Planning a career path from engineering to management

In order to become successful managers, engineers must learn new skills, acquire new values and re-orient their thinking. The transition from engineering to management requires time for the individual to mature, a progression of on-the-job experiences, and careful career planning. Career planning is best viewed as part of a total human resource management system of goal-setting, performance appraisals, training, and continuous career counseling. Career planning becomes most effective where a variety of jobs and pathways are provided by the organization, when the performance requirements for these jobs are made explicit, when the criteria for promotions are spelled out, and where the salary brackets are consistent with this information. Useful career planning can be carried out without this system approach, as the case study herein demonstrates. But the systems approach makes career planning much more effective, and generally assists the engineer in making a better transition to management.     

A blueprint for career change when you don't know what you want to do

Follow the paths of a gynecologist turned investment banker and an internist who became a medical writer. Both used a proven process to change their careers and determine what they wanted to do.     

Medical director musical chairs. A reaffirmation of my career in medical management

Losing your job can be a traumatic event. But you can minimize the shock by taking some action steps to find another job quickly--in many cases, even a better job. Consider some advice from a seasoned physician executive who has successfully negotiated the corporate maze found in many health care organizations today.     

Medical staff in need of change. Explore a revolutionary way to reorganize your medical staff.

With demands on hospital medical staffs growing more complex, the days of volunteer or popularly elected medical staff leaders are fading fast. Take a look at the history of medical staff leadership and learn about dramatic changes that could make your medical staff function more smoothly.     

The development of a Mentor Program to foster career management

Because of dramatic changes in the employment environment and the increased frequency with which employees change jobs and careers, career management has become increasingly important. This article introduces and evaluates an academic Mentor Program that was developed in response to these changes. The Mentor Program provides students with many benefits including career counseling, practical work experience, employment opportunities, and networking.     

Physician career management: organizational strategies for the 21st century.

Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement in situations that are emotionally demanding. It is not stress, per se, that causes burnout, as many thrive in stressful, demanding careers. Rather, burnout results when stress continuously outweighs the sense of effectiveness, accomplishment, and reward. And, this fate is sealed when one feels helpless to effect significant change in the conditions that fuel the stress. Establishing an organizational environment that reduces the risk of physician burnout requires a new commitment of resources, one that can be challenging to justify to decision-makers with a strictly short-term, bottom line orientation. The key issues to consider in shaping a physician career management program include: (1) entry of new physician employees into the organization; (2) productivity measures; (3) responsiveness to safety concerns; (4) administrative and policy issues; and (5) variety and growth opportunities.     

Encouraging women and minorities to enter medical management.

Women and minorities are underrepresented in medical management. If we use our personal knowledge of physician managers we know, it should be clear that the profession is dominated by white males, mainly middle-aged. But the evidence is more conclusive.     

Survey shows medical involvement in risk management.

Late in 1985, an AAMD InterCOM survey questionnaire was sent to hospital-based members of the Academy. The subject of the survey was risk management programs, and the goal was to obtain information on how members planned and implemented this function within their institutions. Of the 632 surveys mailed, 192 usable responses were returned. Where two or more responses were received from the same institution, the combined response was used. If the responses were incompatible, the institution was deleted from the returns. In this article, we summarize the major findings of the survey.     

How to be viewed as a sage in your elder years.

Journal Writing, meditation, and telling our stories by reviewing our lives and harvesting the wisdom we've gained are productive activities for the present. The practice of journal writing is an integral part of accepting the aging process and making the elder years enjoyable and fulfilling. Meditation provides a way to center yourself and is particularly helpful during stressful times. It increases your chances of not worrying and improves your ability to concentrate. Another task of successful age-ing that is fueled by journal writing and meditation is life review and passing on your knowledge to others. These disciplines are explored as tools for inner growth and instruction is provided to help get you started.     

Improving medical decision-making with a management science game theory approach to liver transplantation

Even though nowadays medicine is necessarily linked with technology, it is still a service involving human interaction, which frequently requires the help of management science tools. Indeed, a medical consultation can be an extremely complex example of human interaction. Management science, operations research and in particular game theory may play a key role in helping to improve the results of medical decision-making processes. Game theory is widely used in a large variety of decision-making studies, but there is little application to health care issues, namely the doctor-patient relationship. This paper uses game theory to model the liver transplantation consultation for patients suffering from Alcoholic Liver Disease. This disease is very delicate, and patients at its end-stages require special dedication where management science tools are of utmost importance. They may try to deceive doctors, which may lead to bad outcomes. The Nash equilibrium behaviors by doctor and patient are obtained. Results show some health policy and managerial implications on the decision-makers’ parameters and on the order of play so as to achieve, for instance, higher rates of patient’s cooperation.     

Physician strives to create lean,clean health care machine. Studies of manufacturing processes may one day help make your practice more efficient

Elisabeth Hager, MD, MMM, CPE, is teaming up with scientists and industrialists to teach physicians how to apply principles of lean, total-quality manufacturing to their practices. She believes innovation and efficiencies can help doctors resurrect their profession's image and their control over it--and perhaps even reinvent American health care.     

Part 2, Conflict management. How to shape positive relationships in medical practices and hospitals

Managing workplace conflict is one of the most important, stressful, and time-consuming tasks faced by today's physician leaders. In Part 1 of this article series, the authors describe how to assess an organization's interpersonal dynamics. True change comes from interventions that help an organization to become a positive interpersonal culture, one that fosters cooperation and collaboration. Part 2 offers seven steps to solving the disruptive physician problem: (1) provide protection to complainants; (2) listen, empathize, and avoid communication triangles; (3) confront offenders with data, authority, and compassion; (4) if needed, get outside help; (5) offer workplace training and experiences that foster positive relationships; (6) follow-up; and (7) practice what you preach. The self-assessment and intervention guidelines discussed in this series of articles can help physician executive move beyond struggling with episodes of conflict to shaping stress-resilient medical organizations.