Step 7: The Secret Sauce
There you have it—a prescription for success.
Well, it turns out we are still missing one thing—one final ingredient, something mysterious and all-too-often lacking. A magic potion that allows for the right people to be in the right places with the right tools to succeed. With it, our potential knows no bounds. Without it, we’ll continue to struggle. In fact, its absence is one of the single biggest predictors of low satisfaction for academic hospitalists.1
What is “it”?
Leadership.
HM needs individuals to fill this prescription. The problem is that our leaders are often young, inexperienced, and raw. They are tasked with creating positions with an academic focus, reasonable clinical productivity expectations, a culture that promotes scholarship, sufficient non-clinical time, adequate time with learners, robust mentorship, and ample autonomy, work-life balance, and a chance to grow. To do this, they need direction, mentorship, a peer network, and skills development.
At least that’s what I need.
In fact, come to think of it, I think there is an eighth step for academic success—the need to develop an external academic peer network, to grow together, to actively engage, and depend on for help. As such, I hope you’ll partake in step No. 8 with me—at HM12, Academic Hospitalist Academy, Leadership Academies, and the Academic Summit. I hope to see you soon.
Dr. Glasheen is associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Denver, where he serves as director of the Hospital Medicine Program and the Hospitalist Training Program, and as associate program director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. He is physician editor of The Hospitalist and course director of the SHM’s 2012 annual meeting (www.hospitalmedicine2012.org).
References
- Glasheen JJ, Misky GJ, Reid MB, Harrison RA, Sharpe B, Auerbach A. Career satisfaction and burnout in academic hospital medicine. Arch Intern Med. 2011;171:782-785.
- Reid MB, Misky GJ, Harrison RA, Sharpe B, Auerbach A, Glasheen JJ. Mentorship, productivity, and promotion among academic hospitalists. J Gen Intern Med. Epub online: Sept. 28, 2011.
- Hinami K, Whelan CT, Wolosin RJ, Miller JA, Wetterneck T. Worklife and satisfaction of hospitalists: Toward flourishing careers. J Gen Intern Med. Epub online: July 20, 2011.