Within this recorded event, Dr. Christina Shenvi will guide us to discuss the need and strategies to intentionally manage and empower your time in your daily work and life.  There are thematic videos and resources for your reflection. 

Resources:

• Workbook: PDF, Word (used in all videos): The session is highly interactive and we encourage you make good use of the workbook while watching all the videos. You will find guiding questions, key take-away messages for each step of the framework “Empowering your time”, and a log for your reflection anytime and anywhere. 
• Time tracker: Excel (used as a discussion point): A excel spreadsheet for time-tracking for a week with intuitive graphs generated automatically based on your input. You can start any day of the week, it does not have to be a Sunday or Monday. Instructions for how to use the time tracker sheet are available at hour inventory video instructions.

In this video prepared for the MacPFD14 Conference, speaker Dr. Huma Ali talks about some of the struggles and hardships faced throughout the early portions of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a showcase for the Program for Faculty Development’s instructional speaker series “Rock the Podium”, Dr. Ali gives an account that is both personal and informative to the challenges healthcare workers have encountered throughout the pandemic.

From the Faculty of Health Science’s Women’s Symposium, Drs. Sharon Bal and Smita Halder discuss some of their strategies to incorporate a better balance in their lives inside and outside of the workplace.

In this edition of the MacPFD minutes series, this video features Dr. Susan Jack from the McMaster University School of Nursing presenting about her new book club initiative (Reading for ReaSON) that seeks to help participants develop empathy and understanding for members of the BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of colour) community through reading narratives and opening up a safe space for discussion.

This is a digital recording of the “Self-Compassion during the COVID-19 Pandemic” featuring guest speaker Dr. Al’ai Alvarez from Stanford University.

We are thrilled to be hosting Nathan C. Hall, from McGill University, as our guest speaker for this webinar. His presentation will provide an overview of recent empirical findings from the Achievement Motivation and Emotion (AME) Research Group (www.ame1.net) on how social-environmental factors and motivational variables correspond with psychological and physical health in graduate students. Findings from multiple recent international studies will address the role of program structures, institutional reputation, supervisor support, and academic socialization in graduate students’ well-being, as well as how motivational beliefs, self-efficacy, and self-regulation failure contribute to graduate student development. Study findings will also be discussed in the context of recommended strategies for effective graduate student supervision and mentorship. 

Bias is everywhere. Explicit biases include conscious attitudes or intentional discrimination towards certain groups. In contrast, implicit biases include attitudes or behaviours that that exert powerful influence over individuals outside their awareness. These implicit biases can perpetuate health disparities by widening inequities and decreasing trust between patients and health professionals. Despite the widespread discourse about implicit bias in health professions education, many are questioning if implicit bias training is a solution or may create unintended consequences. This presentation will start with an introduction to the concept of implicit bias, review research on implicit bias in health professions, and shift to an evidence-based model for recognizing and managing biases that is entirely unique from current approaches.

We discussed the need to prioritize the well-being of yourself and your peers during this webinar. Within this recorded event around the time of COVID-19, our panelists spoke about mental health and support systems that they have built for health care practitioners, teachers, and researchers. 

In this webinar, participants who watch will:

• Learn about what tools and supports are available to help manage your own health and well-being from McMaster, Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph’s Healthcare;

• Gain insight into the value of peer support, how to get it, and how to provide it;

• Learn about innovations happening across the Faculty of Health Sciences to help support our faculty.

The archived talk will include presentations from our panelists about their innovations, but some great discussion during our Q&A.

Given the stress that healthcare workers are currently experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is more need than ever to explore tools that can create space for reflection and connection in an increasingly complex and physically distanced working environment.  Narrative medicine gives us permission to pause and to seek to understand.

Developed at Columbia University in 2000, Narrative Medicine fortifies clinical practice with the ability to recognize, absorb, interpret, and be moved by stories of illness. There is a large body of scholarly work showing the multiple benefits to both clinicians and patients of medicine practiced with narrative competence.  Among these is the ability to understand what we as clinicians undergo in our everyday work, to build therapeutic and collegial relationships, improve patient outcomes, and live and work in a more reflective and engaged way. 

Through a series of guided close reading and reflective writing exercises over a Zoom platform, workshop participants will:

• Gain a deeper understanding of the skills of close reading and reflective writing

• Practice being both the story-teller and story-listener

• Be able to apply these skills in their clinical and teaching practice Gain perspective on how incorporating narrative strategies can have multiple benefits including increased personal well-being with a particular focus on well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic

This improvised session between Dr. Sean Park and Dr. Bill Sutherland, a family physician, psychotherapist and artist, begins with noticing a piece of art hanging in Bill’s office.  Through the telling of the story of the piece’s co-creation, themes of finding freedom within bounded conditions, aesthetics, and the improvisatory process of interaction help Sean and Bill to consider healing and the arts as relational and process-oriented.  Working with whatever is given to the artist or clinician is embodied within the conversation itself and serves to highlight the difference between talking ‘about’ creative process and being ‘inside’ the experience of improvising.  Notions of chronos (measured time) and kairos (time out of time, timelessness) are woven through stories that animate relationships between doctor and patient at their most sacred vis-a-vis the experience of tracking health and of Life listening to Life.

The Problem: 16 million knowledge workers in the US have now started working remotely.  The COVID-19 pandemic has changed practice patterns, how physicians deliver care and where their “office” actually lies. This increased flexibility is a benefit to many, however there comes with it a new host of struggles for faculty working in this new environment.

The Gap: Working from home (WFH) is a relatively new concept for many physicians. The data on best practices and how to combat this new set of struggles associated with WFH is lacking. WFH does not appear to be going away anytime soon and will likely be the new norm for many faculty. It is important to establish the development of best practices for faculty working in this new environment.

The Hook: By instituting practices that are known to increase productivity in a WFH environment physicians can optimize this new practice setting, they can increase their focus, capacity to process information, and decrease distractions affecting their work. This faculty development session will focus on three main strategies.

The first strategy is creating an ideal WFH setting both physically and digitally.  Best practices for physical and digital settings will be discussed, starting with how to declutter both settings.  The second strategy will discuss instituting key measures to prevent distractions. The last strategy discusses the importance of unplugging.  Without a commute, separation between work and home becomes blurred. It is important for faculty to establish a WFH commute ritual to emulate this transition and give the mind a period of time to process it. This will make faculty ready to take on the new environment, being work or home.

The Takeaway:

1. Optimize your WFH environment to increase productivity, decrease stress hormones and increase your ability to focus. Make sure both your physical and digital space is free of clutter and learn important environment influencers of your productivity.
2. Distractions are one of the top causes of dissatisfaction in the WFH environment.  It is important to build a toolbox for counteracting them.
3. Set a hard stop at the end of your work day (and stick to it).

Dr. Christina Shenvi from the University of North Carolina describes her model for how to understand why we procrastinate. She is a guest instructor for the Fall of 2020, when she will deliver a course called: “Banishing Busy.”

Social media has become an undeniable resource in today’s world.  Nearly everyone uses it in some way to connect to friends, family, or colleagues. We also use it to get our news and stay informed about the world at large.

In this event, Drs. Sharon Bal, Tara Packham, and Teresa Chan discussed three ways in which they each harnessed the great (and terrible) potential of using social media for your professional life. Whether you’re a teacher, a researcher, or a leader – these three will highlight how social media might help you enhance your professional & academic life.

This is the digital recording of “Measuring Burnout” from the #MacPFD15 Workshop Series. By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify key contributors to burnout in academic, corporate, and entrepreneurial environments.

2. Identify tools to measure and resource to manage burnout in learner and peer populations.

There is a persistent gap with regards to leadership requirements and training that is available to those in healthcare and academic leadership roles. This series aims to bring together leaders from healthcare and academic institutions (and allies) to discuss their own challenges and successes around certain key areas of personal and leadership development.

By the end of this series, participants will be able to:

• Describe and connect their leadership practice with the latest literature and concepts around leading wellness.

• Articulate at least one new wellness-enhancing strategy or technique that they would like to bring back to their own groups to implement.

Increasingly, we know that women are underrepresented in academia and healthcare settings. The 2021 Women’s Symposium will be a venue where we can bring together women and their allies to consider how we might close the gap over time. 

This will represent the first of these events, which we are hoping will evolve into an ongoing annual conference over time.

All faculty members who identify as women and allies of women within the Faculty of Health Sciences (and beyond) are invited to join us.

Each session will have a mix of external speakers and FHS leaders interested in exploring key topics around how we might increase the number of women in healthcare leadership positions in both academia and clinical work.

The Problem: Diagnostic Medicine constantly adapts to changing population health, societal needs, technology, and medical knowledge. Additionally, research on the cognition of the individual clinician has highlighted important relationships between prior experience and diagnostic skill, resulting in useful models of expert performance. Using these models, there are several education strategies for developing diagnostic skills in novices. 

The Gap: Yet there remain growing concerns about the rate of diagnostic error. Reports on different types of diagnostic error focus attention on practicing clinicians; senior medical residents and staff. We need better continuing education strategies for these ‘senior’ trainees.

The Hook: We will first explore classic research to highlight the main sources of diagnostic error and then present some emerging research on strategies to improve the effectiveness of diagnostic medicine in practice.

The Takeaway: Decades of research have focused on describing the cognitive processes of a single clinician identifying a diagnosis. It is time to focus on a systems wide approach to the continued development of practicing clinicians in order to have the biggest impact on error rates. 

Key speaking points of the Faculty of Health Sciences Women’s Health Symposium held on April 28, 2021. This session, led by Dr. Dina Brooks and Rebecca Repa, goes into depth about mentoring and sponsoring other women in the workplace.

In this emerging new series, the McMaster Program for Faculty Development brings you methods for applying healthy negotiation strategies for health sciences professionals and others seeking advancement or new responsibilities in an effective manner. Learn from several speakers how negotiations can and should be applied; not only when discussing salary and remuneration expectations, but how support and roles can be negotiated in the negotiation space – from discussion to appearing on a contract.

Bias is everywhere. Explicit biases include conscious attitudes or intentional discrimination towards certain groups. In contrast, implicit biases include attitudes or behaviours that that exert powerful influence over individuals outside their awareness. These implicit biases can perpetuate health disparities by widening inequities and decreasing trust between patients and health professionals. Despite the widespread discourse about implicit bias in health professions education, many are questioning if implicit bias training is a solution or may create unintended consequences. This presentation will start with an introduction to the concept of implicit bias, review research on implicit bias in health professions, and shift to an evidence-based model for recognizing and managing biases that is entirely unique from current approaches.

This Do-It-Yourself digital workshop explore concepts of leadership, focusing on examining one’s values, strengths and purpose as an integral starting point for leadership. Components that are needed for effectively leading others will be discussed.

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Conceptualise what leadership means to you

2. Discuss components of effective leadership

3. Identify your values and strengths as a leader

4. Apply your strengths to commit to one small leadership step

We discussed the need to prioritize the well-being of yourself and your peers during this webinar. Within this recorded event around the time of COVID-19, our panelists spoke about mental health and support systems that they have built for health care practitioners, teachers, and researchers. 

In this webinar, participants who watch will:

• Learn about what tools and supports are available to help manage your own health and well-being from McMaster, Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph’s Healthcare;

• Gain insight into the value of peer support, how to get it, and how to provide it;

• Learn about innovations happening across the Faculty of Health Sciences to help support our faculty.

The archived talk will include presentations from our panelists about their innovations, but some great discussion during our Q&A.

McMaster Program for Faculty Development would like to announce that we will be converting our Day in Coaching & Mentorship program to an online experience. We were proud to host this co-sponsored event with the McMaster Department of Pediatrics (@Mac_Peds). It promises to be quite an impactful experience even though we have transitioned online.

The Problem: Imagining possible futures that are different from current reality is exceptionally challenging.  The pressures of day-to-day demands and the complexity of social, economic, and technological change make it difficult to see what health care might look like beyond a few years down the road.  The ability to conceive alternative courses of action at a time of volatility, uncertainty, change and uncertainty requires a futures literacy.  Appreciation for the past and present conditions needs to be joined with creative and imaginative capabilities for envisioning situations that lie outside of what is expected or preferred.  Such envisioning, for it to serve us designing for the future in the present, must also attend to the embodied, concrete experiences and contexts we find ourselves.

Approach: Combining evidence-based horizon scanning and creative, future-oriented challenges enables the development of novel yet plausible scenarios.  Horizon scanning examines emerging trends and drivers of change across social, technological, economic, environmental and political dimensions.  Opportunities and challenges across this landscape are fruitful opportunities to ask ‘what if…’. and through a playful suspension of dis/belief, radically diverse implications of the trends and drivers on health care can be envisioned. 

Instructional methods: Participants will be introduced to a story about a present health challenge that speaks to anticipating possible future scenarios.  The story will reference the ways in which considering the implications of emerging trends and drivers in concrete stories, scenarios and artifacts serves as valuable way of building futures literacy.  Participants will break out into small groups, select 2-3 emerging trends and drivers cards, and discuss their implications for impact on health care.  They then create fictional news headlines from the year 2040 on large templates posted to the wall.  The activity will invite the creation of various story headlines and images that represent a range of possible futures.  During a debriefing of the activity, we will ask participants to share the most provocative headlines, as well as reflect on the abilities they feel were exercised in the session.

Work has changed dramatically since social isolation began for the COVID-19 pandemic. Decreased in-person interactions leave many teams in need of additional supports and tools to maintain daily operations. How can leaders continue to be effective and ensure a smooth transition for their teams?

Please read the resources we’ve aggregated for you below for a few useful resources to support you during these times:

• As a leader, you will need a different set of skills and mindsets to succeed in managing complex situations.
  • Mastering the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) capabilities will help you navigate circumstances in which higher-order leadership is required. Take a look at this article which summarizes this concept.

• Each challenge you face will require a different response, based on whether it is simple, complicated, complex or chaotic.
  • The Cynefin framework is helpful in illustrating how to differentiate between scenarios’ characteristics and develop a problem-solving approach in response.
  • This Harvard Business Review article offers additional insights into how the Cynefin framework may be applied through case studies.

• Respond to crises in times of uncertainty by providing guidance. Empower your teams to solve challenges that align with the direction provided.
  • Be mindful of your response to the crisis, and lead with empathy to address the human side of personnel before organizational operations.
  • This McKinsey article also emphasizes the power of ‘deliberate calm’ and ‘bounded optimism’ when leading your teams in these unprecedented times.

• Empathize with your team! The shift to remote work is challenging and employees will require support during this adjustment period.
  • What will your team struggle with in this new remote work environment? Work-life balance, staying motivated, keeping away from distractions, finding reliable wi-fi and much more.
  • This Vox article reveals some key elements to bear in mind. Make sure your team members have easy channels for communication, you are clear about the new set of work expectations and you empower them throughout this change.

• Ensure that you are maximizing the presence of useful technologies and providing training when appropriate.
  • While phone calls are useful in quick communications, they are less helpful in building rapport relative to in-person conversations.
  • Remember that the lack of face-to-face interactions during social distancing efforts (i.e. 100% remote work) means that opportunities to build this social rapport must be intentionally created by leaders.
  • This article highlights some great tools to consider when thinking about how best to communicate and collaborate with your team. Also, check out some of the resources in our Inspired Teaching COVID-19 Collection which highlights many communication platforms – many of which can crossover to facilitate your work-life.

COVID-19 has hit and within a week you’ve suddenly converted a bunch of your teams to remote teams! It’s been quite a whirlwind and now you’re heading up a new team that is digitally connected but physically distant.

Here are some resources you might consider that can help guide others to manage your newly remote teams during these chaotic times:

1.  A Guide for Managing Your Newly Remote Workers —  This article is an excellent resource just recently published by the Harvard Business Review. It contains some really good pearls for orienting your team (and you!) to a new way of working.
2.  Share Tips for Being Effective While Working Remotely — Think you’re alone in your struggles adjusting to remote work? Thankfully, you’re not the only one finding yourself extra distracted! This article brings together characteristics of productive remote workers which you can emulate!
3. Stay At Home [but stay sane] Infographic — This infographic was created by Dr. Shahbaz Syed to help those who are practicing social distancing. It can be difficult to stay home all day without your usual social network, so this guide may be useful to your co-workers.
4. Show your gratitude to your remote team — Just because your team isn’t around you doesn’t mean they’re not doing great work! Taking a hint from our new manager Danielle Stayzer for the Continuing Professional Development office (the new combination of Continuing Health Sciences Education and Program for Faculty Development), we’d like to point out that it doesn’t hurt to show your gratitude even at a distance. The highlighted blog post lists five simple ways you can show your gratitude to your remote team.
5. Highlight some local places still up for Take-Out — Sometimes it can be very stressful to work while entertaining children or other family all day, and the last thing your employees might want to do is cook a big meal at the end of one of these double-duty days.  Perhaps if you can share a list of places still delivering or welcoming take-out orders, it might brighten their day! Check out this link for #HamOnt.

Editor’s note: Many of us will be seeking to support our team members through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. This recent JAMA article highlights some of the issues around mental health of our clinical colleagues during these stressful times. However, regardless of the reason you are establishing a peer support group, here are some tips that might help you in your facilitation skills.  For more on this topic, please check out a recent video interview that I conducted with Dr. Saperson on this topic. – Teresa Chan

• Having some well thought out questions, based on stakeholders’ concerns.

• Being aware of introductory exercises such as a brief introduction from each member, a brief comment about why they chose to participate in the support group and what they are hoping to get out of it. This can also help determine concerns and issues that people may be thinking about.

• Having items ready for discussion while demonstrating flexibility for where the discussion leads, based on “in the moment concerns.” This can be done by being current with news items or journal articles that may also speak to relevant issues.

Review important “housekeeping items” such as:

• timekeeping;

• clarity about the scope; and 

• mandate of the group (such as differentiating support from counselling, confidentiality, and group norms).

• Ensure those who are quiet have had a chance to participate 

• Use open ended invitations such as “would anyone else like to weigh in on this?”

• Do not pressure anyone directly or put anyone “on the spot” to speak

• Use empathic language to demonstrate awareness of an individual’s struggle

• Probe gently as a follow up (such as: “how was that experience for you?”)

• Explicitly acknowledge the impact of the participants’ shared experiences

• Link participants’ comments to each other to promote a culture of support

• Highlight emerging areas of commonality or themes

• Ensure respectful communication in the midst of differing viewpoints

• Take a “middle ground” stance, allowing for airing of differing views, is important to allow a safe forum for individuals to be willing to be comfortable sharing.

• At every session try to highlight 2-3 main points of common experience.

• Leave the last few minutes of each session to sum up and garner agreement on main themes.

This video features Dr. Karen Saperson (Psychiatrist, Vice-Chair of McMaster’s Department of Psychiatry) and Dr. Teresa Chan (Assistant Dean, Program for Faculty Development, Faculty of Health Sciences) discussing how to set up a peer support group. Dr. Saperson shares her tips for engaging in “first aid for mental health” when creating these networks.

“Nothing tests a leader like a crisis.” A crisis is a “serious threat to the basic structures or the fundamental values and norms of a system, which under time pressure and highly uncertain circumstances necessitates making vital decisions.” A crisis is often a defining moment in a leader’s career, testing the limits of their abilities, core beliefs, resolve and resilience. Ultimately, crises are an opportunity for the leader to lead with courage, purpose and humanity.

Nowhere is this more evident than the current crisis brought on by the COVID 19 pandemic. The following are some of what leaders need to lead effectively in times of crisis.

1. Identify 5 basic tasks that leaders must address throughout the crisis’ trajectory.

• • Sense-making: leaders need as much information as possible to make sense of what the situation is about.
  • Decision making: leaders have to take decisive action
  • Meaning-making: leaders need clear and consistent communication  to align and mobilize collective action.
  • Accounting: leaders will need to account for what happened when the crisis is over
  • Learning: leaders need to ensure lessons learned are used to mitigate future recurrence. Check the following for good summaries: “What makes a good leader during a crisis?” and “How to lead through a crisis”

2. What Followers Need From Their Leaders In a Crisis

• • During a crisis, leaders need to be present and to show calm, confidence, clear communication, collaboration, community and compassion as summarised in The 7 C’s of Leadership in a Crisis (J. Quelsh, HBS).
  • The need for clear, consistent,and skillful communication cannot be stressed enough. As Boin et al. bluntly state: “Leaders who lack the ability to communicate cannot lead in a crisis.”
  • Gene Kallan’s book “Crisis Leadership”1  stresses the importance of communication, core vision and values and compassion in leading through a crisis.
  • Finally, leaders need to listen to their followers to understand their needs. In an excellent article on addressing healthcare professionals’ needs during  COVID 19, Shanafeldt et al. summarised the themes as: “hear me”, “protect me”, “prepare me”, “support me” and “care for me”.

3. Leading versus Managing: the Need for the Big Picture

• • Crises require leaders to both lead and manage effectively. But more often than not, leaders tend to focus their efforts on management, rather than leadership, getting lost in the operational details rather than keeping the big picture in mind. In contrast, leading entails “guiding people to the best possible outcome” over the longterm. In addition to managing the present, the effective leader must also be able to anticipate what comes next and beyond the crisis. The authors of this article talk about pitfalls leaders need to avoid in order to lead others beyond the crisis.

4. Leaders Must Ensure Self Care During a Crisis

• • “Rigorous adherence to elementary rules of stress control is essential for leaders in times of crisis.” It is the often-cited analogy of donning the oxygen mask first before helping others. These basic elements of self care include tending to one’s nutrition, sleep, social connections and exercise.
  • Dr. Mamta Gautam uses the 5 C’s of the resilience framework, namely control, commitment, connections, calming and care in her tips for  “Ensuring our own wellbeing as we care for others during the  COVID-19 Crisis.”
  • Great insights and practical concrete tips for maintaining resilience and managing stress during a crisis can also be found in this video featuring  Dr. Jason Brooks, the performance psychologist.

Summary Paragraph and Conclusion

A crisis, by its very nature, presents both challenges and opportunities. In the aftermath of a crisis, an organization is often forever changed. The challenge and opportunity for leaders are to rise to the occasion in order to make lasting positive and impactful change. It is hoped that these resources will help you lead successfully through the fire and be a part of that change.

References:

1. Kallan, G. Crisis Leadership. 2003: CCL Press; Greensboro, NC available at https://www.ccl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/crisis-leadership-center-for-creative-leadership-guidebook.pdf

2. Boin A, ‘t Hart P, Stern E, Syndelius B. The Politics of Crisis Management: Political Leadership Under Pressure. 2005: Cambridge University Press; Cambridge UK

Do you feel connected to your colleagues? Do you feel surrounded and supported by a collegial community of staff and leaders? Do you feel part of an inclusive environment that values your unique contributions? Take a moment to reflect on these questions. They refer to social connectedness, a sense of belonging, and of being valued and appreciated, which are not only fundamental human needs, but integral to clinicians’ well-being in the workplace.

Data on physician burnout (an occupational problem of epidemic proportions predating the COVID-19 health crisis) indicated that clinician well-being depended on whether physicians feel a sense of belonging at their organization [1]. This is unsurprising both because belonging is a strong psychological desire and there is a clear influence of social connections on our health and well-being [2, 3]. Yet, it is common for clinicians to work in isolation or in a fragmented team, experience mistreatment or exclusion, or be immersed within an environment that disregards one’s efforts or is unsupportive, all of which serve to impair vital social engagement and connection and are associated with burnout [4].

COVID-19 has only served to widen the divide between us. In a time in which we require social connection and support more than ever, this has become increasingly difficult as social distancing is mandated to reduce the risk of further spread, and typical work routines have been upended, with many clinicians transitioning to working virtually or by phone. As such, in the COVID-19 epoch, medical leaders and organizations should not just be concerned about exhaustion, detachment, and inefficiency (the three core elements of burnout) within the healthcare workforce, but also about clinician isolation and loneliness, which is likely endemic during this time.

Leaders also need to pay heed to diversity and inclusion in medicine, as this too can impact an individual’s sense of belonging, and perception of safety and acceptance within their workplace. Diversity encompasses differences in gender and sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, and thought processes, to name a few. An inclusive environment values the unique contributions of all its members. Teams with diversity of opinion would bring an extensive range of innovative ideas and creativity to effective decision-making processes and scientific medical discoveries, and drive excellence in patient care, trainee education, and even health care equity [5]. 

Fostering belonging and inclusion in medicine is of paramount importance, and requires not only commitment from leadership, but change at the system and organizational level. While there is still much work to be done, great progress has been made within the McMaster Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences. Below, we highlight some of the efforts and approaches to fostering connectedness, belonging and inclusivity in the hopes it may inspire further efforts elsewhere.

Early during the pandemic, a Wellness Working Group was formed within the Department, open to all staff, resident members, and faculty, with the dual goals of curating and sharing of vital resources, as well as assessing and responding to the Department members’ needs during this time of uncertainty and change. With an emphasis on the inter-professional collaboration, psychologist members in our Department provided expert contributions to local, regional and provincial initiatives supporting colleagues. A clinical psychologist and faculty member became the project lead of a provincial initiative designed to deliver support to healthcare workers. SJHH is one of five hospitals in the province chosen to partner with Ontario Health’s Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence to offer confidential support for healthcare workers impacted by the pandemic-related stress.  

Others organized a virtual psychotherapy learning group for students, clinicians, and faculty, to share psychotherapeutic strategies and approaches, and stay connected, as well as developed a virtual women’s support group for the OMA. Support within the Faculty of Health Sciences was offered to managers and leaders, using a coaching model to guide and promote team morale and support. Members of the Department were involved in developing support programs for employees of SJHH and HHS, including managing support crisis lines.

Within the residency program, fostering connectivity and relatedness has been a longstanding focus even prior to the COVID pandemic. A formal wellness curriculum was designed by two senior residents, where trainees have the opportunity to engage in Balint-informed groups during protected time, and to participate in RESPITE Rounds during unprotected time, which are led by senior resident facilitators. Pre-pandemic, our residents already used to receive a local wellness newsletter, Concordia, provided to both residents and staff which offered personal stories of combating burnout and fostering resilience, exchange of gratitude, and tips for maintaining one’s well-being. Additionally, a number of our psychiatry residents in collaboration with colleagues from the department of family medicine contributed to a recent book entitled, “Humanism and Resilience in Residency Training.”

When the COVID-19 struck, a group of resident leaders rallied together to form a “COVID Resident Wellness Team” aiming to maintain resident morale and cohesion. Their efforts have included use of a Slack channel for residents to stay in touch and share positive notes and educational or wellness resources. This team also ran various virtual activities, including yoga, and peer-led coffee support groups. The team continues to work to ascertain residents’ needs and seek to adapt resident social events and retreats to social-distance friendly formats. For example, with the start of the new academic year, a couple of junior residents arranged for a virtual funhouse and a welcome drive-by parade for incoming residents.  

The Department is also working to promote unconscious bias training for all members this year, which further promotes diversity within the program. Recognizing the critical importance of promoting a culture of inclusivity, and highlighting the need to address systemic racism within the Department, two members championed an Anti-Black Racism Working Group.  Several senior residents joined the initiative, serving as organizers at the resident-level to ensure residents are also included in these discussions.

There have been initiatives and partnerships with local Indigenous communities to ensure equal and unimpeded access to culturally safe mental health and addiction services, especially during the COVID times. Indigenous cultural safety training and opportunities to learn more about the Indigenous experience, available to every member of the Department, further helps to ensure that Indigenous peoples are treated with dignity and respect within the health care system.

Members of the Department, faculty, staff and trainees alike, are routinely celebrated and acknowledged for their leadership, academic and research pursuits, and honorary achievements through the distribution of the bi-weekly Psychiatry Digest newsletters by the chairperson. This activity has enhanced recognition and appreciation among members, and further promoted a sense of pride in the workplace.

Plato is purported to have said, “Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” Therefore, it is the hope that our achievements inspire members from other departments and disciplines to learn more, do more, and become more; and for that, you are a leader!

In summary, in the practice of medicine, the antidote to occupational burnout is fostering a sense of community and belonging, connectedness and inclusion, and meaning and engagement [1, 2]. This requires leaders and clinicians to challenge their own thinking about the status quo, to be advocates, and to act with intention, care, and compassion. ?Clinician-centric healthcare organizations with an emphasis on belonging and inclusion are expected to be attuned to clinicians’ specific needs and feelings and to respond promptly to these. Creating and maintaining a sense of belonging and inclusion will motivate and empower physicians, enhance collaboration, and inspire innovation. 

As a final refection, consider the following: “What has my workplace or professional relationships given to me?” (receiving); “What did I return to my workplace or these professional connections?” (giving); “What can I or my organization do to further build an inclusive and supportive community?” (transforming). Engaging in such reflection may help to not only recognize and appreciate the value of our social connections, but promote a deeper exploration of how much one takes versus gives in social relationships within the workplace, and how we can do our part to promote and advocate for cohesive, inclusive and connected enterprises.

References

1. West CP, Dyrbye LN, Shanafelt TD. Physician burnout: contributors, consequences and solutions. J Intern Med. 2018;283(6):516-529.

2. Hategan A, Riddell T. Bridging the gap: responding to resident burnout and restoring well-being. Perspect Med Educ. 2020;9(2):117-122.

3. Umberson D, Montez JK. Social relationships and health: a flashpoint for health policy. J Health Soc Behav. 2010; 51 Suppl():S54-66.

4. Southwick SM, Southwick FS. The loss of social connectedness as a major contributor to physician burnout. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020; 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.4800. 

5. Fuentes-Afflick E. Promoting inclusion in academic medicine. JAMA Netw Open. 2018;1(4):e181010.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Recognize the impact of trauma on a brain’s ability to learn.

2. Remember that they are humans, with human brains, that have had traumatic experiences which may be impairing their ability to enjoy and thrive in their current work.

By the end of this session, participants will be:

1. Inspired to consider how trauma may affect learning in FHS classrooms.

2. Curious about potential strategies to mitigate trauma and promote inclusivity.

This is the digital recording of “Accessible Digital Content 101: Accessible Communication Techniques” by Kate Brown and Jessica Blackwood from the 2022 EDI & Indigenous Health Equity Speaker Series – Accessibility in Healthcare. These series of videos highlight concepts and frameworks for digital accessibility and seven core skills and tips for accessible digital content.

There is a persistent gender gap with regards to women in academia – especially in leadership roles. This series aims to bring together women and allies to discuss their own challenges and successes around certain key areas of personal and leadership development. We will be welcoming women faculty and all those seeking to be allies (including men, non-binary, and transgendered individuals) for them to attend these sessions and participate in our discussion. Students and trainees all throughout the spectrum will also be welcomed.

Racism, racialization, and microaggressions. These concepts have entered into the zeitgeist of our world whether we like it or not, and often these problems can enter into our education spaces. Encounters involving these issues can be nerve-wracking for many educators to experience. When trying to create a safe learning environment for our trainees, having an approach to handling race-related situations can be very important.

In this workshop, we will begin with a didactic lecture given by our guest lecturer from Harvard University – Dr. Onyeka Otugo. She will provide the framing for the issues at hand and guide us through some reflection on this topic. Then participants will engage in a problem-based learning case with other faculty members (and possibly co-learning trainees) to explore a fictional case developed by Dr. Arden Azim. Our facilitators, along with Dr. Otugo, will facilitate breakout room discussions on this topic. Finally, we will bring the group together to reflect together and hear some closing remarks from Dr. Otugo.

In this edition of the MacPFD minutes series, this video features Dr. Susan Jack from the McMaster University School of Nursing presenting about her new book club initiative (Reading for ReaSON) that seeks to help participants develop empathy and understanding for members of the BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of colour) community through reading narratives and opening up a safe space for discussion.

The workplace is changing. Curriculum is changing. We are seeing both a bottom-up and a top-down drive for staff development opportunities that explore historical and contemporary Indigenous topics for both professional and personal development. Recognizing demands placed on Indigenous leadership, faculty, and students, we have utilized books, films, and other media, as a means of integrating Indigenous voices and perspectives into our learning experience.

CHAT stands for Conversations in Healthcare, Academia, and Teaching. This is a group-based discussion program that will feature key topics set for by a unified group of organizers on a given theme.  After a successful pilot in Fall 2020, we have decided to expand the CHAT series. The version of the CHAT program will be a series that focuses on recognizing different academic career trajectories and understanding how to develop your own academic brand. 

• Intro (10-15 min) – Short keynote to set the tone. This will be recorded for web content later on.

• Breakout Rooms (30 min) – Guided discussion on key CHAT questions. These will NOT be recorded.

• De-Brief & Work To Do (10 min) – Discussion of takeaways and how to implement / amplify learnings from the session. These will not be recorded.

• Reflections (5 min) – Session leaders provide final reflections (This will be recorded for podcast & web video)

Having a clear scholarly identity can help faculty members foster opportunities to do more of the work they want, and be more successful doing it. This series aims to bring together scholars from different professional backgrounds and with different research programs in health sciences, to discuss their scholarly identities and the trajectories through which they arrived. 

Each workshop will be an interactive chance for faculty members to reflect on and articulate their scholarly identity and how they can employ it to increase their success and fulfillment in academia. The Winter/Spring 2021 series will entail three sessions, but they are meant to be drop-in sessions, and do not require prior attendance. 

We will be welcoming faculty of all levels for them to attend these sessions and participate in our discussion. Students and trainees all throughout the spectrum will also be welcomed.

The Problem: Approaches for conducting research, from identifying the research problem to reporting findings,  has evolved using different online tools and technology when working collaboratively. Online tools enabled researchers to work together in remote settings. However, choosing among the various tools can be quite overwhelming for most faculty members due to the wide use area and technical difficulties to decide which works the best for the research.

The Approach: The purpose of this workshop is to experience and to work on a mockup paper to simulate the real research writing process using Google Docs along with Zotero software to get ready the paper for submission. I will be facilitating this hands on workshop to help participants to learn and develop skills on online collaborative research tools, from literature search to ready to submit paper while working together.

Instructional Methods: Experiential learning will be the main method in this workshop where all participants are required to attend with their personal computers (Mac, Windows, and Linux acceptable).

Are you tired of being a lonely author? Do you ever feel like you’re the only one working on a paper? The purpose of this workshop is to discuss the rationale, the mechanics, and the management strategies that you can use to speed up your writing process. 

Workshop participants will also experience and work on a mockup paper to simulate the real research writing process using Google Docs along with Zotero software to get your paper ready for submission!

The Problem: High–quality research results from meaningful collaborations: What are the elements of meaningful collaborations?

Our Approach: We will share our experiences of meaningful collaborations, identifying some of the critical elements that supported the identification and achievement of research goals. Using 3 common prototypes of new research collaborations, we explain how to apply these critical elements from both the researcher and the educator perspective:

• Speak the same “language” (research or clinical)

• Know your research question or education context

• Be open to learning from others

• Do at least a brief lit review ahead of time

• Be patient (ethics reviews etc take time)

Additionally, we highlight the need to incorporate project management strategies, such as task blocking, and process mapping. Finally, we offer advice on how to navigate conversations about authorship, and accountability for ethics review, budget and data management.

Instructional Methods: We will use a mix of didactic and round table discussion. The didactic component will be primarily to share experiences of the workshop leaders. The round table format will encourage a problem based approach to addressing challenges in research collaborations. Once we have identified key elements for the development of this collaborative relationship, we will use a “Speed Dating” approach with pairs of participants reflecting on the process and barriers to solving typical problem-spots in this aspect of the scholarly journey.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify factors contributing to an effective online SoTL education program for Clinician Educators.

Mark Twain famously expressed his disdain for statistics when he said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Beyond referencing his own difficulties with math, Twain was making the point that statistics can have persuasive power, even when used inappropriately. The same can be said of surveys—results from a poorly designed and poorly executed survey can have considerable persuasive power. Flawed survey results can send educators off searching for fixes to non-existent problems and fill the scientific literature with unsubstantiated knowledge claims that may never get fully corrected. 

This workshop introduces participants to a systematic, seven-step design process for creating high-quality surveys fit for program evaluation and research purposes. The workshop consolidates and organizes the abundance of survey design literature that exists in the social sciences and guides survey developers of all levels through the design process. This design process is different from previously described processes in that it is inherently collaborative and relies on other experts in the field as well as potential survey respondents. In addition, the process front loads the task of collecting validity evidence by focusing heavily on item development. Taken together, the goal of this workshop is to help participants design better surveys; the workshop also demonstrates that Mark Twain’s lament, when applied to surveys, is often correct—but it certainly doesn’t have to be.

The Problem: The proliferation of bibliometric indicators of research impact makes assessing and reporting the value of your research increasingly complex. 

The Gap: There are no universal standards of best practice for the use of bibliometric indicators for research impact assessment.

The Hook: Without standards in place, these types of indicators can be used inappropriately.  This presentation will help make you aware of common ways that these indicators can be misconstrued and discuss important considerations when exploring your own research impact.

The Takeaway: The true value of your research cannot be boiled down to one or two bibliometric indicators. Accurate reporting of research impact is a multi-faceted process that requires the careful selection of a range of appropriate indicators based on the specific content and context of your research. 

Peer review has become increasingly important as a key academic skill. In academic health sciences, it can be a matter of life and death since it is often the role of the peer reviewer to detect errors in the papers that we review and prevent them from entering the patient care realm. This skill, however, is variably taught. In this MacPFD event, we have assembled a team of journal editors with diverse backgrounds to speak to the skill of peer reviewing. Our panel has ample experience with peer review from all angles – each is a published author, an avid peer reviewer, and a member of one (or more) editorial boards!

In this recorded webinar, we hope to help you find out how we can improve peer review and how it doesn’t just have to be a service to others!

With the end of one academic year and the start of the new, the ability to set and reach goals becomes even more important to demonstrate productivity. Come join us as we talk with leading experts on how to turn your current work into scholarship, how to optimize its reach, and learn key productivity pearls which can help you use your time efficiently and effectively.

The Problem: There are strong pedagogical and theoretical arguments for the benefits of narrative learning (learning through narratives, or stories) in medical education, especially in the domains of meaning-making, reflection on practice, and the development of clinical reasoning.

The Gap: However, there remains a dearth of information regarding the extent to which lecturers use narratives, what types of narrative lecturers are using, how to effectively utilize narratives might promote learning, and what aspects of narratives increase audience engagement.

The Hook: Integration of narratives in traditional lectures provides a relevant context for learners by drawing them in to the story and engaging them. Medical educators should utilize varied narrative structures and categories depending on the educational context— for example, character-driven stories in particular may be better remembered by learners, especially narratives with relevance to their own professional context (for example, clinical cases).

The Takeaway: Narratives are a valuable learning tool which tap into several key learning processes including providing a relevant context for understanding, engaging learners, and promoting memory. For lecturers or faculty interested in using narratives—especially stories—as a teaching tool, this presentation offers greater awareness of their potential and some guidance in how to develop them in a more focused way.

Visual abstracts can now be seen at many journals. JAMA, NEJM, BMJ, and other specialty specific journals have adopted this method of science communication. This interactive workshop will be led by Dr. Andrew Ibrahim, world leader in the technique of creating Visual Abstracts, and aims to provide participants with some key concepts for creating a successful visual abstract.

Visual abstracts are now being used by many prominent journals including JAMA, Annals of Surgery, etc.. Are you prepared as a scientist for this new type of science communication?

Take a look at this past event with one of the leading world experts on Visual Abstracts.

Misinformation, conspiracies, lies.  Doctors today are faced with the challenge of communicating facts and reason through noise amplified digitally. In recent months, McMaster experts have taken to the airwaves to get the truth out there.

In this webinar, we’ll look at an algorithm for pitching news stories, apply simple tools to be a more effective public communicator, and discuss what it means to go on the record, and why every physician should consider media engagement.

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier) is an open, community-based, non-profit registry of unique author identifiers. Your unique 16-digit ORCiD number links your research output across various online systems, enables accurate reporting of research impact, and ensures you always get credit for your research activities.   

The ability to understand and express the value of your research is an increasingly important skill in today’s research environment.  Technologies like ORCiD are making it easy for researchers to track and report on the impact of their work, giving them a leg up when it comes to securing funding, awards, promotions, and future collaborations. 

By setting up an ORCiD profile and importing your publications, you are taking an important first step to more accurate and efficient reporting of your own research impact.  An up to date ORCiD profile will ensure that you can get the most out of the Health Sciences Library’s vast collection of bibliometric tools that can track everything from citation counts (like h-index) to collaboration networks to media attention. 

In this video, researching methods through the McMaster library are explored. This webinar makes special consideration to the type of research resources available and currently at use at McMaster University.

While useful, patient information sheets are not the only source of information a patient consults after a visit with their physician. Patients interested in learning more about their health-related concerns often consult friends, family and peers who have had similar experiences. Patients are also likely to search for information online where a search engine is likely to retrieve a relevant Wikipedia article.

English Wikipedia Is one of the most frequently accessed web sites in the world and its health and medical pages are accessed more frequently than any other consumer health information web site in the USA Canada. Forthcoming research* suggests that patients who use Wikipedia to learn more about their health or medical concerns choose it because it is familiar, easy to read, and can provide helpful vocabulary that facilitates patient-clinician dialogue.

This video will demonstrate how 4 key points of appraisal can be used to rapidly assess a specific Wikipedia page as a suitable starting point for your patients. You’ll learn how to use the Talk Page, Article History, References, and your comfort to assess whether a specific article might suit the information need of your patient.

As a busy Clinician Educator it can be hard to juggle multiple jobs: clinician, educator, administrator,  scholar etc.. There are only so many hours in a day, and thus, it is important to choose wisely when selecting your next project. But, how can you possibly prioritize possible opportunities?

This video serves as a short overview of a decision-making framework that might help early career Clinician Educators.  Jonathan Sherbino (Assistant Dean, McMaster Education Research, Innovation, and Theory, MERIT) provides an overview of how he decides on his next project.

Getting started in academic scholarship can be challenging. The whole process can be daunting for those who have not engaged in scholarly pursuits regularly. Walking from idea conception through to publication and dissemination can seem like a very long road.

This video serves as a short overview of the scholarly process. Narrated by two experienced scholars, this short video summarizes the scholarly journey in about 10 minutes. While not intended to be comprehensive, this video is meant to pull back the curtain for those interested in starting up a scholarly practice. 

Niagara campus McMaster University researcher June Dong discusses how best to conduct literature reviews in the health sciences. This is the second part of a three part archive series of modules delving into research methods and best practice for health sciences education.

Niagara campus McMaster University Health Sciences speaker George Hu discusses how to best formulate research questions in a health education setting for practitioners and researchers alike. This is the first part of a three part archive series of modules delving into research methods and best practice for health sciences education.

As most learners are required to or develop interest in research and Quality Improvement (QI) projects, faculty members at the Waterloo Regional Campus are receiving increased demands from learners to design and conduct research/QI projects with the learners and provide research supervision. Even though we have 800 faculty members affiliated with the campus, only a small proportion conduct research as part of their professional portfolio. As such, we are in need of building research supervision capacity in our faculty. In the past, the only content we have offered in the “Scholarly Practice” pillar has been a review of clinical tools and databases for literature search, offered by the Health Sciences Library. It is high time that we proceed to equip our faculty members with additional scholarly skills.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many scholars struggled with online working. While there are many tools to work with, we echo the frustration of our faculty members on how to follow the methods. In this post, we are prescribing our best practice method for immersive and uninterrupted collaboration.