#newworkinhealthcare
How will my work as a health professional be more fulfilling and therefore more effective?
Recently, I took a very helpful course with Sandra Chemin to improve my self-organisation skills, which lasted 12 weeks. Above all it should give me clarity about my roadmap for the next five years. As a result I found out that I definitely want to continue working as a Plastic and Aesthetic Surgeon (phew), but I should spend more time on other projects. One of these projects is #newworkinhealthcare. Consequently I had taken time for this orientation phase, which coincided with the Corona pandemic. In this time I could finally read a lot again. In addition it took me 4 months to get rid of my back pain, to lose at least (urgently needed) 10 kilograms of body weight and to feel myself again. Meditation (#headspace), sports (#freeletics) and breathing exercises (#wimhofmethod) helped me with this. These digital aids for #wellbeing really work well.
Mens sana in corpore sano
What is #newworkinhealthcare
I have a great intrinsic motivation besides my main job to create a better working ecosystem for health professionals. In my opinion, the traditional models have an extreme need for modernization. Most importantly it is a matter of improving cooperation, such as it is the main goal in #newworkinhealthcare. Digital aids and teal forms of work, which are less based on a pyramid-shaped hierarchy structure, can help here. In this way, the needs of well-trained colleagues are better met, which in the end makes the work even more effective. At best, the “boss” can even withdraw a little more from day-to-day business, because things are going well without him! Buzzwords in this context are here #newwork, #teal, #futureofwork #agile. In the sense of New Work you don’t do it alone, but develop something together. So from the beginning everybody can get involved, which makes it a personal project for everybody. Otherwise it would not be fun for me to simply follow an ingenious concept designed by someone else.
The project #newworkinhealthcare with Working Out Loud
A really good tool to develop things in a team is Working Out Loud. With this methodology, after a sophisticated 12-week agenda, thoughts can be exchanged once a week, either virtually or in real life for an hour. Meanwhile each participant in a Working Out Loud circle pursues his or her own goal, which is realized with the help of the circle. The nice thing about it is that it is only about 1.5 hours per week and access to the agenda is free of charge. Thanks @JohnStepper!
Why do I need a good communication structure in a private practice?
A good friend of mine has just taken over a private practice. In sum the practice went well under the previous owner, who therefore did not see the need to change much of the existing processes. However, the practice itself hardly changed in size and the colleague remained a “one-man-show”. However, no company can survive in the long run without changes and especially in the field of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery a lot is happening, not even mentioning the possibilities that digitalization opens up. For example, there was not even a daily meeting in practice. The employees just started to work and throughout the day there was a rather random exchange of information. This is unthinkable in other professions. They naturally use effective meeting structures that can be of great benefit to us doctors, too. Besides, there is also a lot of literature about this, so we are on a high evidence level. All we have to do is understand it and apply it.
First results from a private practice
This may sound like a no-brainer but for managers from companies outside the medical field, but we first have to establish a communication structure in a medical practice before we get down to business. Professional communication structures are surprisingly rare in our medical environment. And that’s exactly why we started to establish those communication structures in my friend´s private practice as the first part of #newworkinhealthcare. The agenda for the daily meeting is to talk about and thereby visualise yesterday, today and tomorrow. The time limit is 15-30 minutes. Special features and above all information that everyone should know are mentioned.
As you can imagine, the staff did not take this with unreserved enthusiasm. At the beginning they did not know how to behave in the meeting. The process was faltering and without much content, nobody took notes. Surprisingly, only two weeks, however, the employees came to the meeting with their own notes. In only two weeks the exchange was relaxed, important things were mentioned and everyone felt better prepared for what was coming up on the day. After all the regularity gives all participants security and the opportunity to develop an effective routine. At the same time, less is forgotten, the processes are smoother and the workload is reduced.
Outlook
The next step can then be a classic check-in/check-out meeting, or a monthly retro-meeting. Subsequently this strengthens the trust among the team members. However, the team determines the speed at which things are developed. Likewise it is imperative that they do it together and according to their needs. I will report on this as regularly as possible.