2017 AAHPM Ascend Schedule
Take a look into the Ascend program and discover what you will learn over the two days of unique education. Learn more about the faculty that will be presenting at Ascend.
Day 1: October 15 - Prepare
4 - 5pm
Learners - Prepare to Ascend
Arrival & Check-In
5 - 5:15pm
Your Leadership Journey
Welcome and Overview
Rodney O. Tucker, MD MMM FAAHPM
5:15 - 6:15pm
The Joy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Joe Rotella, MD MBA HMDC FAAHPM
Using illustrations from his own experience, Dr. Rotella will present an overview of the problem of burnout and the challenges to finding joy in clinical medicine and medical leadership. He will outline conceptual models and identify problems in finding a common language to describe clinician experiences ranging from suffering to healing to joy. He will review the prevalence and consequences of burnout in medicine, including the subspecialty of hospice and palliative medicine, and summarize best practices at the personal, organizational and systemic levels, as well as current national initiatives to improve the clinician experience. The session will conclude with audience participation to spark exploration and share stories of where and how we find joy in our work.
6:15 - 7pm
Your Leadership Journey (Dinner)
7 - 8:15pm
Small Group MEETUP1
Learners get acquainted, identify leadership challenges and opportunities, navigators and learners engage in applied learning through evidence-based literature focused on leadership
Day 2: October 16 - Inspire
7:30 - 8am
Breakfast
Learners connect, reflect and share insights on leadership over coffee and continental breakfast.
8 - 10am
Individual and Systems Approaches to Foster a Resilient Workforce
Anthony L. Back, MD; Vicki A. Jackson, MD MPH FAAHPM
Palliative care clinicians know that burnout is a threat to our work. We also know that it is not only the responsibility of the individual but also the system to ensure that doing the work of palliative care can be enjoyed for years to come. In this interactive session, learners will reflect on the individual and systems level factors that threaten and promote a resilient workforce. We will use the domains in the areas of work life scale as a cognitive frame for systems level improvements. We will reflect on the responsibilities of leaders working to prevent burnout in their institution.
10 - 10:15am
Break
10:15am - Noon
An Approach to Building Resilience Skills for Individual Clinicians: Use your personal strengths and recognize cognitive distortions
Anthony L. Back, MD; Vicki A. Jackson, MD MPH FAAHPM; Michelle Jacobo, PhD; Karen Steinhauser, PhD
A significant threat to personal resilience is our lack of self-compassion. This can be the result of an inability to recognize or value our unique strengths and harsh self judgements in response to every day challenges in our work. In this session learners will gain a deeper understanding of their personal strengths as well as how and why it is important to work from their strengths. We will also reflect on how cognitive distortions can contribute to burnout and work through an approach to challenge these common thought patterns.
Noon - 1:15pm
Small Group MEETUP2 (Lunch)
New groups selected to engage in applied learning through evidence-based literature focused on leadership
1:15 - 3:15pm
An Approach to Building Resilience Skills for Individual Clinicians: Maintaining healthy boundaries and integrating resilience skills into daily practice
Anthony L. Back, MD; Vicki A. Jackson, MD MPH FAAHPM; Michelle Jacobo, PhD; Karen Steinhauser, PhD
Palliative care clinicians are often faced with the dilemma of caring for patients with intense physical and emotional needs while at the same time balancing their needs for themselves. In this session, we will explore these challenges and offer strategies for developing compassionate boundaries. In our final hour together, we will discuss an approach to integrating these individual approaches in an ongoing way.
3:15 - 3:30pm
Break
3:30 - 5:30pm
Putting Theory in to Practice: How to Effectively Engage Your Team
Kathleen Neuendorf, MD
Most leaders understand the importance of engaging their teams. What is less clear is how to make that happen. In this interactive session, leaders will be lead through a series of exercises that can be immediately implemented with their teams. The strategies presented will help leaders find strategies to allow their team members to feel safe, feel heard, and feel valued.
Day 3: October 17 - Navigate
7:30 - 8am
Breakfast
Learners connect, reflect and share insights on leadership over coffee and breakfast.
8 - 10am
Good Enough Now: How doing the best we can with what we have is better than nothing
Jessica Pettitt, MEd
Let’s face it, there are people and topics that at some point are just off limits. You just can’t do it or them right now. Even worse, often it is a difficult topic that you have to bring up with a difficult person. What if you could engage in these conversations with more confidence, humor, and ease? No matter the person or topic, you are your best tool for conversations that matter. Understanding yourself and others as differently right gives you the tools to intentionally design teams, groups, and partnerships that can bring value to a single project or topic. We are all frustrating to someone, and at times even to ourselves. Once you know who and how you are, you can reclaim responsibility for these behavior response patterns and leave room for others to do the same. Before you know it, you are having better conversations and fuller relationships with those around you. I promise – it is that easy.
10 - 10:15am
Break
10:15 - Noon
Good Enough Now continued
Jessica Pettitt, MEd
Noon - 12:15pm
Wrap Up
Rodney O. Tucker, MD MMM FAAHPM
12:15 - 1:30pm
Small Group MEETUP3 (Lunch)
New groups selected to engage in applied learning through evidence-based literature focused on leadership
1:30pm
Departure. Safe travels home!