Michener Alumni

Happy at work?

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Woman giving the thumbs up.
Image by Robin Higgins from Pixabay 

Wondering what kind of employer you need to work for? Or wondering how to keep your team happy?   

Prior to the pandemic I occasionally attended networking events.  I heard an interesting mindset from a hard-working, loyal and driven presenter. He asks himself these three questions before applying for any job:

  • Would the opportunity lead to new knowledge or skillset?
  • Would the position give you access to quality mentorship and coaching?
  • Does the role and workplace rate highly on: compensation, work culture and work flexibility.   

Have you ever asked yourself what you are looking for in a workplace?  What makes you choose one offer over the other? What’s your career development look like?

Several factors play into this, including but not limited to one’s personality (intro-/extro-vert), stages in life, career goals, financial needs, work-life balance, available opportunities and many more. 

If you are a manager and/or employer, there are things that you can do to keep your employees happy.  These may include but are not limited to: offering compatible compensation, growth and learning opportunities, providing constructive feedback, flexible scheduling if applicable, and encouraging a respectful work environment among many others. 

Yesterday I attended an anniversary celebration at work to support those who are receiving recognition for their service.  At such challenging times, a small token of appreciation through recognizing people for their loyalty goes a long way.

What are some ways working for your employer keeps you happy, motivated and feeling valued?

Farzad Refahi
September 23, 2020
https://respiratory.blog/sept232020/

Patient Experience in Patient Care

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A lady on headset pointing to a clipboard and stethoscope.

In my opinion, patient care and patient experience are closely intertwined, especially in highly structured, organized and timed clinical settings such as Pulmonary Function Testing (PFT) labs.  I must emphasize that even at PFT labs, patient-focused care is still at the core. 

There are a few simple ways that I try to improve the patient experience at the lab.  

  • I keep my work station neat and clean.  
  • I anticipate the patient’s needs beforehand.  For example, I have the mouthpiece, nose clips, pen, spacer, requisition, PPE ready before calling the patient in. 
  • If the patient has previously been in the lab, I review the previous comments to be better informed.  For example, if the patient is on home O2, I have the wall O2 extension tubing and nasal prongs ready.  Another example is having the forehead probe ready if the previous 6MWT indicated that forehead probe was used during the walk.
  • I try to be on time, if not a little bit earlier.  This gives me the buffer time just in case the patient requires a little bit more time.  If I start the test early and the testing goes smoothly, at least I get a few minutes for a break until the next person arrives.
  • Working in the Greater Toronto Area exposes me to different languages and different cultures.  To better pronounce people’s last names I Google pronunciations.  I know how silly that may sound.  Search “pronounce [insert last name]” and in most cases, you find some useful resources.  I am not particular with the pronunciation of my first or last name, but this may not be the same with others so I put in a minute to optimize customer service for patient care.


What are some of the ways that you optimize customer service in your patient care?

Farzad Refahi

Sept. 18 2020

https://respiratory.blog/Sept182020/

Let’s read an article a month– June 2020

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Every month I try to read an open-access article. After reading the article, I share the title and associated link with my followers. This is to encourage clinicians to read articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.

This month I found a great article on June 20th, 2020. I spent a few days with it, and now I share it with you.

Predictors of progression in systemic sclerosis patients with interstitial lung disease

  Oliver Distler, Shervin Assassi, Vincent Cottin, Maurizio Cutolo, Sonye

  K. Danoff, Christopher P. Denton, Jörg H.W. Distler, Anna-Maria

  Hoffmann-Vold, Sindhu R. Johnson, Ulf Müller Ladner, Vanessa Smith,

  Elizabeth R. Volkmann and Toby M. Maher

  Eur Respir J 2020 55:1902026; published ahead of print 2020,

  doi:10.1183/13993003.02026-2019 OPEN ACCESS

https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/55/5/1902026.full.pdf

Top 3 reasons why I enjoyed reading this article:

-A well-written review of key pathways implicated in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (pp2-4 ). Inflammatory pathways are complex and while I enjoy reviewing them, I never tend to be able to memorize them. There is also a nice diagram that goes along with the description (i.e. Figure 1 on page 3).  

-An insider and expert view of the challenges involved with the disease diagnosis. When it comes to interstitial lung disease, there is so much for me to read and learn about. I am involved with the Pulmonary Diagnostic side of respiratory care, and mostly I see patients with confirmed diagnosis of interstitial lung disease (usually in the later stages). Occasionally I do see patients who have some indications in an imaging test, CXR or Chest-CT, and are visiting the PFT lab for additional information. “One potential barrier to diagnosis a lack of awareness within primary care of SSc, which can lead to late referrals” (p.5). 

-If you are involved with pulmonary diagnostics, you will enjoy this article as there are references to lung function values (with some references to 6MWTs) (found on pp 7-8).

Happy Learning!

Farzad Refahi
June 25, 2020

http://respiratory.blog/let’s-read-an-article-a-month–june-2020/