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2017 AAHPM Ascend Schedule

Take a look into the Ascend program and discover what you will learn over the two days of unique education.

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, discuss pre-selected questions and articles

Day 2: October 16 - Inspire

7:30 - 8am
Breakfast
Learners connect, reflect and share insights on leadership over coffee and continental breakfast.

8 - 10am
Addressing Factors of Work-life to Prevent Burnout
Anthony L. Back, MD; Vicki A. Jackson, MD MPH FAAHPM; Michelle Jacobo, PhD; Karen Steinhauser, PhD

  • Enabling control
  • Stucturing rewards
  • Building community
  • Promoting fairness
  • Recognizing values
  • Calibrating workload


10 - 10:15am
Break

10:15am - Noon
Resilience Skills for Individual Clinicians
Anthony L. Back, MD; Vicki A. Jackson, MD MPH FAAHPM; Michelle Jacobo, PhD; Karen Steinhauser, PhD

  • Knowing and using personal strengths - clinicians are trained to focus on what is wrong in their clinical work, but positive psychology indicates that using strengths may be more powerful for human flourishing.
  • Recognizing cognitive distortions - clinicians are prone to all-or-nothing thinking because they are accustomed to diagnostic cutoffs, but extending this to personal life can exaggerate a sense of failure.


Noon - 1:15pm
Small Group MEETUP2 (Lunch)
New groups discuss pre-selected questions, articles

1:15 - 3:15pm
Resilience Skills for Individual Clinicians continued
Anthony L. Back, MD; Vicki A. Jackson, MD MPH FAAHPM; Michelle Jacobo, PhD; Karen Steinhauser, PhD

  • Working at resilience practices - resilience is not something one achieves with a one-time fix; it is cultivated through a set of skills that must be learned and developed over time.
  • Maintaining and using healthy boundaries - clinicians often have to make decisions about work versus home, but these decisions need to protect key values flexibly.


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 discuss pre-selected questions, articles

1:30pm
Departure. Safe travels home!

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