This fall, Labor Management Project (LMP) staff shared the results of our work at a variety of healthcare conferences.
During the Organizational Development Network Annual Conference in Atlanta in October, LMP Consultants Mavis Flowers and Mike Shay presented “Managing Conflict from an Interest-Based Perspective.” Their presentation focused on how to use organizational development to manage conflict, sustain change and build organizational trust. “Taking a public position stops the search for truth and begins the need to be right,” state Flowers and Shay. “As practitioners of organizational development we are called to use a systems approach in helping organizations to collaboratively solve shared problems and employ sustainable change strategies. But what happens when conflict is deeply entrenched and organizational trust between team members is challenged?” The interactive session engaged participants in a six-step, interest-based problem-solving framework for managing conflict and deepening organizational trust. Participants were guided to deepen their mastery of self-awareness and active listening and were offered tools for themselves and their clients to manage emotionally charged situations.
On October 31, LMP Consultant Robert DeLauro presented at the Planetree International Conference on Patient-Centered Care on the topic of “Cultural Competency for Health Care Providers.” As the healthcare workforce and the patient population become increasing diverse with regard to religion, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity and nationality, the ability to provide care that is appropriate and sensitive to a patient’s experience is essential to creating a patient centered-care environment. During the presentation, DeLauro spoke about the importance of healthcare workers’ awareness of their own culture and cultural biases, and about why culturally sensitive healthcare providers are better equipped to ensure patient-centered care. He also stressed that cultural competence is about curiosity and respect, and that it requires a lifelong commitment to self-reflection, self-assessment, cultural awareness and cultural humility. Believing that you are a cultural expert, he cautioned, can lead to stereotyping and a false sense of security. Through interactive engagement and role-play, participants learned exercises they can employ with patients, families and healthcare staff to promote culturally aware interactions and communications.
LMP’s Workplace and Community Health Senior Manager Dr. Chris Pernell participated in a roundtable presentation at the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting and Exposition in October. She presented the findings of a survey recently completed by the LMP on workplace wellness programs for hospital workers in the metro New York area. The survey, which was adapted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Worksite Health ScoreCard and other validated surveys, is an online assessment that obtains information about the status of key components of workplace wellness programs and the resources to deliver comprehensive programming. Literature shows that key elements of a successful worksite wellness program include leadership support, wellness teams, adequate resources, identification of employee needs, supportive policies and environments, and evaluation. Dr. Pernell discussed the importance of labor and management collaboration in the effective development and delivery of worksite wellness programs.