Healthcare Workers Need to Have Each Other's Backs
Brandon’s Note: I’ve long been frustrated with the fragmentation and division between professions in our healthcare system (see this post I wrote wayyyy back in 2016). We all have a role to play in providing outstanding patient care, and we need to work together.
That’s why I was thrilled to get a special pre-release read of the upcoming book “Permission to Care” written by Cory Jenks, PharmD. I liked the book so much that I even wrote a blurb for it. Cory has made himself a unique niche at the intersection of “Pharmacy” and “Improv Comedy.” If you’re not sure what those two things have with each other, I highly suggest checking out Cory’s site.
Your ability to relate to and work with others has a bigger impact on your career than your clinical knowledge. Cory can help you improve these soft skills, and he’ll give you a good laugh while he’s doing it. Permission to Care is a good place to start, and Cory has even agreed to throw in some bonuses for any tl;dr readers that preorder. Check out the details below!
That one time when Cory Jenks was on The Simpsons
Hi, I’m Cory Jenks. You may remember from such tl;dr pharmacy classics like “Soft Skills for Pharmacists” or “5 Simple Steps to Being a More Adaptable Pharmacist.”
Today I am pleased and honored to have tl;dr let me come back and write yet another post. However, today’s is a little different because you don’t get just an original tl;dr article. You are getting an excerpt from my new book “Permission to Care: Building a Healthcare Culture that Thrives in Chaos.”
You do realize pharmacy is chaotic, right? And you do want to thrive, right? Well, after you read this little section and realize you just gotta read the whole book, head on over to pre-order it, and on the way, check out some of the nifty bonuses you can snag if you don’t delay.
Since tl;dr readers are the wisest pharmacists around, I am going to give you a little sumtin’ extra. Send a screenshot or photo of your receipt to info@permissiontocarebook.com and if you put in the subject line “tl;dr rules” along with the number of copies you purchased, I will upgrade your preorder bonus to the next tier based on the number of copies you purchased, just because you are awesome.
I will say, writing a book is a lot of work, it takes a team effort, and I have to thank the wonderful folks at tl;dr for having my back for many years, both as a pharmacist using their materials, and as a writer contributing. Wouldn’t pharmacy be better if we all had each other’s backs?
“Got Your Back”
The last thing our improv teams do before we step on stage is provide a simple reminder that we are there for each other on stage, that we have a common vision, and that we will support each other fearlessly.
The moment before we step on stage, we all go around to one another and give everyone a pat on the back, saying, “Got your back.”
This simple, three-word phrase locks us in, reminds our egos to shut up for the next twenty minutes, and provides clarity as to what “winning” will look like on stage. Improvisers must be able to support each other, otherwise the team will fail, the audience will not laugh, and tears will fall. On an individual level, it always feels good to know that someone is looking out for you. Nobody likes feeling isolated, and if you have ever found yourself in a scene, not knowing what the next thing to do or say is, you can feel like the loneliest person on the planet. When we have the support of each other, we are less afraid to take risks, to be bold on stage, and know someone will be there to help pick us up if we falter.
“Got your back” symbolizes the community of support that is fostered on an improv team. As I mentioned before, there is no room for ego. There is also no room for tearing each other down, belittling, or generally making people feel like shit for what they did on stage. Improvisation can be a scary undertaking, and the goal of the team is to support each other, rather than tearing one another down. It’s this community of support that allows teams to grow together, become better cohesive units, and ultimately generate that group mind I have talked so much about.
Contrast this improv community of support to what we face in healthcare. I will discuss later in the book about how new ideas and curiosity are often snuffed out in favor of the status quo, but it certainly feels like there is often an “eat the young” hierarchy in healthcare. How are healthcare teams supposed to work toward the goal of caring for patients if we spend our energy tearing down our colleagues, other professions, and organizations? The answer is we won’t. And we certainly haven’t.
On a daily basis, we need to remind those we work with that we “have their back.” I am a personal space nut, so I keep my distance from others. My time on New York City subways is about as nightmarish as it gets for me, so I will not physically tap someone’s back. However, I make a point of saying, “I got your back,” if someone is having a rough day, if someone expresses appreciation for help I gave them, or if I just feel like it. This expression is likely not a silver bullet for our divisive healthcare system, but it can be a simple, easy, and effective way to make your teammates feel appreciated and supported.
I mentioned the feeling of being alone on stage when you don’t know what to do or what the next move should be and that having a great team who has got your back helps to alleviate that nerve-wracking feeling. That feeling of loneliness can also manifest itself in healthcare, and I think that we have done a poor job of creating a culture that helps to support those of us when we do feel alone.
This loneliness can be manifested in multiple ways. There is the literal “only person on the shift” loneliness that is inevitable given certain environments. (Looking at you, graveyard-shift pharmacists. Glad you can handle it, because I am certainly not cut out for that work). While there isn’t a physical team there to help pick you up on those lonely nights, your organization can “have your back” and support you by providing the right tools for success. This can be properly training and preparing you for your tasks. It could be having the right supporting technology and resources to get you through not having a physical team there to assist. Or this could mean that our hypothetical lonesome practitioner develops relationships with other disciplines, and they get through the dark, lonely night together.
Of course, this is for the literal lonely feeling. There are other times when it feels like you are on an island, all alone, despite being surrounded by your colleagues. The key difference is if those colleagues around you support you, tear you down, or remain indifferent. With the pace at which we are expected to work, and the high expectations placed on us, it is too easy to fall into the trap of letting our stress get in the way of supporting those we work with. This could be a new trainee on their first day who is asking the “same dumb questions” that each new trainee asks every month they rotate through. In this case, often indifference and an attitude of “everyone else had to figure it out for themselves” takes over, and precious hours and days are wasted because this new person wasn’t supported.
Another example is when someone brings up a problem, question, or “outside the box” idea, and the questioner is actively ridiculed because our attachment to the status quo is so strong in healthcare. If all our patients were perfectly healthy, our system made no errors that harmed patients, and every patient was left vastly improved, this would be a valid reaction. However, our outcomes are a far cry from that utopia. The significance of this is that “got your back” should apply to those who raise questions, concerns, or new ideas. The alternative is an unchanging healthcare system that is failing its providers and patients.
Improv is successful because it is built around a culture of support, teamwork, and “got your back-edness.” Its participants are less afraid to take risks, make mistakes, and innovate. This supportive culture is what attracted me to improv, and as a healthcare provider, provided such a stark contrast. What we need to apply in healthcare is an attitude of group mind, working toward the common goal of making our patients healthier, while supporting each other in the process. By applying this attitude, our healthcare providers will feel supported and never feel like they are “alone on stage.”