Medical Staff

Congregate!

Medical Staff Leader Connection, November 11, 2004

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Medical Staff Leader Connection!

Dear Medical Staff Leader:

Last night I had the pleasure of working with a group of bright PhDs, MDs, faculty, and staff of a major college. The conversation turned to the need for social space for students and faculty. Many of the discussion participants pointed out that social space is in many ways more important than classroom space.

Picture a bright well-appointed lounge with a wall dedicated to medicine and surgery through the ages, a display that is the rotating responsibility of physicians willing to contribute to its offerings. In one section, a large television plays a lecture about current advances in the treatment of a particular disease. In yet another section of the lounge, students and faculty discuss surgery and the current plans to renovate the operating suites. (A computer screen glows with plans and an "electronic suggestion box" overflows with ideas generated by surgeons and others who have stopped by for a little "R&R.")

Your own version of a coffee shop is located under a large picture of Hypocrites and his Oath. A number of internists and family physicians can be found there discussing a "good case." Along one wall, set off by a tasteful partition, you might find a series of dictating stations with pass-through windows to the medical records department (or at least to the delinquent records storage shelves).

The scene is completed by a "radiology image of the week," which includes a small answer box stuffed with carefully formulated interpretations, submitted with the hope of wining the week's prize. You might visualize other congregations in your own medical staff lounge, but the message is that social space does indeed make a difference.

That's all for this week.

All the best,

Hugh Greeley
http://www.greeley.com/seminars/



Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Medical Staff Leader Connection!

Most Popular

Related Articles