Committee on Physician Health and Wellness Courses


The Committee on Physician Health and Wellness functions under the TMA Board of Councilors as an advocacy group to promote the health and well-being of physicians, and encourage early intervention and care of physicians who have potentially impairing conditions. 

CME Online and Home Study Courses Offered by PHW

Communication Skills: Talking With Your Patients
Physicians with deficient communication skills may incur complaints by patients and colleagues, which puts them at risk for being reported to the Texas Medical Board and receiving legal sanctions.  Physicians with sound communication skills improve patient and family satisfaction, strengthen the patient-physician relationship, and can reduce stress experienced when dealing with end-of-life issues.  This activity will help attendees improve their communication skills with patients and colleagues, thereby increasing patient and family satisfaction, strengthening the patient-physician relationship, reducing stress, and improving patient outcomes. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Coping With Stress and Burnout in Medicine
Discusses common stressors in the medical profession and characteristics of physicians that increase risk for burnout.  Provides tools for assessing personal risk for burnout.  Identifies physician response patterns as they relate to resilience and the litigation process.  Offers strategies to maintain professional integrity while coping with stress, and resources for recognition and assistance when professional help is needed.  2 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM, 2 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Cultural Competence
Addresses the importance of cultural competence in providing high-quality, ethical medical care. The need to understand and communicate effectively with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds is explored in the context of patient-centered care. Recommendations and techniques for improving cultural competence are reviewed. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Depression and Suicide in Physicians
Depression is one of the most common conditions among primary care patients; yet, physicians usually fail to diagnose or treat 40-60% of cases.  Physicians have access to easy ways to commit suicide and the knowledge to ensure completed suicide.  Physician suicide has been associated with personal, professional and financial stresses.  This course will examine the number of physicians lost to suicide annually, describe the characteristics of major depression, identify risks for physician suicide, explain the warning signs of a suicidal physician, and summarize the ethical consequences of the effect of physician suicide to patients. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Domestic Violence: A Hidden Epidemic
Asking one simple 10-second screening question can make a difference in the life of a patient.  This course discusses types and incidence of domestic violence, barriers to detecting domestic violence, potential ethical dilemmas, legal obligations, screening instruments, and effective interview techniques when assessing domestic violence. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Ethical Aspects of Monitoring Physicians in Recovery
Discusses ethical and professional responsibilities of monitoring physicians in recovery so as to provide responsible advocacy for the monitored physician and protect patient safety. Identifies potential ethical dilemmas that might arise for physicians who monitor other physicians. Assesses the professional responsibility of entities that oversee physician health.  1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Ethical Considerations in Physician Aging and Retirement
Discusses how to recognize signs of, and address, impairment in the aging physician and encourages participants to become more aware of the personal and ethical considerations involved in planning a successful retirement.  2 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM, 2 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Ethics and Regulation of Pain Management
Describes appropriate documentation of managing chronic pain. The difference between addiction and appropriate pain management, and the necessity of executing a written pain management treatment agreement, are discussed. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility education.  

Fatigue in Physicians
Focuses on the problems in physicians and health care delivery systems face as a result of fatigue. The activity proposes both preventative strategies and solutions to fatigue that promote patient safety and improve physician health. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility education. 

How to Create and Maintain Life Balance
Discusses the importance of actively initiating and maintaining balance in one's life. Reviews the importance of identifying personal core values congruent with prioritizing life activities. Provides action steps that may lead to improved patient care and a more balanced life.  1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Identification and Intervention for Substance Use Disorders in Physicians
Discusses the disease aspects of Substance Use Disorders.  Reviews essential components of conducting an intervention and steps necessary to prepare intervention team members. Explains ethical considerations involved in mandatory reporting and patient safety. 2 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM, 2 ethics and/or professional responsibility.  

Maintenance of Professional Boundaries and Effective Management of Challenging Patient Encounters
Emphasizes the significance of boundaries as they relate to a healthy patient-physician relationship.  Discusses vulnerabilities of patients and physicians to boundary violations and consequences when boundaries are crossed. Reviews types of challenging patient encounters and the effect on the physician's practice.  The importance of maintaining professional boundaries while working with a wide variety of challenging patient encounters is discussed. 2 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM, 2 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Patient Safety and Peer Assistance  
Discusses the need for a peer assistance committee to further patient safety. Interprets the Joint Commission Standard relating to physician health as it applies to professional ethics and behavior. Explains the process a peer assistance committee takes when it receives referrals. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Psychiatric Disorders and Disruptive Behavior in Physicians
Discusses how to recognize signs and symptoms of psychiatric disorders and identify patterns of disruptive behavior in physicians. The activity describes an intervention process for approaching colleagues identified as exhibiting psychiatric disorders or disruptive behavior. 2 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM, 2 ethics and/or professional responsibility.  

Spirituality and Medicine
Assesses the role of spirituality in physicians personal lives and the lives of their patients. Reviews how to integrate spirituality and clinical practice to enhance patient satisfaction. Discusses the principles of ethically managing spirituality in a medical practice. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

The Art and Science of Happiness
Traditionally, physicians have focused on the disease model, but recent evidence suggests that disease may be a manifestation of an overall imbalance or unhappiness in an individual’s life.  Research suggests that a physician and his or her patients have at least 40% personal control over their own happiness, which can be an answer to the stress of the changing practice of medicine.  This activity will give physicians the tools to help patients and themselves understand the concepts of happiness and how best to achieve it. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

The Family in Addiction and Recovery
Describes the family dynamics of addiction, emphasizing that addiction is a family illness.  Characteristics of a healthy family and available resources that will foster family recovery are discussed. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Tobacco Cessation: Ethics and Strategies
Discusses ethical responsibilities of physicians to determine tobacco use at every clinical visit. Patient stages of change and physician strategies for smoking cessation are discussed. Commonly used pharmacotherapies and brief tobacco cessation counseling are reviewed. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.

Women in Medicine: Contributions and Dilemmas
Examines factors that contribute to role strain for female physicians, evaluate the difference between patient care given by female physicians and male physicians and discuss the behaviors consistent with gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and the ethical conflicts they pose. 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM, 1 ethics and/or professional responsibility.  


Live Presentations Offered by PHW

TMA's Committee on Physician Health and Wellness offers several topics available as live presentations to county medical societies, hospitals, and other entities upon request.  These courses provide physicians with one hour of CME Category 1 credit in ethics and/or professional responsibility education.  They also help hospitals meet Joint Commission standards regarding education. To schedule an educational program, contact Sasha Toj at TMA at (800) 880-1300, ext. 1343, or e-mail sasha.toj@texmed.org.

Addressing Impairment in the Aging Physician
Discusses identification of common neurological, psychiatric, and other medical illnesses that may affect the aging physician and how these illnesses may affect the medical practice.  Recognition of ethical obligations to address conditions of impairment in colleagues to ensure safe patient care and how to apply steps of intervention to address illnesses in the aging physician are addressed.  (Ethics)

Communication Skills: Talking With Your Patients
See online and home study summary above.  (Ethics)

Coping With Malpractice Litigation
Being sued for malpractice and accused of negligence is an experience physicians frequently describe as devastating. This activity provides insight on how to implemenet a prevention plan and outline coping strategies should you be sued.  (Ethics)

 Cultural Competence
See online and home study summary above.  (Ethics) 

Depression and Suicide in Physicians
See online and home study summary above.  (Ethics)

Disruptive Behavior in Physicians
Discusses how to recognize the presence of disruptive behavior in physicians.  Steps in the intervention process to address disruptive behavior are described.  (Ethics)

Domestic Violence: A Hidden Epidemic
See online and home study summary above. (Ethics)

Ethical Aspects of Monitoring Physicians in Recovery
See online and home study summary above. (Ethics)

Ethics and Regulation of Pain Management
See online and home study summary above. (Ethics)

Fatigue in Physicians
See online and home study summary above.  (Ethics)

How to Create and Maintain Life Balance
See online and home study summary above.  (Ethics)

Intervention for Physicians Who May be Impaired
Discusses the concept of intervention with physicians who may be impaired. Reviews key components of conducting an intervention and steps necessary to prepare intervention team members. Identifies principles of the intervention process in clinical practice.  (Ethics)

Maintaining Professional Boundaries
Assesses the importance of boundaries as they relate to a healthy patient-physician relationship and explains vulnerabilities of patients and physicians to boundary violations. Compares legal, ethical and personal consequences to physicians and patients when boundaries are crossed. Sources of help available to physicians who are at risk of boundary problems or who have crossed boundaries are discussed.  (Ethics)

Management of Challenging Patient Encounters
Discusses types of patient encounters that might be considered challenging and the effects of those encounters on several areas of the physician's practice.  Methods for ethically and professionally managing these encounters are described.  (Ethics)

Patient Safety and Peer Assistance
See online and home study summary above. (Ethics)

Physician Retirement: Personal and Ethical Issues
Discusses the importance of early planning for the practicing physician in preparing for a successful and satisfying retirement.  Physician and patient care factors and ethical considerations shown to be significant in preparing for retirement and how to maintain optimal patient care while planning for a successful retirement are addressed.  (Ethics) 

Physician Stress and Burnout
Explains stress and burnout in the physician population.  A continuum ranging from normal stress to impairment is discussed.  Speakers present self-assessment tools, prevention strategies, treatment options, and solutions.  (Ethics)

Psychiatric Disorders in Physicians
Describes common mood, anxiety, and personality traits and disorders in physicians.  How to recognize the risk factors for suicide in physicians and approaches to promote the treatment and recovery of colleagues in distress which meet ethical obligations of physician to protect the health of public are addressed. (Ethics)

Spirituality and Medicine
See online and home study summary above. (Ethics)

Substance Use Disorders in Physicians
Discusses the disease aspects of Substance Use Disorders, and mandatory reporting requirements by physicians, peer assistance committees, and hospitals.  (Ethics)

The Art and Science of Happiness
See online and home study summary above.  (Ethics)

The Family in Addiction and Recovery
See online and home study summary above.  (Ethics)

Tobacco Cessation: Ethics and Strategies
See online and home study summary above. (Ethics)  

Women in Medicine: Contributions and Dilemmas
See online and home study summary above.  (Ethics)

 


 

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Last Updated On

June 09, 2017

Originally Published On

March 23, 2010