Beginning later this month, eight nurse-physician pairs from Virginia hospitals will participate in a new leadership training initiative spearheaded by Charlottesville-based University of Virginia that aims to foster better communication, more respect and collaboration across healthcare disciplines.
"The focus in medical school is almost entirely about your skills as a clinician," Amber Inofuentes, a UVA physician who will be participating in the program, said in a statement. "But being able to lead a clinical team and leading work on the unit require a very different set of skills. Whether its quality and safety issues or effective interactions with your colleagues, those aren't things particularly thought of as part of the formal education. It's a need, and I'm excited to be part of this new program that's being offered."
An additional component of the program will be monthly, three-day modules taught by faculty from UVA's School of Nursing and Darden School of Business. The modules will focus on leading and assessing interprofessional teams, the concept of shared leadership in healthcare and collaborating to develop on-unit innovations for patient safety and quality.
More articles on physician issues:
AMA: Top 9 issues affecting physicians in 2016
Patient pressure leads half of primary care physicians to issue unnecessary referrals, study finds
British medical students renew efforts for mass strike