HEALTH PROFESSIONS

Cultural Competence
What is cultural competence? Is it a new way to talk about diversity? Is it a fad or the latest buzz word? It is none of these.

Cultural competence means learning enough about a patient's healthcare belief system to make it possible for providers and their patients to bepartners in health. In focus groups and patient satisfaction surveys we are often told by patients that they are most comfortable talking to providers who speak their language and/or look like them. However, this is not always possible, given that the ratio of practitioners of color to patients of color is greatly unbalanced. What does this mean in terms of patient outcomes? How does it affect patients' compliance with treatment goals and plans? Does it impact on their use of prescribed medications or their follow-up on your recommendations?

This workshop is focused on multicultural interviewing. It shows providers how to interview patients in a way that communicates respect for their beliefs, and helps patients take an active role in their care.

Participants will:
• Learn the role that culture plays in patient care
• Practice multicultural interviewing skills
• Identify and negotiate conflicts

This workshop is a must for all health care providers.

Workshop Faculty: Jonathan Fader, PhD; Deborah Perry; James Deary, EdD.

Development of a Family Practice Quality Improvement Program
What is Quality Improvement? How does it relate to your organization?
Will your organization be ready to adapt to future quality based interventions from national regulatory agencies? How can your organization use Continuous Quality Improvement and chronic disease management to reduce morbidity and mortality?

Participants will:
• Learn the basic definitions and principles of Quality Improvement and how to apply them in your organization.
• Receive an overview of the latest trends and accomplishments within the Quality Improvement field.
• Learn to increase compliance with third party requirements such as health plans, HEDIS, National Quality Forum, DOQ-IT, DOH, and learning collaboratives.

This workshop is critically important for all medical directors, quality directors, providers, administrators, and nurse managers. This workshop is also important for the staff of health care sites that have contemplated acquiring an electronic health record or those who would like to use their EHR to its fullest potential.

Workshop faculty: Kwame Kitson, MD

Domestic Violence in the Workplace
See description under Diversity and Social Issues.

Electronic Health Records
Health information technology has changed medicine forever: in the near future, every medical office will have a comprehensive electronic health record that not only documents patient care, but advises providers and patients about best practices, and helps clinicians avoid costly, life threatening medical errors.

How you will benefit:
• Understand criteria for system selection
• Be prepared for implementation
• Know how to use the system to improve quality and cost effectiveness

What you will cover:
• What an EHR can do for you
• Getting the right system for your practice
• Bringing your staff on board

This is an interactive session. Participants are encouraged to come with their own issues and problems. Session handouts will serve as an important set of guideposts for those participants as they move forward to implement electronic health records in their practices and teaching programs.

Workshop faculty: Neil Calman, MD; Kwame Kitson, MD

HIV for Non-HIV Specialists: Avoiding the Pitfalls and Providing Healthcare Maintenance
The HIV pandemic is entering its second quarter century. The growth of scientific knowledge and our ability to treat HIV as a manageable chronic disease in the developed world is breathtaking. Most healthcare providers will at times see HIV patients and need to be able to provide primary care and recognize and avoid complications of treatment.

How you will benefit:
• Be able to recognize emergencies
• Learn to avoid dangerous pitfalls
• Know how to provide HIV-specific preventive care

What you will cover:
• Life-threatening medication side effects and drug-drug interactions
• Hepatitis B and C and tuberculosis co-infection
• Emerging STDs and new treatment guidelines
• Post-exposure prophylaxis
• Health care maintenance guidelines

This workshop is not intended to make you an HIV expert, but a better primary care provider. Come with your own concerns and problems and leave confident in your role when caring for HIV patients.

Workshop faculty: John Weiser, MD; Kwame Kitson, MD

New York State Mandated Reporter Course for Child Abuse and Maltreatment
See description under Diversity and Social Issues.

Precepting Skills and Teaching in Primary Care
Precepting and teaching are the primary activities of the academic physician in primary care medicine. The literature on adult learning has identified 5 primary teaching behaviors and 5 primary learning behaviors that can be used in a medical education encounter.

Participants will:
• Learn the differences between these ten educational behaviors
• Diagnose their dominant behaviors.
• Practice these various behaviors which they might encounter while precepting medical residents and students.
• Learn to provide feedback when dealing with difficult students.

This workshop has been delivered to thousands of practitioners during the last 22 years and has been delivered to practitioners throughout the country.

Workshop faculty: James Deary, EdD

 

Teaching Family Systems in Inner-City Family Medicine
Family systems theory provides invaluable insight for the primary care practitioner. The family systems theory of human behavior views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems theory to describe the complex interaction in the unit. An understanding of this theory will help the provider diagnose patients' vulnerability to problems such as depression, alcoholism, or physical illness.

Participants will:
• Focus on the eight interlocking concepts of family systems theory as developed by Murray Bowen, MD. These include: Triangles, Differentiation of Self, Nuclear Family Systems, Family Projection Process, Multigenerational Transmission Process, Emotional Cutoff, Sibling Position, and Societal Emotion Process
• Learn new and more effective options for solving problems in these areas

Workshop faculty: James Deary, EdD

 

The Personal Essay: Capturing and Publishing Our Experiences
While data is a mainstay of breakthroughs in medical research, health care policy is often guided and influenced by published essays describing real life experiences of healthcare providers, patients, and policy makers with the health care system.

How you will benefit:
• Learn to capture your most critical experiences in writing
• Identify the policy issues that are illustrated by these experiences
• Learn how to write to influence needed changes in the health care system

What you will cover:
• Participants must come with a preliminary draft of an essay describing an important formative experience in their health careers
• They will be assisted in preparing an essay by the end of the workshop, into a format that can be submitted for publication
Workshop faculty: Neil Calman, MD