satisfaction and outcomes?
- What organizations are doing things well and how did they get started?
Two articles addressing this topic and provide insights into these questions include:
- The High Cost of Physician Burnout in Healthcare Organizations
- Right-Sizing Your Physician Well Being Plan to Maximize ROI
This year, the 2018 AMGA Conference turned the attention inward and included serious introspection of self, personal well being and meaningfulness. Physicians have a passion for medicine and this year’s conference aimed to help them focus on this passion, build momentum and be a catalyst of positive change.
We Can Help
Feeling more stressed than usual? Learn more about the difference between normal stress and burnout. Our Physician Well Being Resources are designed specifically for physicians and the organizations who employ them, including peer coaching, WorkLife Concierge and more. Contact us online to learn more about our unique well being solutions designed specifically for physicians and providers.
MEMBERS
If you are a member of one of our solutions, give us a call or access your resources through your VITAL WorkLife App.
- EAP members: call 800.383.1908
- Physician and Provider Well Being Resources members: call 877.731.3949
