Engagement

The powers that be, you know the ones, are trying to engage you.  It turns out that, if you, as a doctor, are engaged then you will be happy.  In fact, if you just mention the word engagement, then a lot of good things will happen.   I found this out by reading this piece of crap:

The results of a survey from the Physician Wellness Services and Cejka Search have identified the key aspects of doctor engagement.

Surveys were conducted online in September 2013 in a nationwide, multi-specialty sample of 1,666 physicians (average age, 44 years). Physicians were asked to rate the extent of their agreement with each of 15 different elements of engagement (on a 10-point scale).

According to the results, physicians generally felt that all elements of engagement were important, with average scores ranging from 7.9 to 9.2. The top elements of engagement were respect for my competency and skills; feeling that my opinions and ideas are valued; good relationships with my physician colleagues; good work/life balance; and a voice in how my time is used and structured. The largest gaps between what was important to feeling engaged and the nature of their current practice were feeling that my opinions and ideas are valued; a voice in clinical operations; a voice in how my time is structured; fair compensation for my work; and good work/life balance. The least important elements of engagement included participation in setting organization strategies or goals; good relationship with administrator; and alignment with organizations goals.

“When physicians do not feel engaged, they may leave their jobs or reject employment opportunities with organizations that don’t meet their expectations for engagement,” Lori Schutte, M.B.A., president of Cejka Search, said in a statement

I always hate when new terminology is created so that “experts” can pontificate about things that mean nothing.  For example, if you listen to the article above, it seems that there are many elements of “engagement”.  Some mean a lot to doctors and some mean very little.  Then the president of Cejka Search concludes that when physicians do not feel engaged…blah, blah, blah.  So do doctors need to have all elements engaged or not?  If these elements need to be ranked then we can’t just throw the term “engaged” around willy-nilly!  Actually, who gives a shit?   It turns out that it doesn’t really matter because as the Talking Heads once said, “Same as it ever was”.