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Promoting Professionalism and Professional Accountability

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Management and Leadership Skills for Medical Faculty and Healthcare Executives

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Abstract

Committed leadership, effective planning and teamwork, and reliable implementation are essential elements of successful healthcare initiatives, clinical outcomes, and research endeavors. Lapses in professional conduct at any level may undermine the teamwork necessary to achieve goals in safety and outcomes. Therefore, Academic Medical Center (AMC) leaders need means for identifying lapses and addressing unnecessary variation in professional performance. This chapter discusses application of self- and group-regulation—hallmarks of professionalism—to a hypothetical AMC faculty member, “Dr. A,” recruited to create a Coordinated Clinical Care Center, an important programmatic need for the department. Despite his department Chair’s expectations that Dr. A will implement a multidisciplinary approach to patient care, evidence accumulates that Dr. A’s performance is undermining attainment of the Center’s goals. The chapter describes an evidence-based plan and process by which AMCs may promote professionalism and restore full and effective functioning (“redeem”) physicians—both leaders like Dr. A and non-leader colleagues—who model conduct inconsistent with organizational values and a culture of safety.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Center for Professional Health, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    William H. Swiggart

  2. Vanderbilt Center for Patient and Professional Advocacy, Department of Medical Education and Administration, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    James W. Pichert

  3. Center for Patient and Professional Advocacy, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    S. Todd Callahan, Thomas F. Catron, Lynn E. Webb & William O. Cooper

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Martha E. Brown

  5. Professional Renewal Center®, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Betsy Williams

  6. Department of Psychiatry, University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, KS, USA

    Betsy Williams

Authors
  1. William H. Swiggart
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  2. James W. Pichert
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  3. S. Todd Callahan
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  4. Thomas F. Catron
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  5. Lynn E. Webb
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  6. Martha E. Brown
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  7. Betsy Williams
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  8. William O. Cooper
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to James W. Pichert .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA

    Anthony J. Viera

  2. Kramer Leadership, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Rob Kramer

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Swiggart, W.H. et al. (2020). Promoting Professionalism and Professional Accountability. In: Viera, A.J., Kramer, R. (eds) Management and Leadership Skills for Medical Faculty and Healthcare Executives. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45425-8_13

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