A Professional Development Course Improves Unprofessional Physician Behavior.

Background: In 2008 The Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert that further defined "behaviors that undermine a culture of safety," stating that "intimidating and disruptive behaviors" can result in medical errors that affect patient care and safety. The American College of Physician Executives found that more than 95% of respondents encountered "disturbing . .

A Tale of Two Countries: Innovation and Collaboration Aimed at Changing the Culture of Medicine in Uruguay.

This is a case study of a program to address professionalism at the Universidad de la República in Uruguay. We describe a five-year ongoing international collaboration. Relevant characteristics of the context, the program components, activities, and results were analyzed.

Misprescribing controlled substances: An evaluation of a professional development program.

Background: Controlled prescription drug (CPD) abuse has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. Most physicians attending a 3-day continuing medical education (CME) professional development program (PDP) lack training in identifying risk and in managing patients who misuse CPDs. To address this issue, the authors conducted an evaluation of a PDP that trains physicians on proper prescribing, identifying substance abuse, utilizing screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT), and implementing motivational interviewing (MI).

Spanning a Decade of Physician Boundary Violations: Are We Improving?

Sexual boundary violations can negatively impact the culture of safety within a medical practice or healthcare institution and severely compromise the covenant of care and physician objectivity. Lack of education and training is one factor associated with physician misconduct that leads to high financial and personal cost. This paper presents a follow-up study of physicians referred to a professional development course in 2001 and presents demographic data from 2001 to present.

Transformative learning in a professional development course aimed at addressing disruptive physician behavior: a composite case study.

Disruptive physician behavior presents a challenge to the academic medical center. Such behaviors threaten the learning environment through increasing staff conflict, role modeling poor behaviors to trainees, and, ultimately, posing a risk to patient safety. Given that these physicians are often respected and valued for their clinical skills, many institutions struggle with how to best manage their behaviors.

Searching for answers: proper prescribing of controlled prescription drugs.

Prescription drug abuse is increasing at alarming rates in this country. Most often drugs are obtained through relatives or friends. An important step in addressing this problem is educating healthcare providers in the proper prescribing of scheduled drugs.

Using standardized patients in continuing medical education courses on proper prescribing of controlled substances.

Controlled prescription drug (CPD) abuse is an increasing threat to patient safety and health care providers (HCPs) are not adequately prepared nor do they routinely employ proper screening techniques. Using standardized patients (SPs) as an instructional strategy, the trained physicians on proper prescribing practices and SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) in a continuing medical education (CME) course. The authors compared two physician cohorts receiving standard CME course (control) versus CME plus SP practice.

The role of family of origin in physicians referred to a CME course.

Few studies exist which look at psychological factors associated with physician sexual misconduct. In this study, we explore family dysfunction as a possible risk factor associated with physician sexual misconduct. Six hundred thirteen physicians referred to a continuing medical education (CME) course for sexual misconduct were administered the FACES-II survey, a validated and reliable measure of family dynamics.

A plan for identification, treatment, and remediation of disruptive behaviors in physicians.

Physicians exhibiting a pattern of disruptive conduct represent a small portion of all healthcare professionals. Available evidence demonstrates, however, that their behaviors can result in increased workplace stress; contribute to poor workplace environments; contribute to dysfunctional teams; reduce quality of care for patients and families; and increase risk of litigation for hospitals and institutions. Our experience at Vanderbilt reveals that both internal and external factors play a role in a physician's behavior and ability to cope with workplace stresses.

A continuing medical education approach to improve sexual boundaries of physicians.

Introduction: Physician sexual boundary violations are a public health problem. Few resources exist to address physicians who behave inappropriately with patients. In response, the Center for Professional Health at Vanderbilt University developed a three-day continuing medical education (CME) course about proper professional sexual boundaries in 2000.

A CME course aimed at addressing disruptive physician behavior.

Examine the results of a study of physicians with disruptive behavior who went through a special training program to help them better control their anger and outbursts.