What I wish I'd known: How experienced physician managers diagnose, treat and prevent disruptive behaviour.

As health systems continue to consolidate at a rapid pace, many physicians are stepping into roles that involve managing other physicians. While more physicians are thrust into these positions each year, the managerial training they receive is highly variable and often insufficient for dealing with the challenges they will face, notably disruptive behaviour. Broadly defined, disruptive behaviour includes any actions that affect a team's ability to effectively care for patients, and can even threaten patient and provider health. New physician managers--who typically have little prior experience in management roles--need specific supports to address this uniquely daunting challenge.Over our management careers, we have spoken with dozens of new and experienced physician managers to understand how they manage disruptive behaviour in the workplace and to collect their advice for future physician managers. In this paper, we reflect on those conversations and distill them into a three-part approach for diagnosing, treating and preventing disruptive behaviour in the workplace. We describe how the right management approach depends on a thorough assessment of the most likely drivers of the disruptive behaviour. Second, we present strategies for treating the behaviour focusing on the physician leader's communication skills and available institutional resources. Finally, we advocate for system-level changes that institutions or departments can implement both to prevent disruptive behaviour and to better prepare new managers to address it.

Development of a Novel and Scalable Simulation-Based Teamwork Training Model Using Within-Group Debriefing of Observed Video Simulation.

THE CHALLENGE: Effective teamwork and communication skills are essential for safe and reliable health care. These skills require training and practice. Experiential learning is optimal for training adults, and the industry has recognized simulation training as an exemplar of this approach. Yet despite decades of investment, this training is inaccessible and underutilized for most of the more than 12 million health care professionals in the United States. DESIGNING A SOLUTION: This report describes the design process of an adapted simulation training created to overcome the key barriers to scaling simulation-based teamwork training: access to technology, time away from clinical work, and availability of trained simulation educators. The prototype training is designed for delivery in one-hour segments and relies on observation of video simulation scenarios and within-group debriefing, which are promising variations on traditional simulation training. To our knowledge, these two simulation approaches have not been previously combined. The resulting prototype minimizes the need for an on-site trained simulation educator. This report details the development of a training model, its subsequent modification based on pilot testing, and the evaluation of the resulting redesigned prototype. PRELIMINARY EVALUATION: Participant evaluations of the redesigned prototype were highly positive, with 92% reporting that they would like to participate in additional, similar training sessions. Positive results were also found in assessment of feasibility, acceptability, psychological safety, and behavioral intention (reported intention to alter behavior).

Just-in-time postnatal education programees to improve newborn care practices: needs and opportunities in low-resource settings.

Worldwide, many newborns die in the first month of life, with most deaths happening in low/middle-income countries (LMICs). Families' use of evidence-based newborn care practices in the home and timely care-seeking for illness can save newborn lives. Postnatal education is an important investment to improve families' use of evidence-based newborn care practices, yet there are gaps in the literature on postnatal education programees that have been evaluated to date. Recent findings from a 13 000+ person survey in 3 states in India show opportunities for improvement in postnatal education for mothers and families and their use of newborn care practices in the home. Our survey data and the literature suggest the need to incorporate the following strategies into future postnatal education programming: implement structured predischarge education with postdischarge reinforcement, using a multipronged teaching approach to reach whole families with education on multiple newborn care practices. Researchers need to conduct robust evaluation on postnatal education models incorporating these programee elements in the LMIC context, as well as explore whether this type of education model can work for other health areas that are critical for families to survive and thrive.

Spiritual coping and psychological symptoms as the end approaches: a closer look on ambulatory palliative care patients.

Palliative care providers must seek to improve quality of life despite their patients' life-threating diseases, based on the concept of total pain, which includes physical, psychological and spiritual pain. Understanding the relationship between spiritual coping and psychological symptoms (especially depressive symptoms) could help healthcare teams better address patients' needs. Across-sectional survey with aconvenient sample of ambulatory palliative care patients investigated their psychological pain through the Hospital Anxiety and Depressive (HAD) scale and their use of spirituality using the Brief Religious/spiritual coping (BriefRCOPE) scale. Alinear regression model, using the HADS-depression as outcome variable and the BriefRCOPE as the independent variable, adjusting for confounding variables, investigated the possible association between these variables. Due to methodological limitations, just 40 out 130 potential participants were assessed, with 40percent showing depressive symptoms. In regression model, depressive and anxiety symptoms were significantly associated with each other (p = 0.037 and 0.015, respectively) and negative religious/spiritual coping was associated with depressive symptoms (p = 0.033). This study found asignificant relationship between psychological pain and negative spiritual coping mechanisms. Palliative care professionals should be trained to address patients' total pain and spiritual needs, supporting their ability to cope with their suffering.

Robotic technology for palliative and supportive care: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

BACKGROUND: Medical robots are increasingly used for a variety of applications in healthcare. Robots have mainly been used to support surgical procedures, and for a variety of assistive uses in dementia and elderly care. To date, there has been limited debate about the potential opportunities and risks of robotics in other areas of palliative, supportive and end-of-life care. AIM: The objective of this article is to examine the possible future impact of medical robotics on palliative, supportive care and end-of-life care. Specifically, we will discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of this technology. METHODS: A SWOT analysis to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of robotic technology in palliative and supportive care. RESULTS: The opportunities of robotics in palliative, supportive and end-of-life care include a number of assistive, therapeutic, social and educational uses. However, there are a number of technical, societal, economic and ethical factors which need to be considered to ensure meaningful use of this technology in palliative care. CONCLUSION: Robotics could have a number of potential applications in palliative, supportive and end-of-life care. Future work should evaluate the health-related, economic, societal and ethical implications of using this technology. There is a need for collaborative research to establish use-cases and inform policy, to ensure the appropriate use (or non-use) of robots for people with serious illness.