Transcript The Anxiety Disorders Some Practical Questions & Answers

Managing Stress
In the Medical Practice Workplace
Some Unconventional Perspectives1,2,3
A CME Presentation for
Holzer Medical Center
Kendall L. Stewart, MD, MBA, DLFAPA
August 1, 2012
1Thank
you for honoring me with your invitation to speak.
hope to provide a different perspective about stress in your medical practices.
3And I hope to point out some practical strategies you can begin to implement to make your professional lives better.
2I
Why is this important?
• People say that our lives are
too stressful.
• People say that working in
healthcare is stressful.
• People say that this stress is
killing us.
• People say we must find
ways to decrease the stress
in our professional lives.
• People are wrong.1,2
• Stress in not the problem.
• Stress is the solution.
• It’s the kind of stress that
matters.
1I’m
2I
• After listening to this
presentation, you will be
able to:
– Identify three perceived
categories of stressors in
doctors’ and nurses’
professional lives.
– Detail three things that most
of us want out of life,
– Specify three kinds of
interventions you can deploy
to manage the stress in your
life more effectively, and
– Explain why much of what
people say about stress is
wrong.
a psychiatrist. I can tell you what is wrong and what you need to do. I can’t do it for you.
once tried to help a husband be more romantic.
Is the stress in our lives killing us?
• No.
• The lack of stress in our lives is killing us.
• Eating too much of the wrong stuff is killing
us.
• Obesity is killing us.
• Our sedentary lifestyles are killing us.
• Smoking and drinking and drugging are
killing us.
• Changing this is stressful and most of us are
disinclined to expose ourselves to this kind
of stress.
• So, it is the pursuit of stress-free living that
is killing us instead.
What do most people want out of
life?
• People want to do what they feel like doing.
• People don’t want to do what they don’t feel like
doing.
• People want to be paid more for it.
• People want to be told how wonderful they are,
particularly when they are not.
• People want others to think the way they think.
• People want others to do what they want them to
do.1
• People want to be loved.
• People don’t want to be criticized.
• People want to feel comfortable.
• People don’t want to feel uncomfortable.
• People want stress-free lives.
1Unlike
Freud, I know what women want.
What are the most common stressors
in physicians’ professional lives?
People
1SOMC
Workplace Demands
Physician and Nurse Focus Group, July 2012.
Technology
Distractions
What are the most common stressors
in nurses’ professional lives?
People
1SOMC
Workplace Demands
Physician and Nurse Focus Group, July 2012.
Technology
Distractions
What are some of the signs of a
“stressed” medical practice workplace?1
• Negative people set the tone.
• People don’t feel accepted by
their colleagues.
• People don’t feel good about
the quality of their work.
• People don’t feel good about
their leaders.
• People don’t feel good about
the communication in the
workplace.
• People don’t speak forthrightly
“on the record.”
• People keep secrets.
1Adapted
2A
• Powerful people throw temper
tantrums regularly.2
• People overreact to minor
aggravations such as computer
glitches.
• People who are rank conscious
discourage dissent.
• People want more money.
• People dread to come to work.
• People don’t feel they have the
resources they need to do their
jobs.
• The positive people are looking
for another job.
from American Medical Group Association Provider Satisfaction, November 2011.
surgeon came to my office in a rage complaining that the Director of Surgery would not talk to him.
What is the most significant stressor
in your life?
• It’s you.
• It’s the situations you put
yourself in.
• It’s the way you perceive things.
• It’s your sensitivities.
• It’s the way you react to stuff.
• It’s your bad habits.
• It’s your unwillingness to
change—even when you know
you should.
• It’s you. Really.1,2
1Think
2I
of all the miserable people you know. Have any of them said, “I’m a miserable cuss and it’s my fault?”
was waiting to check out of the parking lot with a physician colleague.
What are your options for decreasing
the unhealthy stress in your life?
• You can decrease your exposure to
unhealthy stress.
• You can increase your exposure to
healthy stress.
• You can change your reactions to
your environment and the people in
it.
• You can take drugs.
• You can go ahead and die.
• That’s about it.1,2
1Knowing
2A
what to do is not usually the problem; doing it is.
woman presented with anxiety, but was unwilling to do anything I recommended.
Create a culture of excellence at
work.
•
Performance
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1Let
Focus on results.
Identify meaningful performance
indicators.
Insist on comparative data.
Pursue perfection.
Publish your results.
Processes
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•
Deploy a practical processimprovement process.
Involve people in meaningful process
improvement.
Empower leadership teams to decide
and execute.
Use task lists to hold people
accountable.
Document key processes as a part of
succession planning.
People
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Manage yourself first.
Field the best possible leadership
teams.
Recognize the stars.
Recognize the average people more.
Extrude the net-negative people.1
Planning
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Embrace discomfort.
View problems as opportunities.
Align the organization around a few
strategic values.
Adopt a decision-making process
that is inclusive, transparent and
evidence-based.
Clarify who opines and who
decides.
me tell you about what a nurse told me while I was making rounds one Sunday about our Net-Negative process.
Embrace energizing discomfort as a
lifestyle.
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Write a blueprint for a valuesbased life and follow it.
Become a health and wellness role
model.
Focus on results.
Talk to people instead of about
them.
Manage conflict promptly and
effectively.
Reframe distress as an opportunity
to change.
Resist the seduction of
materialism.
Stifle the urge to flaunt your
power.
Abandon arrogance as a defense.
Suppress feelings of entitlement.
1Some
2A
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Stop expecting people to read your
mind.
Quit being so cynical.1,2
Stop being so sensitive.
Choke off pointless rumination.
Control your temper.
Grow a thick skin.
Stop expecting difficult people to
change; predict them and manage
them instead.
Develop a passion for serving
others.
Become a respectful team player.
Become a process improvement
expert.
cynicism is healthy, but exclusive reliance on this view of life will make you miserable.
man went to apply for social security and forgot his wallet.
Reprogram your brain.1
• Stop viewing others as
“good” or “bad.”
• Stop drawing conclusions
from a few experiences.
• Stop focusing on the
negatives and ignoring
the positives.2
• Stop minimizing others’
positives.
• Stop jumping to negative
conclusions about others.
1Adapted
2Let
• Stop blowing things out of
proportion.
• Stop allowing your
feelings to dictate your
opinions and behavior.
• Stop thinking what others
“should” or “ought to” do.
• Stop labeling others based
on their shortcomings.
• Stop blaming others for
your problems.
from a common list of cognitive distortions identified through Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).
me tell you how I reframed those annoying weekend rounds.
What have we learned?
• Stress in not killing us.
• The lack of stress is killing us.
• You are the biggest stressor—for good
or ill—in your life.
• You can put this powerful insight to
work in your life today.
• Knowing what to do about the unhealthy
stress in your life is not the problem.
• Doing it is.
• Will you do it?
• Or will you settle for a poorer quality life
and die sooner?1,2
1My
2Let
colleagues at SOMC are nominating me as a wellness warrior.
me tell you about my experience so far.
Where can you learn more?
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Join the discussion about practical approaches to more effective
leadership on the SOMC Leadership Blog.
Learn more about Southern Ohio Medical Center here.
Review and download this presentation and related presentations
and white papers here.
Learn more about how to confront others effectively by reading A
Portable Mentor for Organizational Leaders.
Order Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the
Brain here.
Order Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy here.
Order Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit and Sexy—Until You’re 80
and Beyond here.
How can you contact me?1
Kendall L. Stewart, M.D.
VPMA and Chief Medical Officer
Southern Ohio Medical Center
Chairman & CEO
The SOMC Medical Care Foundation, Inc.
1805 27th Street
Waller Building
Suite B01
Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
740.356.8153
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.somc.org
www.KendallLStewartMD.com
1Speaking
and consultation fees benefit the SOMC Foundation.
Are there other questions?1

1Here
2Dr.
Safety  Quality  Service  Relationships  Performance 
are two physician stars who reduce the stress in their workplaces every day.
George Pettit is an OBGYN. Dr. Bob Knox is an ophthalmologist.