Activity ID
2944Expires
January 24, 2025Format Type
InternetCME Credit
1.0Fee
$0CME Provider: Massachusetts Medical Society
Description of CME Course
MedPEP, the Medical Professionals Empowerment Program, is a Free podcast series jointly provided by Physician Health Services, Inc. (PHS) and the Massachusetts Medical Society. PHS is a charitable organization dedicated to improving the health, well-being and effectiveness of physicians and medical students.
Regulations, technology, organizational complexity, and the explosion of medical knowledge have created a perfect storm for most practicing health professionals. Physician burnout rates now exceed 50%. MedPEP’s star, Dr. Marie Curious, is a young, primary care internist who has started to fantasize about leaving the profession that she loves. On her MedPEP journey, Marie joins Dr. Les Schwab and a group of specialized physicians, coaches, and other experts, who offer a broad range of practical techniques to help her survive and thrive in today’s tough medical environment. The territory they cover includes nutrition, exercise, getting along with difficult colleagues, dealing with bureaucracy and bosses, multi-tasking, system improvement, meditation, and addiction. The MedPEP journey helps Marie, and other health professionals facing similar challenges, gain insight into practical methods for empowering themselves as well as their teams, employers, and the broken system.
Dr. Schwab introduces Marie to Gail Gazelle, MD, a practicing hospice physician and health professional coach, and they review multiple working definitions of mindfulness. She stresses the need for compassion, both for one’s patients as well as for oneself. Dr. Gazelle also emphasizes the importance of being in the present moment, staying focused on the reality in front of us. Marie comes to understand that focusing on the here and now allows one to put a distance between oneself and the downward spiral of negative thoughts that sometimes distract and preoccupy individuals who work in high stress professions. A benefit of practicing mindfulness and other related meditative techniques is that they enable us to effectively focus our attention where it belongs and to tune out the distractions. Another beneficial aspect of mindfulness is critical curiosity about one’s own thought processes. By learning to focus on the task at hand, we are able to conserve energy that might otherwise be lost in negative thoughts. Drs. Gazelle and Schwab talk to Marie about incorporating a simple mindfulness practice into the course of her busy days in the office, and Marie agrees to give it a “college try.”
ABMS Member Board Approvals by Type
ABMS Lifelong Learning CME Activity
Allergy and Immunology
Anesthesiology
Family Medicine
Medical Genetics and Genomics
Nuclear Medicine
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Plastic Surgery
Preventive Medicine
Psychiatry and Neurology
Radiology
Thoracic Surgery
Urology
Commercial Support?
NoNOTE: If a Member Board has not deemed this activity for MOC approval as an accredited CME activity, this activity may count toward an ABMS Member Board’s general CME requirement. Please refer directly to your Member Board’s MOC Part II Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment Program Requirements.
Educational Objectives
Define mindfulness and acknowledge the need for both self-compassion and compassion for others as integral to effective medical practice.
Demonstrate an understanding of effective meditative techniques and ways of being and staying ‘present’ in the face of complex and competing responsibilities.
Keywords
Physician Wellness, Hospice, Self Care
Competencies
Practice-based Learning & Improvement, Professionalism
CME Credit Type
AMA PRA Category 1 Credit
Physician Well-being activity
Personal Resilience
Practice Setting
Inpatient, Outpatient, Physician Executives, Rural, Urban
