Graduation

This post was originally posted on http://www.ClearMatters.com

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With graduation just about 60 or so days away for seniors, I wanted to share some thoughts with any students with an eye towards working in healthcare leadership once they graduate.

As part of the leadership team at Clear Medical Solutions, I get the opportunity to work with numerous interns that are in school. Over the years, I’ve developed some thoughts on who will succeed under the pressure that our industry brings and who will not…and who will find a job or not.

One of the key factors that I look for now when deciding who to mentor is their aversion to risk.  Yes, I believe that practitioners in a clinical setting should avoid risk when treating patients (unless in a research setting), however in the healthcare leadership setting, the same old strategies just aren’t going to work anymore. 

Safe is now risky!

Leaders are going to have to try new things and chart new paths, and that will take a “risk neutral” approach versus choosing a “risk aversion” path at all costs. One of my favorite writers had this to say about some college students that he ran into, and I see the exact same thing from many students that I find as well:

Anyway, they asked for my advice in finding marketing jobs. When I shared my views (go to a small company, work for the CEO, get a job where you actually get to make mistakes and do something) one woman professed to agree with me, but then explained, “But those companies don’t interview on campus.” Those companies don’t interview on campus.

Hmmm.  She has just spent $100,000 in cash and another $150,000 in opportunity cost to get an MBA, but…

The second occurred today at Yale. As I drove through the amazingly beautiful campus, I passed the center for Asian Studies. It reminded me of my days as an undergrad (at a lesser school, natch), browsing through the catalog, realizing I could learn whatever I wanted. That not only could I take classes but I could start a business, organize a protest movement, live in a garret off campus, whatever. It was a tremendous gift, this ability to choose.

Yet most of my classmates refused to choose. Instead, they treated college like an extension of high school. They took the most mainstream courses, did the minimum amount they needed to get an A, tried not to get into “trouble” with the professor or face the uncertainty of the unknowable. They were the ones who spent six hours a day in the library, reading their textbooks. The best part of college is that you could become whatever you wanted to become, but most people just do what they think they must.

Is this a metaphor? Sure. But it’s a worthwhile one. You have more freedom at work than you think (hey, you’re reading this on company time!) but most people do nothing with that freedom but try to get an A.

Do you work with people who are still in high school? Job seekers only willing to interview with the folks who come on campus? Executives who are trying to make their boss happy above all else? It’s pretty clear that the thing that’s wrong with this system is high school, not the rest of the world.

Cut class. Take a seminar on french literature. Interview off campus. Safe is risky.” (The Rest can be viewed at http://bit.ly/9uqTxQ)

I agree with Seth, and for all those students out there looking to get into healthcare leadership, you will need to take some risks. Find a great leader, work an internship for free, build relationships, and think outside of the box… The education system cannot completely prepare you for what you will need to be in our industry.

For that you will need mentors and experience, and you will probably only find that outside your comfort zone.  Think big.  Take calculated risks.  Be different!

About the Author: Aaron lives in Milwaukee, WI with his wife and two children and is the President & CEO of Clear Medical Solutions. When he’s not leading new initiatives at Clear Medical Solutions, he periodically takes on interim leadership or consulting projects. He enjoys teaching, writing, and sharing his passion for people and their healthcare.

Introduction to Music and Healthcare

William Congreve wrote in 1697, “Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast.”  Was he expressing the idea that music can heal?  The use of music in healthcare is nothing new.  The belief that music has restorative powers goes back even further than Congreve.  It goes at least as far back as the Ancient Greeks.

They believed music affected the soul.  Plato said almost 2500 years ago, “Music is a moral law.  It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”

Music is universal and despite it being used throughout the ages to soothe the soul, it’s only fairly recently that it became accepted within modern medical circles.  It gained accepted recognition in 1944 when Michigan State University offered the first accredited music therapy program.  Today there are more than 70 colleges and universities offering programs in music therapy and approximately 5000 music therapists.

Hospitals use music to aid patients in many ways, including pain management, to elevate patient’s moods, and to encourage movement in physical therapy.

As of 1994, music therapy services have been identified as reimbursable under Medicare.

But what about music promotes healing?  How does it work?

Every known culture has music.  Music touches us, affecting us physically, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Has a song ever come on the radio and you find your feet tapping?  Upbeat songs make us feel good.  Our body’s physical responses to music are observable and measurable.  Music can affect your pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration, temperature, and even your brain waves.

There are four types of brain waves; beta, alpha, theta, and delta.  Beta waves occur when we are alert and active.  Alpha waves occur when we are relaxed.  Theta waves occur when we are meditating or drowsy and falling asleep.  Finally, delta waves occur when we are in deep sleep.  Music can affect these brain waves.  Calm, relaxing music can induce theta or delta waves, whereas loud, fast music will put the brain into an alpha state.

Everyone has heard of “runner’s high”, it’s what happens at a certain point during physical exertion when the body starts to release endorphins, a group of peptide hormones that increase the body’s threshold of pain and can affect mood.

Many activities besides running can cause the release of endorphins, for example, eating spicy food, time spent in the sun, intense pleasure such as sex, strong emotions like laughing or crying, and listening to music.

Studies have shown that listening to half an hour of classical or instrumental music has the same effect as taking a Valium.

Many have heard of the exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims surrounding the so-called “Mozart Effect”, that listening to classical music, for example, will make you smarter or will turn your unborn infant into a genius.  Despite these fallacies, however, what the actual study showed was just as amazing without the hyperbole that has since been attached to it.

In 1993, at the University of California, Irvine, Gordon Shaw and Frances Rauscher conducted a study of 36 college undergraduates.  They listened to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata, then immediately took a Stanford-Binet IQ test to measure their spatial-temporal reasoning.  The results showed an improvement in spatial IQ of eight to nine points, but the effect only lasted for 10-15 minutes.

Despite the fact that the “Mozart Effect” only improved spatial-temporal reasoning and that the effect was temporary, the study still showed the kind of power music has upon the mind.  Other studies have shown that students who study music in high school have higher grade point averages and physically develop faster than those who don’t.

Music has amazing powers in its ability to affect our body and mind and is becoming an effective healing tool.  As author Berthold Auerbach said, “Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”.

Questions:  Do you feel music has the power to heal?  Have you or a loved one experienced music’s healing power first hand?

About the Author:

Ed Pahule is a Staff Writer with the Clear Medical Solutions Communication Team.  His work is regularly shared on the Clear Medical Agency newsletter and the ClearHIMMatters.com blog.

The Very Rich, Very Poor, and Very Famous Get the Worst Care?

It’s not every day most people wish they weren’t rich and powerful.

In the recent media frenzy surrounding the sudden death of Michael Jackson, questions about effective medical care are surfacing.  In fact, Michael Jackson’s dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein just went on record and commented that “The very rich and the very poor and the very famous all get the worst medical care”.  What a concept!

If this idea is true, then we have to ask, how can this be?

Insisting that the very rich and very famous get the worst healthcare seems completely ludicrous at first glance!  The upper class and high profile people are usually wealthy, connected with high ranking individuals, and get whatever they want. 

Unfortunately, that may be the very reason they get poor medical care in some cases. 

Because money and power can provide things unavailable to us non-famous people, it can lead to abuses in prescribing and monitoring of narcotics and other deadly pharmaceuticals.   After all, Michael Jackson’s doctor was quoted as saying to ABC  “No matter what he wanted, someone would give it to him”.

Powerful people (and their money) seem to have ways to convince otherwise intelligent and qualified providers to bend the rules, but in Michael Jackson’s case, it was lethal. 

The doctor who gave the drug Propofol to Jackson, Dr. Conrad Murray, was in a great deal of debt, as are many young doctors.  According to the associated press, Dr. Murray is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, which included defaults of student loans, unpaid child support, mortgage payments; among other things. 

Michael Jackson’s camp was paying Dr. Murray $150,000.00 a month to provide the late entertainer with medical care, so it’s no surprise that a person with Dr. Murray’s financial turmoil would jump at the chance.  

Considering the financial situation that Dr. Murray is in; it would not be surprising if he would be submissive to the medical requests of his client, even if those requests were unethical and illegal, such as giving Michael Jackson Propofol. 

On the other hand, a person who is poor and without the advantages of  a famous person will also sometimes not receive the care that they need due to a lack of money or access to quality healthcare.

Just something to ponder as we go about the care of humans who need strong care from doctors…not from pocketbooks.

About the Author:

Cordelia Ano Ellis is a Staff Writer with the Clear Medical Solutions Communication Team.  Her work is also shared on the Clear Medical Agency newsletter and the ClearFinanceMatters.com blog.