Creating Academic Currency

Clinicians and medical leaders are integral “agents of change”  in contemporary healthcare systems.  We help to imagine, create, shape and shepherd ideas.  In academic settings, we are also encouraged to share our ideas and our work with others, through both formal presentations and publications, in order to be a part of a larger conversation.  This is a fabulous way to create scholarship and academic currency.  This currency can come from a myriad of places, including administrative activities.

Here are some concrete ways to harness this energy and to create some academic currency towards your academic promotion:

1. Realize that you are not alone.
   • As you are doing the work, look at who is in the room with you.  You are surrounded by potential collaborators and mentors.
   • As you approach this in an interdisciplinary fashion, consider which discipline or constituency each person represents.
   • There is a rich amount of information here –  the A3s, the observations, the standard work piloted, the outcomes.
2. Share it locally.  Then share it regionally.
   • Once you have completed a project, consider a poster or a presentation.
   • Decide where you might want to present this work.
   • Have someone in the library or someone you know help you send in an abstract and help you with the presentation/poster.
   • Mentor and write with trainees and colleagues, not only in your discipline, but in other ones.
   • Submit your work to a meeting you normally go to, one that you know about, or one that someone on your team attends.
   • Use this platform as a springboard to other activities
3. Broaden your reach.
   • Ask the librarians and your senior mentors to help you find out which journals and conferences would be appropriate for your activities.
   • Think outside your discipline into other academic areas of publishing.
   • Most specialty societies and publications have subcategories which include administration, quality and safety.  Consider submitting your work to one of these venues
4. If you feel stuck, ask for help.

Here are a few examples of groups from UVA who have been successful with these approaches:

Vergales J, Addison N, Vendittelli A, Nicholson E, Carver DJ, Stemland C, Hoke T, Gangemi, J.
Face-to-Face Handoff: Improving Transfer to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit After Cardiac Surgery.
Am J Med Qual. 2014 Jan 21.

Miller SE, Ghaemmaghami CA, O’Connor RE.
Characteristics of Repeat Emergency Department Users at a University Medical Center:
Frequent Emergency Department Utilization Is Associated with Higher Rates of 30-day Inpatient Readmission.
Annals Emerg Med 2012; 60(4) S102-103.

Reese M, Mallow-Corbett S, Marzani GR.
Incidence of Substance Withdrawal-Related Behavioral Emergency Response Team (BERT) Alerts
Virginia Hospitals Healthcare Association, Patient Safety Summit, Jan 2016.

Ghaemmaghami C, Kennedy J, Adams M, Schoeny J, Smith LV, Williams M, Nicholson E.
Application of Lean Methodology to Improve Outside Hospital Transfer of Information.
Virginia Hospitals Healthcare Association, Patient Safety Summit, Jan 2016.

Please let me know if you ever want to get a cup of coffee to discuss it.

Best regards – cg

 

Thanks to Posy Marzani and Jack Jackson for their help with this blog

Filed Under: Education