ACMS Foundation 2023 Vitality Series

Tickets will become available in April

Navigating Moral Injury: Building Bridges from Isolation to Community

Moral injury describes the damage to our moral compass and sense of self when the situation leaves us to make decisions that run against our values or moral beliefs. We might not recognize ourselves as morally injured, but we feel it, and it rarely feels good. We’re exhausted or cranky or sick to our stomach or emotionally vacant. We feel alone and at a loss of control, maybe even like strangers when we look in the mirror. Can we create spaces for more authentic discussions about these experiences and give voice to moments that aren't always easy to understand?

May 12, 8 AM-Noon Workshop, Idaho and Snake River Rooms, 17th Floor Zion's Bank Building, Breakfast will be served
Target Audience: Physicians, nurses, mid-levels, administrators, chaplains, ethics committee members, and healthcare professionals dedicated to caring for others. ACMS members and others are welcome.

Identify sources of moral injury in the practice of medicine
Describe how narrative skills can provide insight into complex and uncertain experiences.
Develop creative methods for preventing, supporting, and communicating situations of moral injury on the personal, institutional, and community levels.

May 12, 6:00-8:30 PM Keynote Dinner, ACMS Membership Annual Meeting, Idaho and Snake River Rooms, 17th Floor Zion's Bank Building

Target Audience: This keynote will take place at ACMS' annual membership meeting that evening and is open only to ACMS members and event sponsors and their guests.

Discuss moral injury and its impact on physicians and other clinicians.
Discuss methods of preventing, supporting, and communicating situations of moral injury on the personal, institutional, and community levels.

Jay Baruch, MD from the Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Dr. Baruch is a practicing emergency physician, writer, medical educator, and accidental academic. He is an emergency medicine professor, serving as director of the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Scholarly Concentration. His interdisciplinary work evolved in response to uncertainty in clinical practice, which requires creativity as a clinical skill, and physicians who think more like writers and artists.

Healing Healthcare Together: Erasing Mental Health Stigma

In the name of public safety, physicians have long been asked to disclose personal mental health challenges on medical licensing applications, credentialing forms, and medical staff applications. Even though they are outlawed by Federal ADA laws, research has shown the questions increase the stigma around seeking care and do not necessarily enhance patient care. In 2018, the Federation of State Medical Boards recommended these types of questions need to be modernized or eliminated altogether.

June 8 6:30-8:30 PM, Keynote Dinner, St. Luke's Anderson Center, Ada Rooms
Target Audience: ACMS members and active physicians, healthcare workers, policy leaders, healthcare leaders, members of boards of health systems, members of any health professionals licensing boards.

Discuss the role that questions about mental health on employment, credentialing and licensing forms play in prolonging the stigma among physicians and healthcare providers around mental health access.
Cite specific actions that boards, credentialers, and physician employers can take to remove barriers to mental health access.

June 9, 8:00 AM-Noon, Workshop, St. Luke's Anderson Center, Ada Rooms (VENUE CHANGED).Breakfast will be served.
Target Audience: ACMS Member and active physicians,healthcare workers, policy leaders, healthcare leaders, members of boards of health systems, and members of boards of health professionals licensing boards.

Identify current specific institutions in Idaho whose policies and forms require healthcare clinicians to disclose mental health history in a way that prolongs the stigma around mental health access.
Discuss actionable ways to overcome and advocate for change to policies and forms.

Our Coach: Corey Feist, JD, MBA Co-Founder and President, Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation

Corey helped launch the Lorna Breen Foundation in 2020, following the much-publicized suicide of his physician sister-in-law during the COVID Pandemic. The Foundation has been a hub for national efforts advancing the well-being of the healthcare workforce including the ALL IN FOR HEALTHCARE campaign. Prior to that, he served as CEO of the University of Virginia Physicians Group, comprised of 1200+ clinicians at UVA Health.

Depolarizing Conversations in Healthcare

For the past few years, and further amplified by COVID, healthcare provision has become increasingly polarized in the context of the national and local political scene. Physicians are no longer held by many as medical experts and clinical advice is frequently ignored by longtime patients. Many find themselves in the crosshairs of political division and activism, some to the point of feeling feel physically and emotionally threatened and their morale drained.

September 7, 6:30-8:30 PM, Keynote Dinner, Saint Alphonsus McCleary Auditorium

"Beyond Polarization: Navigating Differences with Respect Rather than Rancor"
Target Audience: ACMS members, active physicians, health professionals and community members who are concerned about polarization.

Discuss the implications of polarization and ways to counteract it.

September 8, 8:00 AM-Noon, Saint Alphonsus McCleary Auditorium (VENUE CHANGED). Breakfast will be served.
Managing Clinical Relationships in an Era of Polarization
Target Audience: ACMS members, active clinicians, and others interested.

Describe how polarization and lower social trust in health care are challenging everyday patient care.
Demonstrate skills for managing clinical relationships affected by polarization.

Our Coach: Bill Doherty, Ph.D. Co-founder of Braver Angels

Bill is a professor at the University of Minnesota and a psychologist and family therapist with over 40 years of experience in health care. Following the 2016 presidential election, he co-founded the non-partisan Braver Angels, a national organization which designs and presents workshops that teach skills for navigating relationships across political differences in today's polarized society.