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  • How Change is Ushered in Healthcare

    Pre pandemic, it is said that among service industries, change is predictably most difficult in the healthcare profession. There are several reason for this, but because processes in healthcare are already often complex, and sometimes ambiguous, embedding a new culture happen at a very slow pace. Take the pre pandemic research to standards of care policy change and implementation. It usually takes a decade for new promising research result to become standards of care in clinical medicine. This is even longer in the field of surgery.

    Interestingly, it took us a pandemic to change some of our long held beliefs and practices. Vaccine development and approval for public use for example, took a lightning speed compared to pre pandemic process development and implementation. The use of telemedicine as an adjunct to clinical care also took a “boost” during the pandemic. There’s a saying that necessity is the mother of all inventions, but I guess we cannot wait for another pandemic like scenario to usher change in healthcare. Thus, whatever ushered the lightning speed changes to the healthcare industry during this pandemic, is worth reflecting and replicating. This will be the topic of our tweet chat this Saturday Feb 25, 2023 9:00PM Manila time.

    [su_box title=”Ushering change in the healthcare industry”]
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    • T1. What ushered the rapid behaviour changes observed among healthcare professionals during the pandemic?
    • T2. What ushered the rapid process change observed in the healthcare industry during the pandemic?
    • T3. What leadership or management culture that ushered the rapid behavior and process change in the healthcare industry? [/su_list] [/su_box]

      To join the tweet chat, just introduce yourself, answer the above guide questions on prompt and append the hashtag #HealthXPh” to your tweets. See you!

      Image by wavebreakmedia_micro on Freepik

  • Doing Something Different in 2023.

    This topic was inspired by a chat topic at the healthcare leadership blog.

    January has been traditionally a new year resolutions month even for #Healthxph. In the last 2 pandemic new year, I only made one new year resolution and that is to survive the pandemic. Given my sorry batting average for achieving new year resolutions, this one has been so far the hardest and yet, here I am entering 2023, alive. I am grateful to a lot of people for that.

    This year, I want to do something different though. We’re slowly emerging into the new post pandemic normal and I realized some of my “pandemic” habits probably won’t be applicable in 2023. At work for example, I find “mixing” my multiple online activities with face to face tasks really tiring. Like 24 hours isn’t enough! So maybe there’s something I need to do differently this year. This will be the topic of the #Healthxph chat this Saturday Jan 14, 2023 9:00 PM Manila time.

    [su_box title=”Tweetchat: Doing Something Different in 2023 “]
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    • T1. What in your personal life, will you do differently in 2023?
    • T2. What in your career , will you do differently in 2023?
    • T3. What do you foresee will be your biggest challenge this 2023? [/su_list] [/su_box]

      Log in to your twitter account, follow the hashtag #Healthxph and contribute you thoughts to the guide questions above by appending #Healthxph in your tweets. See you all there!

      Image by Freepik

  • Social Media’s Role in Bridging Healthcare’s Generational Gap

    At the height of COVID-19 pandemic, a nurse posted a video of them dancing inside an empty emergency room with a big bold text caption complaining their work isn’t valued. That video went viral and although there were multiple and vastly diverse interpretations, the video posting didn’t go well with the health care organization’s (HCO) leadership and resulted to tumultuous reorganization within.

    One HCO leader complained in one conference that their “younger” HC provider seemingly had a different work ethic, behaviour, loyalty and respect for older peers. She continued that the government should mandate that the diaspora of healthcare workers be stopped immediately as our healthcare system is collapsing because of worker shortages.

    T1: Is there a generational gap in the healthcare workforce?

    The Gap.

    There’s no denying that the workforce now mostly consist of the younger generation of healthcare workers- the millennials. These young healthcare workers are adept at digital technology and would rather work and interact with their peers collaboratively. Contrast that with the existing HCO leadership and structure. Most HCO leaders are Baby Boomers whos used to running a top down, highly structured, regulated and bureaucratic organization. The above mentioned stories exemplifies the “clash” happening if this “gap” isn’t bridged. A gap that is making the shortage in our healthcare workforce- nurses in particular, worse.

    There are myriad of reasons for the continued shrinking of our healthcare workforce. Generational gap though rather correlational than a direct cause, is just one of these factors. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the gap even more, pressuring the already volatile and complex healthcare system, widening the generational misunderstanding between HCO’s workforce and its leaders. In the words of one famous motivational keynote speaker, this shift or gap is a “cycle”. The shift is the same as what other older generation experience during their time, when they were rebelling with their predecessor generation. Understanding this shift is key to solving this gap and communication may be the only doable course of action for now.

    T2: What is the role of social media in bridging this healthcare workforce generational gap?

    Health Is Social.

    I wasn’t surprised when our HR reported one of the more effective hiring platform we have right now is social media. Even the previously held “word of mouth” campaigns are now spread on social media. Initial hiring activities and engagements takes place on social media. Most healthcare workers keep tabs of the various HCOs social media pages as a way to scout for potential opportunities.

    The first story above highlights another generational difference often misconstrued by older generations- the young workers need for constant recognition and multiple technologies. Older HCO leaders may take this as counterproductive to work and are often suppressed in the workplace as a bad work ethic or behavior. Many HCO leaders neglect that part that the new generation needs constant feedback and communication and will be valuable assets if their team effort are reinforced and recognized.

    Internally, many millennials prefer to work in a flat organization, engaging in a more collaborative approach rather than a strictly structured system our healthcare system is built. The young healthcare leaders build networks and interact with thru social media. As many HCO leaders now knew, most “unofficial” work related discussions are happening over social media. And we’d rather look at this as a problem rather than an opportunity to engage.

    T3: What social media strategy will you recommend in bridging this healthcare generational gap?

    Strategy for an opportunity.

    Personally, social media role in bridging this gap is to connect or engage the seemingly different generations. Thus, socmed strategy primarily deals with this objective. I knew one baby boomer HCO leader say sorry to a millenial HCW via messenger, initiated a face to face meeting with the team, listened to their concerns and proactively set up a group page within the hospital socmed platform to work collaboratively and find solution to these concerns. Another multinational HCO hired an external social media manager, integrated it into its HR HCW engagement team and increase the younger generation participation in hospital patient and employees initiatives. An even more proactive baby boomer HCO leader trained himself social media tactics and used the various platform to connect and provide feedback to his peers.

    Taking on social media as a tool does have it setbacks though. In healthcare, patient information privacy should be protected. While many social media platforms are free, a deliberate attempt to harness its power needs some serious investments both in human capital and finances.

    The role of socmed in bridging generational gap now is even clearer than before. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this and will weigh considerably even in a post pandemic healthcare. Taking advantage of this opportunity will be the topic of this Saturday’s #HealthXPH tweetchat 9PM Manila time. Join us by live tweeting your answers to these guide questions and appending “#HealthXPh” to your tweets.

    [su_box title=”Generational Gap in Healthcare Profession”]
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    • T1. Is there a generational gap in the healthcare?
    • T2. What is the role of social media in bridging this healthcare generational gap?
    • T3. What social media strategy will you recommend in bridging this healthcare generational gap? [/su_list] [/su_box]

      See you all at the #HealthXPh chat!

      Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik

  • Wheels of Willpower: How To Get Better at (Advising) Self-Control

    [su_pullquote align=”right”]Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of
    passion.- Alexander Hamilton[/su_pullquote]

    During one badminton break, one friend asked my advice regarding his lingering knee pain while playing badminton. I advise him to stop playing badminton temporarily, seek medical consult for his knee injury and only resume playing when his doctor tells him so. On our next badminton game, I saw my knee pained friend still playing badminton and hasn’t consulted any doctor yet. I cautioned him again, but was really intrigued why he hasn’t followed my advice. His reply floored me. “We are almost of the same age. You also complain of occasional knee pain just like me. Yet you continue to play badminton. I guess this knee pain will just go away!”

    As someone who has tried (and failed) some of my own advices, I ask friends and colleagues how my “hardheadedness” affect their chances of “following” my advice. It seems for many of us health workers, advising self control seem easy yet we all had our share of self control struggles, and these have implications of our advising particularly with health issues.

    Of course there are many behavioral and social drivers when it comes to influencing health outcomes. Healthcare recommendations is just one of these, albeit an important one. We may not recognize this but when healthcare worker “self control” is out of control, the implications to our patients are as just as mind boggling. This is the topic of our #HealthXPh chat this Saturday October 15, 2022 9:00 PM Manila time.

    • T1. As a healthcare professional, have you advised a patient on a medical concern yet you struggle following the very same advise?

    When we talk of self control, the word “will power” comes to mind. Although there are many behavioral and social drivers to self control, we usually equate self control with “mind over body”, mind over flesh or simply the “will” to do things- will power. Many studies have already pointed the uncomforting truth that will power is often beyond our own “will”. Yet, we quixotically believe we have will power on so many things.

    • T2. Can you recommend a specific strategy to reinforce self control when advising patients on health concerns?

    One thing that comes to mind of course is avoiding too many self control habits at once or at the same time. There were studies now that prove that willpower is finite and our cognitive capacity is severely affected when its loaded all at the same time.

    • T3. What other behavioral, social strategies do you advise in addition to self control when influencing a health outcome in a patient?

    In the medical community our mantra for advising is “walk the talk”. This is easier said than done and I’m very interested in knowing how to improve our self control advises particularly when we try to improve our patients achieving a better health outcome! See you all in the #HealthXPh chat!

    Image by stockking on Freepik

  • Building organizational culture with social media

    Since I started dabbling with social media, I believe there was more to it than politics, entertainment, branding, marketing or plain gossip mongering. We humans pushed the limits of our potential to progress (and sometimes disasters), by being social. We championed our kind as the “superior” animal because of our ability to socialize, collaborate and defend our race as one cohesive unit. History is replete with “tools” that help us build cultures. Fire, stone, religion, steel, money, weapons, print, radio, TV and now, the internet. We built our culture by being social- from the stone age, to possibly, the digital era.

    As I write this piece, the stark contrast of cultures before and at the dawn of social media platforms is mind boggling. Just how we build a culture via social media is something that needs clarifying but one thing for sure, we are at a point of no return. We move forward with social media from here.

    When we started #HealthXPh, we thought we can build a culture of collaboration among healthcare workers via social media. #HealthXPh does this because we believe in doing the “social” good. Thus, we helped build communities of health- aware organizations espousing the “social good”, via this platform. Proof to this is this tweet chat, that discusses almost everything under the sun that affects healthcare workers and patients. How #HealthXPh did that was sort of a trial and error exploration, in a platform that was very new and volatile even five or ten years ago. As an organizational development junkie, that Is what I am very much interested. Join #HealthXPh tweet chat this Saturday Sept 3, 2022 9PM Manila Time as we try to share insights on how to build organizational culture via social media. Tweet your answers back to the following guide questions and append the hashtag #HealthXPh in the tweet.

    [su_box title=”Building organizational culture via social media”]
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    • T1. Can you build organizational culture with social media? Why or why not?
    • T2. What are the risks and challenges of building organizational culture with social media?
    • T3. How can you successfully build organizational culture with social media? Share your tips and/or experience [/su_list] [/su_box]

      I noticed a number of my friends build cultures or subcultures in their organizations with social media. The last election in this country however, heavily weighed down social media as a political tool, convoluting a once novel way of building culture with this platform. I’d like to ignite the spark with this chat. Join us in this interesting discussion!

      Image by wavebreakmedia_micro on Freepik