AAHPM held its Ascend leadership training course in early October at the Hyatt Lodge in Oak Brook, IL. Ascend is a live, intensive 2-day program that features deeper dives on focused topics and leadership skills developed for hospice and palliative medicine professionals by hospice and palliative medicine professionals. One attendee, Christine D. Hudak, MD, OhioHealth Hospice, took time to share her thoughts about the experience.
“Ascend is by far, the most beneficial conference I have attended in the last five years. So often, clinicians are placed in leadership roles without the benefit of a business background. And, my limited exposure to professional coaching from the business sector was jargon-laden and did not ring true in the medical world.
The majority of the Ascend faculty are physician leaders in our specialty who have lived the experience of combining clinical work with program growth and development. I was so impressed with the practical sessions that shared easy-to-implement concepts and tools to improve teams. The sessions were so valuable I didn’t miss one minute of them – how often does that happen at a conference?
The business faculty were selected carefully and added rich, pragmatic content on leading and managing change. The amount of interactive learning with other attendees allowed a creative, supportive environment that enhanced the experience significantly. At the end of the conference, I felt I had been given a Rosetta stone, of sorts – a key to opening the gate between medicine and management.”
Consider adding Ascend to your educational calendar for 2020.