Crisis brings out the best in leadership and it can bring out the worst in leadership. It is how people stand up to adversity that makes a difference. When you are working on the front lines it makes no difference. Left with a paucity of supplies or left to make ‘homemade’ supplies to protect yourself; there are a myriad of patients to be taken care of. One thing’s for sure, during these stressing times, people will show their true colors.
Think back to when we began this journey to serve society as physicians, none of us thought that this could be a scenario. Hospitals across the country are bursting at the seams as makeshift hospitals pop up or float into major cities. This virus indiscriminately infects people old and young, healthy and ill, with a relatively high fatality rate if you have any medical condition. When we were sitting in class learning about microbiology, virology, genetics and others, there was little to prepare us for the battle going on the front lines today.
My last few episodes have been devoted to helping all of us grapple with our current reality; orders to stay home, stay safe, social distancing, and limited travel. On the other hand, Orders to continue working despite being ill or not having enough PPE. We talked about distractions like COVID 19 and how you need to acknowledge them and keep moving forward in episode 61. In episode 62, we talked about the national emergency and how I could only compare it to my own personal 9/11 story. I gave several examples in how you can help even if you can’t fight on the front line.
As many of you know, my job as a physician executive was taken from me years ago in an unfortunate incident that led to my career being shattered. I wrote about some of it in Licensed To Live: A Primer to Rebuilding Your Life After Your Career is Shattered. However, during my time as president of the medical staff and a board of trustee member of an 8 hospital system, I confirmed that systems are forced to make tough decisions regarding their employees. There is a cycle of laissez les bon temps roulette (let the good times roll) versus the sky is falling that happens in many board rooms.
Right now, the sky is falling and the C suite and accompanying board members may not be prepared for this type of ‘germ warfare.’ Never would anyone want their most important resource, the staff, work in unsafe conditions or be without PPE. However, the COVID19 situation is unprecedented. The message may come from the c-suite as we must hunker down and take care of patients. As the staff gets sick, there are less people to help in the fight which necessitates longer hours or perhaps using homemade PPE as supplies have run out. Although individual systems had different levels of emergency preparedness and the government is trying to do what they can to help the situation; this battle is on the front lines of healthcare is real and you are stuck in the middle.
You have heard the phrase ‘it’s business, not personal.’ That is the phrase that many leaders may hang onto because it helps them sleep at night. Although decisions may be made that affect you personally, don’t worry it is not intentional, it is not against you personally, it is just affects you, your health, your reputation, or potentially your family. I hope thatmakes you feel better…
Of course things are fine now that you are risking your own safety. You are saving lives and doing a great job. You may have gotten some fame from a video you posted that got some national attention. This is great because people want to know the stories. However, proceed with extreme caution! Things may seem all good until the crisis is over and you get called to ‘the principal’s office’ to have a discussion about that media appearance. It seemed harmless at the time, but it got the attention of many administrators.
Bad publicity is the last thing that any system wants. In fact they may jettison anything if it brings bad press no matter how valuable they may be. When thinking of policy and procedure several things come to mind.
- The hierarchy of media releases. Most of the time the c-suite wants to control the narrative. They don’t like it if someone makes a pitch to the media without them knowing. Especially if it is an expose piece. People who manage the media relations like to be in charge so they don’t want individual doctors and nurses controlling the dialogue.
- HIPPA reigns supreme; if you are making these posts and any patient is in the picture directly or indirectly that could be taken as a break in the law, yet another reason to get rid of you.
- If within that viral moment you say something incorrect or perceived that way it could be considered libel and it will ultimately put you in a bad light. We have talked about the power of social media with SOmedocs founder Dr. Dana Corriel in a past podcast.
It is rough out there. Stand up and be a good leader even though you may not feel the same about your senior leadership. Perhaps you are feeling like you have had enough of your current job. Perhaps you are looking for something else. Perhaps you already fired off that perilous social media post and got let go. If you feel that it is time for you to do something else with your life, you feel like you want to actually start living again, you want to be free; make an appointment to talk to me at timewithdoctorjarret.com.
