Leading Physician Well-being Program
Creating Leaders of Change and Champions of Well-being
Physician leadership has never been a more important skill for the family physician than it is today. Thoughtful and capable family physician leaders can provide stability in uncertain times for their office teams, among their health system colleagues, and within their community. This physician leadership enhances the quality of care that teams can provide to their patients, improves the morale of the care team, and helps communities stay focused on health-enhancing activities.
The Academy is now offering you an opportunity to learn how to lead change to boost well-being in your workplace ― at no charge.
Leading Physician Well-being (LPW), developed by the AAFP and United Health Foundation, is a unique, tuition-free certificate program designed to help you develop the leadership skills you need to spearhead that change among the physicians and other clinicians in your practice or health care organization.
An extension of the Academy’s groundbreaking Physician Health First (PHF) initiative, LPW is finishing up its first-ever cohort of 100 physicians from 2021 and will start its second cohort in 2022.
All AAFP active members are eligible for LPW. Residents are eligible if they have the support of their residency program and should submit a letter of support from their program director.
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Applications for the second cohort open September 13, 2021 and can be found here. All applications are due November 5, 2021. All applicants will be notified the first full week of December 2021 on whether or not their application was selected for the second cohort.
What You Can Expect
Simply put, the LPW program aims to help you grow your knowledge and skills in three foundational areas:
- Physician well-being ― build expertise through education about the current state and importance of well-being, how to measure it, and best practices to achieve it, and develop a plan to raise awareness of its importance in your practice and organization.
- Leadership development ― learn how to lead through wielding influence, implement change management and performance improvement (PI) activities, and communicate with medical colleagues and others, and develop a change management plan to guide your organization’s work to improve physician well-being.
- Performance improvement ― gain hands-on experience by developing and implementing a PI-CME project in your practice or organization that’s expected to wrap up one year after the program’s educational experience concludes.
The tuition-free program consists of a 10-month series of three core sessions ― a mix of livestreamed and in-person events ― along with regular online learning activities, all of which combine to foster development of a supportive learning community.
Thanks to a grant from United Health Foundation, participants selected for LPW will pay no registration fees but are responsible for all travel and housing expenses to attend in-person sessions as well as food and beverage costs not covered during in-person sessions.
Why You Should Participate
After successfully completing the program, you’ll earn a Leading Physician Well-being certificate and AAFP recognition as a thought leader and spokesperson for physician well-being. You’ll also receive AAFP CME credit for participating.
Among other benefits of participation:
- Enjoy peer-to-peer networking, guidance and support from your colleagues as you navigate the program and share your questions and experiences.
- Gain the satisfaction of knowing you’re honing your leadership skills while becoming an effective agent for change and a physician well-being expert.
- Prepare yourself for further career development as a physician well-being leader and champion.
- Pursue a unique opportunity to complete a PI-CME project that directly impacts your practice organization and will cover ABFM requirements for practice improvement.