Month: December 2018

Often when I drive home from work in the evening the past day’s activities flash through my mind. Typically then, a  paralyzing feeling sets in, the feeling of having nothing achieved, not a single tangible result, despite lots of talking, and chasing meeting after meeting. I then swing by the gym or go for a run, tank endorphins – and feel better…

I am sure you all know that hamster wheel feeling. It  creates disappointment, frustration  and anger – if we let it take over. To avoid that, we need valves to blow off some steam from time to time, like running. But the best way to blow steam off in a sustainable fashion is to take a step back and identify the problem, to engage and help find a solution, as good as each of us in his/her individual role and place can. This means also to recognize and accept that none of us can change the entire world once and for all. We can just continue to try making things better bit by bit here and there on our limited scales. But be confident, small improvements add up – and their sum will eventually change the world!

Analogous to driving home from work, this is the time of the year when we are tempted to look back at the past twelve months and try to gauge what we have achieved and, perhaps even more importantly, what we didn’t. Which themes occupied us and our Department in 2018, which were the highlights, which ones of our goals did we achieve, which ones did we not achieve, where do we stand, and where should we go from here? The answer to those questions will likely be different for each of us depending on our       individual places, roles, expectations and value systems. I therefore have to leave them to each of you for judgement, but am always interested in hearing from you and   welcome feedback  – my door is usually open and you have my E-mail address.

In closing, I would like to thank all of you for your hard work. You all, together, and what you achieved make the Department what it is, a prolific and thriving place for academic medicine. I would also like to thank your partners and families for their support and for their understanding of the long hours you put into engaging and making things better bit by bit for the sake of all of us and, most importantly for the sake of our patients.

I hope you will be able to spend some quiet time with your loved ones over the Holidays, and look forward to being able to count on you again in finding solutions for the  challenges 2019 will undoubtedly bring.

Happy Holidays and my best wishes for the New Year!

 

 

 

You may not recall, the blurb I wrote two years ago for our first newsletter. As today’s, it was entitled “Fortiter in re, suaviter in modo”, freely translated: “be mindful of your goals, but take the high road in pursuing them”. The phrase is attributed to Claudio Acquaviva, a Jesuit priest and Superior who lived in Italy from 1543 to 1615. I often think of this as a motto and strongly believe it has not lost a bit of its actuality in the 400 years since it has been written down for the first time. In fact, presently, with all the changes going on simultaneously and at several levels in our health care system, it may be more pertinent than ever.

Taking the high road in pursuing one’s goals is a matter of style. According to Miriam Webster’s dictionary, style means “a distinctive manner or custom of behaving or conducting oneself”. The high road in that context means, in my opinion, to behave and conduct oneself in a way that is accepted by one’s opponents despite them disagreeing on the content. The basis of such conduct and behavior is respect, respect of our opponents as individuals and human beings. Style then boils down to how we treat those staff and colleagues with whom we daily (have to) deal in pursuing our jobs and providing our services, without judging them as persons along the line of good and bad. As professionals, we may disagree, but we argue on the content and do not target the person. And if hard comes to hard, we try to create a situation that allows our opponents to pull their head out of the sling without losing their face.

Of course, this respect also pertains to our dealings with patients, but that is a slightly different matter, and maybe a topic for a separate blog.

Taking the high road in pursuing one’s goals also means being patient and composed. I once hiked for two weeks on a long distance trek in the Swiss mountains. Initially, it depressed me to see each morning the day’s goal shimmering blueish far on the horizon, and having in front of my eyes that I was seemingly not progressing during the first hours of walking, the load becoming heavy, the legs getting tired, and the feet starting to feel sore. After a few days, I had realized, and become confident, that I would eventually make it and reach the day’s goal. This experience taught me to accept that a journey is usually composed of a sequence of numerous baby steps, each of those baby steps bringing us a bit closer to our final destination. We will reach our goal eventually – as long as we pursue our course patiently and composed.

I know that staying respectful, patient and composed is not an easy task in the hectic of our daily schedules – and with all the challenges the ongoing changes bring our way. Despite trying hard, at times we all fail. However, this must not hinder us being ever conscious of our own style. Witnessing, or worse, being subjected to non-respectful and impatient styles by others, should never discourage us from choosing that high road Claudio Acquaviva marked out for us 400 years ago.