2019 AAHPM Ascend Schedule

Take a deeper look into the Ascend program and discover what will be learned over the two days of unique education. Learn more about the Ascend speakers and navigators who will guide you through this uniqe leadership training experience.

Hear from past attendees in varying stages of their leadership journey. Ascend is more than just leadership training.

Day 1: October 6 - Prepare

12 – 4 pm
Learners - Prepare to Ascend
Arrival & Check-In

4:15 – 5:15 pm
Your Leadership Journey
Welcome and Overview - Katie Neuendorf, MD
Engagement, Growth & Giving Back: Leadership Opportunities at AAHPM - Steve Smith, AAHPM CEO and Executive Director

5:15 – 6:15 pm
Being Totally Awake in Leadership: Finding and Maintaining Control in the Leadership Commitment Relationship
Tammie E. Quest, MD FAAHPM

In our social media world, it can sometimes feel like everyone has a better life than you. And yet, we all realize that we don’t live the ups and downs of a committed relationship publicly. That is also true in the relationship we have to our work as leaders. Dr. Quest will help peel back the façade on her own leadership. She will share her thoughts on shiny new objects tempting us to leave the committed relationships we’ve built, the signs that an organization is committed to us in return and the way to harness the control we possess. In addition, she will talk about the safe places that she has built in order to stay resilient in the face of challenges.

Learning Objectives

Identify personal and professional factors that facilitate a successful leadership journey
Explore the meaning of relationship and commitment in our lives
Discuss the "daily resilience exercises" that can help all leaders

6:15 – 7 pm
Your Leadership Journey (Dinner)
Learners get acquainted, share leadership story and journey, debrief on lessons learned from Tammie’s talk.

7 – 8 pm
Small Group MEETUP
Learners engage in applied learning through evidence-based literature focused on leadership.

Day 2: October 7 - Inspire

7:15 – 8:15 am
Breakfast / Optional activity – HBR Article Review
Learners can informally connect, reflect and share insights on leadership over coffee and breakfast
OR
Learners can engage in applied learning through evidence-based literature focused on leadership

8:15 – 10:15 am
Putting Theory in to Practice: How to Effectively Engage Your Team
Katie Neuendorf, MD

As a leader, you may have heard of the theories that go into a strong team but felt as though the theories needed a “how-to” manual to put them into practice. In this session, practical tools will be offered to you as you think about enhancing safety and appreciation in your team. Along with practical tools, you will be led in exercises to think through the similarities and differences that exist in talking to patients and families in a clinical context vs talking to your team in a leadership context. Don’t let the interactive fun fool you – your ‘aha moments’ will outnumber the laughs and you'll see why this has been one of the most highly rated sessions we've had for leaders in the Ascend program. The session will be split into two parts for maximal absorption.

Learning Outcomes

Identify activities that build relationships amongst team members
Recognize that stories have intentions, emotions and facts and the impact these elements have on engagement
Discuss strategies that can be implemented immediately within teams to improve engagement
Explore similarities and differences in communicating as a hospice and palliative medicine clinician verse a hospice and palliative medicine leader

10:15 – 10:30 am
Break

10:30 am – 12:15 pm
Learning Through Lived Experience: Ways to Navigate HPM Leadership Challenges
Kristin Edwards, MD FACP CPE FAAHPM; Kevin D. Nguyen, MD FAAHPM; Tammie E. Quest, MD FAAHPM; Bethany C. Snider, MD HMDC FAAHPM; Elisha Waldman, MD FAAHPM

When HPM leadership challenges arise, there are times when it can feel that no one around us understands the demands that we are facing. Sometimes the challenge is not having the capacity to meet an organizational demand. Other times, we question how a team of individuals who skillfully lead patients and families through conflict can be mired in conflict themselves. And yet, we know that other leaders in our field have faced situations that are a kin to our own. In this session, leaders within the field of hospice and palliative medicine will share their stories of challenge as well as the concrete and practical steps they took during those challenges that you can then apply in your world. To enhance the learning, participants will break off in to smaller groups with the leaders and can chose the stories they feel are most relevant.

Learning Objectives

Explore the leadership challenge of felling overwhelmed by requests and underwhelmed by resources
Examine conflict that can arise between member of the team and ways to address the conflict
Extrapolate experiences leaders have had in other organizations to help with your own leadership challenges

12:15 – 1:00 pm
Lunch
Navigators and learners engage in applied learning focused on effective team engagement within the hospice and palliative medicine setting.

1:00 – 1:30 pm
Paired Walk and Talk - debrief

1:30 – 2:15 pm
Learning Through Lived Experience: Ways to Navigate HPM Leadership Challenges continued...
Kristin Edwards, MD FACP CPE FAAHPM; Kevin D. Nguyen, MD FAAHPM; Tammie E. Quest, MD FAAHPM; Bethany C. Snider, MD HMDC FAAHPM; Elisha Waldman, MD FAAHPM

2:15 – 3:15 pm
Time Famine: Best Time Management Tips
Bethany C. Snider, MD HMDC FAAHPM

A growing national conversation is that we talk about "busyness" now the way we used to talk about the weather. Being busy has been elevated as a cultural norm. As leaders, we can determine whether that is a culture that we want to suppress or want to support within our teams. In this session, we will review the larger viewpoint of time famine. We will then transition to review novel time saving techniques that leaders use in their own practice - techniques as simple as ways to capture thoughts in a meeting and as complex as responding to emails. We will end with a fast-paced sharing session so that as many time savings techniques as possible are available to the group.

Learning Objectives

Reflect on the conversations you have with yourself and others about time
Recognize techniques that other leaders use to maximize their time at work
Share best practices from your daily life in exchange for practices that others use

3:15 – 3:30 pm
Break

3:30 – 5:30 pm
Putting Theory in to Practice: How to Effectively Engage Your Team continued...
Katie Neuendorf, MD

Day 3: October 8 - Navigate

8:15 – 10:15 am
Leading and Managing Through Change
Darryl Harris

This interactive session combines proven leadership behaviors with practical skills for helping leaders respond to the changes they face in today’s rapidly changing hospice and palliative medicine environment. This program is designed to provide hospice and palliative care leaders with the strategic and tactical skills not only to lead change, but also to identify at what stage their followers are emotionally in a change process. During the session, participants are encouraged to examine their own reactions to change, recognize where their followers are in the change process and develop ideas on how to skillfully lead them through this change. Participants are encouraged to analyze and then apply the strategies and skills that will help their followers develop resiliency for adapting to change as rapidly and effectively as possible.

Learning Objectives

Examine reactions to change; personal and team members
Understand the behaviors associated with great leaders as they relate to change
Develop techniques and strategies to lessen the stress of change and facilitate maximum productivity during change events

10:15 – 10:30 am
Break

10:30 am – 12:15 pm
Leading and Managing Through Change continued…
Darryl Harris

12:30 – 1:30 pm
Full Group MEETUP (Lunch)
Facilitated discussion - all Ascend participants engage in program debrief identifying key take-aways, "ah ha" moments, reflections, etc.

1:30 pm
Departure
Safe travels home!

Hear from Past Attendees

Watch short clips of what past attendees had to say about their Ascend experience. Each attendee is at a different stage in their leadership career and looking for tools to help them excel in their current role.

Meet Shellie - physician and new participant

Meet Dillion - early career physician

Meet Kathryn - seasoned professional

Meet Lynn - fellowship director

Meet Katie - Ascend faculty member