Syndicom

Spinal Surgeons in Flow: The Importance of Fellowship

“In flow we feel totally involved, lost in a seemingly effortless performance. Paradoxically, we feel 100% alive when we are so committed to the task at hand that we lose sight of time, of our interests, even of our existence”

M. Czikszentmihalyi ” Good business: Leadership, flow and the making of meaning.”

When was the last time you experienced flow as a surgeon? What prevents you from achieving this state in your work? Challenging cases? Unreliable tools? Uncooperative colleagues? All of the above? In order to keep flow alive in professional practice, it is important to keep cultivating interests and curiosity as well as respond to the widest range of opportunities possible in order to develop as many skills as possible. This is not always possible in our everyday workplaces and working lives. We are not always in control of who and what we work with. But there are spaces being created for such ‘gatherings’ where surgeons can take part in expanding their professional development, actively engaging, trialling and learning new skills and tools to improve their practice, artistry and move closer to flow.

As we wrote last week about artistry, flow is also dependent on experimentation, experience and expanding surgical skill repertoires. Educators have long argued that we remember 10% of what we read, 26% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see AND hear, 70% of what we say and 90% of what we say when we explain, give examples, clarify, pose and answer questions (act as participatory expert learners). Practice may just make perfect…..sense…..:). Your patients probably think so.

Challenging cases enhance our artistic repertoires but they are no fun alone. Expert learners learn best with and through other expert learners. Expert communities of common interests and activities where you can learn with others of equal rank and character extend and sustain surgeon development through working lives and across workplaces. Such fellowships grounded in peer-to-peer communication and clinical education can significantly improve patient outcomes as the best work with the best to develop best practices and the best tools. Syndicom was recently approached by NuVasive to construct such a community as a means of extending their already considerable commitments to training surgeons on innovative procedures. As Bryan Cornwall, NuVasive VP of Research and Clinical Resources says “we needed surgeons to feel comfortable using our procedure”. In response, Syndicom created the SOLAS XLIF Discussion Group, where consulting surgeons work with 5-6 surgeons in training each on particular cases and procedures. Surgeons who participate in these groups report that these fellowship groups provide them with the confidence to try new techniques in their own cases as they can post their case and within 24 hours have several responses on how to approach it. As Mark Peterson from the Providence Spine Program says, ” I get great feedback, and more importantly, I am personally involved in producing positive outcomes and preventing negative ones.” Wouldn’t it be nice to say that everyday about your workplace?

Kirsten Broadfoot