Improved communication, cooperation, self-care and technology were just some of the benefits to come out of the pandemic, writes KAREN CROUCH.
Undoubtedly, COVID and its variants were a devastating pandemic and a curse on mankind, including serious adverse impacts on every aspect of modern life – health, financial, economical, psychological/mental and business, among others.
However, given the strength and resilience of the human spirit, it was converted to achieve many improvements in various aspects of our day-to-day lives which I refer to as “Good COVID”. In this article, I will revisit some valuable derived benefits – even though they were forced on society.
Communication and cooperation
Federal, state and all levels of government constantly kept in touch through technology-driven, audio visual conferences to promulgate disease management, reporting and healthcare standards. There were inevitable disagreements under our federation style of democracy which affords each state and territory decision making rights over their federal counterparts, resulting in differences of opinion e.g. border closures. Regardless, the overall intention of controlling the pandemic was never so unanimous.
Cooperation between authorities and individuals was never more universal despite several protests and strongly expressed views of opponents to vaccines. Compliance with health mandates (mask wearing, hand washing, isolation and lockdowns etc) was remarkable as each one was onerous or required strict discipline. More than ever, it generated increased concern about each other, encouraging more frequent use of the caring “are you OK?” practise. Most welcome was the increased attention and care for aged folks although, given the disease’s deadly impact on the elderly, many were infected and even died before a more reliable defence could be developed.
Practices
And boy didn’t all practice staff apply the basic rules of ‘effective meeting’ management (communication/ cooperation)? These are worth revisiting to ensure the efforts are maintained as the age-old habit of some healthcare practices holding meetings for social, rather than health-related outcomes, were discontinued as a result of new COVID-related pressures.
I was once requested to outline what makes for an effective meeting. With experience of practice meetings and staff cooperation, we identified the following components:
• Improve communication and decision making;
• Exchange experiences, information and knowledge;
• ‘Work smarter’ (research) forums;
• Implement decisions effectively; and
• Corporate governance reasons.
Some meetings for social purposes are conducted on an informal basis, for business/relationship development purposes. Generally, content is less structured, albeit well planned beforehand.
We asked meeting groups the following questions, based on the general principles of effective meetings:
• Do meetings have a pre-circulated agenda? – indicates a ‘purpose’ for the meeting;
• Is a chairperson or leader appointed? – evidence that there will be a ‘controller’ to focus attendees on agenda items under discussion, assign actions to specific individuals where necessary, and ‘watch the clock’ so items are not deferred or left undecided;
• Are desired outcomes or decision options understood? – where applicable, this ensures participants are aware that a decision is required for certain discussion items;
• Are meetings properly ‘time planned’? – suggests thought has been given to adequacy of time required to do justice to each topic;
• Is relevant pre-reading circulated? – where an item warrants it, pre-reading affords attendees an opportunity to prepare and contribute more meaningfully, also evidencing thoroughness of the meeting coordinator;
• Are self-assessment ‘meeting evaluations’ conducted? – means by which teams strive to improve meeting quality and outcomes; and
• Are minutes (including resolutions) and Action Items documented and distributed? – provides continuity and implementation of resolutions when minutes are tabled at subsequent meetings.
Staff, clinicians and principals found the exercise highly beneficial, injecting meaningful structure and achievement-oriented content into meetings, without introducing excessive bureaucracy.
Noted, while meetings are a useful form of communication, decision making and planning, the other extreme is too many – meetings for the sake of meetings. A decision that could be made relatively easily by circulated email might only require a meeting if parties involved cannot reach agreement on a proposal.
Conclusion
Through these effective staff gatherings we all learnt how to protect ourselves through constantly updated information broadcasts about the latest health requirements, such as lockdowns and vaccines.
Overall, while we may wish to never revisit another pandemic like COVID, let’s be positive-minded while continuing to be alert and vigilant, looking back on the valuable benefits we derived from this nasty experience. It’s made us much stronger for analysing it, developing solutions and deriving many personal and business-wide practices to live with it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karen Crouch is Managing Director of Health Practice Creations Group, a company that assists with practice set ups, administrative, legal, business and financial management. Contact Karen on 0433 233 478 e-mail kcrouch@hpcnsw.com.au or visit www.hpcgroup.com.au.
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