Cultivating effective physician leadership across the Granite State

This past Monday, the Spring meeting of the Council of New England State Medical Societies was held virtually via Zoom. The meeting is held as a platform to share successes and challenges and to support one another as stakeholders in the public health of our region.

Each Medical Society President prepared a report for the delegation and there were several themes that were shared in response to the events of the last six to twelve months. Advocacy around the future of telehealth, COVID-19 vaccine educational initiatives and social determinants of health were priorities amongst  most of our fellow societies.

However, the theme that was most striking amongst the reports was the importance placed on the need for physician leadership and the efforts being made to provide physicians with the opportunity to more readily gain access to these positions.

Through realizing the collective sentiment that formal leadership training be offered to physicians through the New England delegation, I want to share again today what the New Hampshire Medical Society has developed through the Physician Leadership Institute (PLI).

The goal of the PLI is to cultivate effective physician leadership across the Granite State from the bedside to the boardroom by teaching management, communication, and leadership skills, fostering effective communication between the medical staff and administration, and empowering physicians to foster change among their colleagues.

The cornerstone of the Institute is the New Hampshire Physician Leadership Development Program that was developed in collaboration with the New Hampshire Hospital Association and University of New Hampshire’s Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics.

Currently, there are 60 physicians participating in the first three cohorts of the program, and a fourth cohort is currently being recruited to begin in the fall of 2021. The first year’s 10 sessions focus on leadership “soft or behavior” skills of managing yourself and leading others, including sessions on emotional intelligence, team building, managing transitions, conflict resolution, mentoring and coaching. The second year of 10 sessions focuses on more of the “hard or analytical” skill sets,  such as quality management, financial and managerial accounting, communications and executive  presence.

Participants can receive up to 80 hours of CME credits and a University of New Hampshire certificate. The intent is to have some of these graduate accredited course credits count towards an executive MBA program. For the program brochure, curriculum outline, faculty list and additional information, visit our website at https://paulcollege.unh.edu/physicianleadershipnh.

In solidarity,

Kenton Allen, MD, MBA

Please send questions or comments to kenton.allen@nhms.org.