Wyoming Medical Society Scholarship Fund

Grant Details

Organization Type Medical Society Foundation Categories Physician Leadership
Grant Size $150,000 Year 2017 State Wyoming

Wyoming Physician Leadership Program

Wyoming Medical Society seeks to bring the advantages of a physician leadership program to its member physicians in order to improve patient safety in the office, while helping to positively impact the state’s healthcare and policymaking arenas outside of it. Wyoming Medical Society has surrounded itself with experienced partners in leadership training and feels the time is right to take on this project for the benefits to patient care through improved interpersonal skills as well as greater advocacy for patients in the State Legislature.

The program curriculum will be done in two parts. Wyoming Medical Society will enlist the help of FutureSYNC International, Inc. to provide the individualized leadership training, while working with the Wyoming Business Alliance’s Leadership Wyoming, as well as University of Wyoming’s College of Health Sciences to set dates, locations, and subject matter in the state’s healthcare arena. Program delivery strategies will be comprised of a blended approach incorporating classroom instruction, one-on-one coaching interactions, and leadership roundtable discussions as the program rotates through various communities in Wyoming.

The short-term goal of this program is to engage physicians to consider personal leadership training. That effort would be measured by the number of physicians who apply for the Physician Leadership Program in Wyoming. The long-term outcome for this program is to bring more Wyoming physicians into positions of leadership within their state and community. This means aiding physicians’ efforts into volunteer and political positions, such as city council, county commissions, state legislature, all the way to volunteer boards and committees where their knowledge can be of benefit to the community at-large.

Research done for this and other Wyoming Medical Society efforts tell us physician leadership programs aid in everything from staving off physician burnout to improving patient outcomes. Physicians will become aware of new resources to support their efforts, while becoming resources themselves for other physicians in the state. Relationship-building and interpersonal work will create a stronger class of physician which will drive healthcare excellence in their local practice, regional healthcare system, and at the state and national levels. In addition, self-improvement in subject matter such as emotional intelligence can lead to better patient-physician communication and drive better patient outcomes.