“Early Career Hospice and Palliative Medicine faculty Development Bootcamp”: Drs Bernacki, Carey, Sanchez-Reilly, Periyakoil, Kapo, DeLima Thomas, Morrison, and Bunch O’Neill
I was a little apprehensive about this workshop, since I’m still a fellow and not even junior faculty yet. I will be taking a faculty position when I finish my fellowship, so I figured that whatever I learn will still be applicable four months from now. I think many trainees wonder what it means to be an attending, and especially about the mysterious “non-clinical time” (which residents and fellows get just enough of to know that we probably want more of it!). I do know enough to know that it will be different than anything I’ve done so far, in terms of work-flow, responsibility, and expectations. To add to my uncertainty, I am joining our section as part of a significant expansion which will mean changes in how the entire section functions. I was hoping for some strategies to manage what feels at times to be a monumental task, and I was not disappointed.
We started by creating mission statements for ourselves: short, using active language, and focused on what we want to achieve and why. My mission statement: To improve medical care by expanding palliative care education at all levels. It was really inspiring to see how big we are dreaming! Other topics covered included time management (oh Covey square, where have you been all my life?) and conflict resolution (both in the context of patient interactions and with professional colleagues).
When we talk about interactions with patients and families, we often talk about being intentional in our approach, to be mindful and centered in order to function most effectively. What I am taking home from this workshop is a greater sense of intention as I start my career, with my specific goals in mind and a much greater awareness of my own strengths as a palliator and as a faculty member. I was also really struck by the obvious camaraderie between our presenters, and the strength they derived from having a peer mentoring group. At our table we had a wonderful group of people and it was both somewhat therapeutic and also really fun to share stories about challenges in each of our lives. It was really striking how the same themes kept coming up over and over again across the whole group. Take home message: it can be hard to be a junior faculty member, and what you’re going through is normal!
I walked out of the workshop focused on my goals, inspired to implement some of the tools we learned, and feeling more confident in my ability to shape my career to match my vision. I am really looking forward to the rest of the conference, meeting more new faces and getting more inspiration for what I already consider the greatest job there is.
Meredith MacMartin, MD, HPM Fellow at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center