Internet CME Course: MedPEP, the Medical Professionals Empowerment Program MedPEP) – Episode 8: When the Going Gets Tough – Recalibrate

Activity ID

2948

Expires

January 23, 2028

Format Type

Internet

CME Credit

1.0

Fee

$0

CME 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.

Les and Marie take stock of their first 6 conversations with well-being experts, and they reflect on Marie’s ability to effectively incorporate the torrent of new information, skills and techniques into the everyday flow of a busy life at work and home. Marie acknowledges how difficult it is to translate knowledge into habit formation, and they discuss the importance of accountability, consistency and practice, all of which support positive behavior change. In a demonstration of mentorship and coaching, Les inspires Marie to attempt to make one consistent positive change, and to monitor her own progress just as she would monitor the progress of a patient. He models a client-centered, positive psychology approach that allows for experimentation and learning, alleviating the kind of self-criticism and pressure that many physicians inflict upon themselves. Les helps Marie identify a potentially helpful accountability partner at work. Les and Marie acknowledge that because physician burnout is a byproduct of factors beyond the control of individual physicians, many future MedPEP episodes will focus on interventions that are team-based, organizational or systemic. As an individual who aspires to become more empowered and personally effective, Marie is interested in applying what she is learning at the level of her team, work-group and organization.

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