Day 4: Adventures in Healthcare Leadership

First of a I will start it off by saying how thankful I am for a few things. I am thankful for my back holding up during this trip. I am happy to say I hardly feel it at all and when I do it's very minor. I am also thankful for not catching the gi bug that has been going around this resort and conference attendees. I did decide to bring my sambucus elderberry syrup with me which at first I thought was the worst idea since it spilled all over my suitcase during the flight but has possibly been the best thing allowing me to give my immune system a little boost. I knew in the back of my head flying and large crowds and lead to getting sick. 

Our first speaker today was Daniel Pink who is the author of Drive and The Whole New Mind. It was on the surprising truth: The science behind what drives us.

He has been on TED talks:

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

Recommended articles:

By Dan Ariely and Steffie Woolhandler Will Pay For Performance Backfire?

http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2012/10/11/will-pay-for-performance-backfire-insights-from-behavioral-economics/

By Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kremer

The Study Progress

The Power of Small Wins

http://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins/

Autonomy Audit Assessment

www.danielpink.com/audit

App and software:

(There is a free version and app download on your phone.)

https://idonethis.com/

Key points:

-  When you reward behavior you get more of it, when you punish you get less...Sometimes!

-  Rewards are great for simple short term tasks but not so great for complex and long term.

-  If something is unfair people become very demotivated.

-  Money is a motivator and matters a lot but in a slightly different way. 

-  Human beings don't engage by being managed or controlled. 

-  One way to help good people do good things is to get out of their way.

-  We focus more on how and we need to be focusing more on why.

Next big event of the day for me was... The Therapeutic Use if Humor in Health Care by Kathleen Lambert who is a very inspiring registered nurse and lawyer.

I did not get to see her while speech due to a meeting I had to go to but did get the opportunity to talk to her afterward. 

Key Points:

-  Worrying is like being in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere.

-  The Japenese word Karoshi means death from overwork.

-  Don't take yourself too seriously.

-  Sometimes you are the best source of humor. 

-  "Humor is the essence of humanity."

              -  Steve Allen

-  Gelotology- is the study of laughter.

Good authors in humor:

William Fry

Barbara Johnson

Erma Bombeck

Joke:

The Dayton Daily News published the winning entries in the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition. 1st place in the "Humor category" was by Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, (she teaches at LCC)

"The First Time's Always the Worst"

The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches fire.

That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think of a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body).

Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside out. I'm pretty sure Victoria's Secret doesn't have a bra for that.

Suddenly, there was a loud popping noise. I looked down at my right breast to make sure it hadn't exploded. Nope, it was still flat as a pancake and still attached to my body.

"Oh no!" Gail said loudly. These are, perhaps, the words you least want to hear from any health professional. Suddenly, she came flying past me, her lab coat whipping behind her, on her way out the door. She yelled over her shoulder, "The machine's on fire, I'm going to get help!"

OK, I was wrong, 'The machine's on fire,' are the worst words you can hear from a health professional. Especially if you're all alone and semi-permanently attached to A MACHINE and don't know if it's THE MACHINE in question.

I struggled for a few seconds trying to get free, but even Houdini couldn't have escaped. I decided to go to plan B: yelling at the top of my lung (the one that was still working).

I hadn't seen anything on fire, so my panic hadn't quite reached epic proportions. But then I started to smell smoke coming from behind the partition.

"This is ridiculous," I thought. I can't die like this. What would they put in my obituary? Cause of death: breast entrapment?
I may have inhaled some fumes because I started to hallucinate. An imaginary fireman rushed in with a firehose and a hatchet. "Howdy, ma'am," he said. "What's happened here?" he asked, averting his eyes. "My breasts were too hot for the machine," I quipped, as my imaginary fireman ran out of the room again. "This is gonna take the Jaws of Life!", he shouts......

In reality, Gail returned with a fire extinguisher and put out the fire. She gave me a big smile and released me from the machine. "Sorry! That's the first time that's ever happened. Why don't you take a few minutes to relax before we finish up?"

I think that's what she said. I was running across the parking lot in my backless paper gown at the time.

After I relax for a few years, I figure I might go back. But I am taking my own fire extinguisher.

The end.

So that gives you a few bits and pieces and great resources. Even though the conference coming to an end can be a sad time but I have had an incredible experience and ment some great and inspiring leaders. I have millions of ideas floating in my head in where I can go from here and how I can help. The future will be very exciting. 

At the end of the day I escaped all the sick people and went out for dinner with another attendee.