RWL Newsletter #127 - Greetings from New Orleans!
Greetings from … New Orleans! I’ve been attending the annual Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) this week. Our program was up for re-certification, so I had the chance to explain some of the great things we do to prepare our students for the profession of health administration. I also had the chance to lead a session for the Management and Case Study Forum, which was really great. I also go a chance to go to Cafe Du Monde and have beignets and chicory coffee - which was AWESOME! All while listening to live street jazz. (Picture above is brought to you by The Summer Hat which did in fact make the trip down here with me.)
Read
What: The Guardian, Text therapy: once my therapist sent me an emoji, I knew it was game over
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jul/09/text-therapy-actually-work-talkspace-emoji
Why: We’ve been working on building a telepractice center here at UNH, so I’ve been thinking a lot about alternative modes of delivering care. Healthcare is a fascinating field. People are drawn to the field because they want to help, and there are so many people who need help. Healthcare is also one of the most regulated fields, and for good reason - the help we provide can be dangerous. So innovating in the healthcare space often quickly runs into barriers. That said, it seems like talk therapy is a natural fit for a telehealth approach. This article is humorous, and clearly the author had needs that couldn’t be met by the particular modality she chose, or perhaps the therapist she happened to be paired with, or both.
Text therapy is, in my opinion, a low quality good. Clearly, the highest quality good would be to meet face to face with a psychiatrist who is also skilled in talk therapy so that s/he could address both your counseling and medication needs. But that would be a really expensive option. It would be expensive because there are many of those kinds of providers, and it is the most expensive delivery method (you have to go to the therapist and that takes your time, which is not free). Nevertheless, it’s great that there is a low quality option on the market. Often something is better than nothing, and whether this option offers value or not is up to the patient. Using regulation to prevent text therapy would be like outlawing low-end cars (I think of my Kia Spectra I used to drive). Low-end cars get you from point A to point B, but you don’t look good and they might not be that comfortable. But maybe getting from point A to point B is all you need. Text therapy might be enough for some people, and it’s really cool that it’s out there.
Watch
What: Believing and Belonging | Peter Pronovost | TEDxBeaconStreetSalon
Why: Dr. Pronovost won the William B. Graham prize and presented at AUPHA on Wednesday. He mentioned he had done a TEDx talk, so I thought I would share that with you. I’ve been working on a paper about early careerists making the school to work transition (i.e., graduating from college and starting full time work in healthcare administration) and I come to the same conclusion as he did: those who felt they were believed in and had a sense of belonging were more engaged in their work and had more positive affect toward their organization. It’s not rocket science - we’re heard animals - we need to feel safe and loved. When we feel safe and loved, we are our best selves. This is a good talk. His talk at the dinner was better, but I don’t have that. This is worth 14 minutes.
Listen
What: This is Success, General Stanley McChrystal: Why it's time to re-think leadership
https://art19.com/shows/success-how-i-did-it/episodes/49a8771b-becd-447b-8122-c134b5ce9be6
Why: General McChrystal led the special forces efforts in Afghanistan to fight Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. He was famously removed by President Obama after he was quoted in a Rolling Stone article making disparaging remarks about Vice President Biden. He has a lot of interesting things to say about leadership in this interview, including recovering from failure and not letting it define you. What particularly resonated with me was his approach to strategy - he said he made the decision to do what works, even if it ran against doctrine. He also de-emphasizes the importance of individual leaders and focuses more on the team. This should resonate in healthcare. What I have seen and what I think we will continue to see, is a movement away from the model of the lone physician providing care to a team providing care, with a physician as part of the team.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
Have a great weekend and do amazing things!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau