The theme of AMDA's 29th Annual Symposium, Mastering the Challenges Across the Spectrum of Long-Term Care, provides an excellent focus for leadership development. It gives an education framework that can help guide your leadership development journey and target your learning experiences as you attend the symposium this month or other conferences this year. Attending these meetings can provide not only education but also an opportunity to engage in valuable action learning and networking with colleagues.
Preparing for the Symposium
To get the most from your conference, it is important to prepare. A good place to begin is to explore the theme in depth through reflective inquiry. Here are three questions that will help guide your inquiry for the American Medical Directors Association symposium and other meetings.
I asked Dr. Rosalie Kane, Ph.D., a symposium keynote speaker and professor with the University of Minnesota's Division of Health Services Research and Policy at the School of Public Health, to share her perspectives on these questions. Then I added a leadership perspective, based on Dr. Kane's comments.
What are the critical few challenges across the spectrum of long-term care?
Dr. Kane: One of the big challenges is to truly grapple with reducing the use of nursing homes for older people needing care, the same way that it has been done to reduce institutional services for other populations. For those people already living in nursing homes or assisted living, the challenge is creating living environments and conditions that we could imagine as being a reasonable life for ourselves and our parents. Another challenge is to organize proactive and excellent disease management for people receiving long-term care in residential settings. Related to this is the challenge of managing Alzheimer's disease without turning the person into the disease. This means relating to the strengths and individuality of the person and not the limitations.
Dr. Dixon: To accomplish what Dr. Kane suggests means we need to shift the traditional paradigm of aging that often diminishes elders to one that is positive and maximizes the strengths of elders. This shift ultimately will change the culture of aging. Within and across the boundaries of a transformational culture of aging, effectively leading and managing culture change in residential settings that results in person-centered communities of care presents long-term care leaders with the opportunity to be change agents at a critical time in health care. The cost of long-term care and access to services are interrelated issues that continue to be concerns. And there is the ongoing challenge of continuously improving quality of care and quality of life for elders.
Symposium Preparation: How would I expand on these challenges and perspectives? What other challenges across the spectrum of long-term care do I want to explore?
What do LTC leaders need to do to master these challenges?
Dr. Kane: Long-term care leaders need to avoid denial and apply empathetic understanding to the living conditions of old people in long-term care. They need to recognize that the status quo is not good enough. To understand, one has to exercise imagination.
Dr. Dixon: As Dr. Kane states, long-term care leaders have to comprehend the meaning and implications of long-term care challenges. But more than that, leaders need to embrace them conceptually and emotionally. That is, to master the critical few challenges across the long-term care spectrum, leaders need to know them in their heads and feel them in their hearts. That requires not only attending education sessions; reading articles and books; and engaging in dialogue, but also reflecting on what all of this means to you personally, in your own sphere of influence.
Symposium Preparation: What do I need to do to master long-term care challenges across the spectrum? Beyond conceptual and cognitive understanding, what do I need to do to embrace these challenges?
What will leaders need to be and do to manage these challenges effectively?
Dr. Kane: There are different kinds of leaders. Some will be envisaging entirely new service structures. Some are working within the old and their efforts will be more frustrating. Information systems will be important to deal with the disease management challenge. Clinical skills will also be important. The quality of life challenges will require, in a cliché, a new paradigm. It may help if leaders consider what has been done in the realm of improving disability services for younger people.
Dr. Dixon: We often think about what leaders need to do to be effective. Asking the question, “What will leaders need ‘to be’?” suggests more than just doing things and executing strategic change. To be able to embrace the critical long-term care challenges, leaders will need to take a hard look at themselves and get on the journey of enhancing self-awareness. So your reflective inquiry may include explorations such as, “Do I need to be more confident?” “Do I need to be more in tune with my self-esteem issues?” “Do I need to be more honest?” “Do I need to be more holistic and integrated as a person?” Effective leaders are balancing both doing and being.
Symposium Preparation: What do I need to be to manage the long-term care challenges effectively? What do I need to be to manage the long-term care challenges? What do I need to do to balance doing and being as a long-term care leader?
In addition to using these questions to frame your participation plan, review or develop your objectives. What do you want to learn more about? Which colleagues do you want to interact with to enhance your development as a leader and clinician? Review the conference brochure and identify the sessions and contacts that will enable you to achieve your objectives.
Also, prepare your patients, clients, staff, family, and others who depend on you so they will know how to manage in your absence. This includes setting reasonable expectations for how much interaction you want while away. Are you reachable by voice mail or e-mail—and under what circumstances? If you are constantly answering voice mail and e-mail, it will be difficult to be fully engaged at the symposium.
Preparation is the key to getting the most out of your symposium. But if you get there and realize you haven't thoroughly prepared, it isn't too late to give thought to ways to benefit more fully.
Participating at the Symposium
Once you arrive at the conference, you may need to reprioritize what events or sessions you will attend, based on your objectives. This includes selecting the exhibits you want to see and the products you want to evaluate. Hopefully, organized and focused conference participation will prevent what I call “meetingitis.” This is a syndrome that develops after attending a series of meetings, one session after another, and your brain goes on cruise control. You find yourself wandering around the conference center or hotel on automatic pilot. In this state of mind, it is hard to determine how much sustainable learning is going on. Being intentional about your participation can make the process a much more valuable leadership and professional development experience.
Keep an attendance record. It will not only help you keep track of your activities and notes, but it will also provide useful documentation. I suggest a simple chart with headings for dates, sessions attended, main ideas, benefits, and contact information. But you should create a version that fits your own style and needs.
In addition to documenting your activities and learning, consider journaling your thoughts and questions that emerge in unstructured moments. A journal can help you gain insight and deepen self-awareness.
While it is important to learn as much as you can and to network, it is equally as important to take care of yourself. Another side effect of “meetingitis” is burnout from trying to do too much in a short time frame. Attending a conference should also be a time to step away from the usual hectic pace to reflect, learn, and nurture relationships. So be sure to leave time for relaxation and fun.
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DR. DIXON is managing principal of D. Dixon & Associates, LLC, an independent consulting practice specializing in health care leadership and organization development. She also teaches leadership and organizational behavior for the Business of Medicine program at Johns Hopkins University, and holds a doctorate in human resource development from George Washington University in Washington. To submit a question for Dr. Dixon, e-mail us at