Emotional Intelligence in Medicine: Social Awareness – PediaCast CME 114
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: RSS
Show Notes
Description
Erica Banta returns to the studio as we consider the third pillar of emotional intelligence: social awareness. This skill helps us recognize and understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people. We’ll explore how social awareness supports compassionate clinical care, strengthens teamwork, and enhances leadership within healthcare organizations. We hope you can join us!
Instructions to obtain CME/CE Credit:
- Read this information page.
- Listen to the podcast.
- Complete the post-test at Nationwide Children’s CloudCME.
- CME credit expires 3 years from this episode’s release date.
- You can view your transcript and print a certificate of completion at Cloud CME.
- Need help creating a Cloud CME account? Click Here.
- Still have questions? Contact CMEOffice@nationwidechildrens.org
Topics
Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Social Awareness
Presenters
Dr Mike Patrick
PediaCast and PediaCast CME
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Erica Banta, MBA, LDSS
Director of Strategic Talent Management
University Advancement
Michigan State University
Learning Objectives
At the end of this activity, participants should be able to:
- Define social awareness and explain its function within emotional intelligence.
- Discuss how social awareness contributes to effective patient care, teamwork, and leadership.
- Apply strategies for enhancing social awareness in clinical and professional interactions.
- Evaluate the impact of social awareness on empathy, communication, and organizational culture.
Links
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ
Emotional Intelligence 2.0
Leadership 2.0
Introduction to Emotional Intelligence in Medicine – PediaCast CME 074
Emotional Intelligence in Medicine: Self Awareness – PediaCast CME 091
Emotional Intelligence in Medicine: Self-Management – PediaCast CME 108
A Systematic Review of Physician Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence: Use in Medical Education and Practice
Emotional Intelligence for Physician Leaders
Disclosure Statement
No one in a position to control content has any relationships with ACCME-defined ineligible companies.
Commercial Support
Nationwide Children’s has not received any commercial support for this activity.
CME/CE Accreditation Statement
In support of improving patient care, Nationwide Children's Hospital is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), to provide continuing medical education for the healthcare team.
AMA Statement
The Nationwide Children's Hospital designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
AAPA Statement
Nationwide Children's Hospital has been authorized by the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) to award AAPA Category 1 CME credit for activities planned in accordance with AAPA CME Criteria. This activity is designated for 1.0 AAPA Category 1 CME credits. PAs should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.
APA Statement
Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs. Nationwide Children's Hospital designates this activity for 1.0 continuing education credits.
ASWB Statement
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Nationwide Children's Hospital is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 1.0 general continuing education credits.
ADA CERP Statement
Nationwide Children’s Hospital is an ADA CERP Recognized Provider. ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry. Concerns or complaints about a CE provider may be directed to the provider or to the Commission for Continuing Education Provider Recognition at CCEPR.ADA.org. Nationwide Children’s Hospital designates this activity for 1.0 continuing education credit.
Contact Us
CMEOffice@nationwidechildrens.org
Episode Transcript
[Dr Mike Patrick]
This episode of PediaCast CME is brought to you by Nationwide Children's Hospital.
[Music]
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of PediaCast CME. We are a pediatric podcast for healthcare providers.
This is Dr. Mike, coming to you from the campus of Nationwide Children's Hospital. We're in Columbus, Ohio. It's episode 114.
We're calling this one emotional intelligence in medicine, social awareness. I want to welcome all of you to the program. We are so happy to have you with us as we continue our series on emotional intelligence.
Now you'll recall that we introduced you to emotional intelligence in medicine back in episode 74 and then we took deeper dives into the components of EQ, and we discussed self-awareness in episode 91 and self-management in episode 108. And we'll have links to all of those episodes in the show notes over at pediacastcme.org for this episode 114. Today we are placing the third pillar of EQ under the spotlight as we consider social awareness.
Social awareness is our ability to recognize and understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people. And we're going to explore how social awareness supports compassionate clinical care. It strengthens teamwork and enhances leadership within healthcare organizations.
Of course, in our usual PediaCast CME fashion, we have a terrific guest joining us in the studio to discuss the topic. Erica Banta returns. She was with us during our previous discussions on all things EQ.
She is the director of strategic talent management or university advancement at Michigan state university. Don't forget, after listening to this episode, be sure to claim your free category one credit. Really easy to do.
Just head over to the show notes for this episode at pediacastcme.org. You'll find a link to the post-test in the show notes. Follow that link to cloud CME, click on the materials tab there.
You'll find a post-test. So, take and pass the post-test and the category one credit is yours. And we do offer credit to many pediatric professionals, including doctors, of course, but also nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, psychologists, social workers, and dentists.
And it's because nationwide children's is jointly accredited by all of those professional organizations that we can offer the credits you need to fulfill your state's continuing medical education requirements. For sure want to be sure the content of this episode matches your scope of practice. Complete details are available at pediacastcme.org.
Also want to remind you, the information presented in every episode of our podcast is for general educational purposes only. And your use of this audio program is subject to the PediaCast CME terms of use agreement, which you can find at pediacastcme.org. So, let's take a quick break. We'll get Erica Banta settled into the studio, and then we will be back to talk about social awareness in medicine. It's coming up right after this.
[Music]
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Erica Banta is director of strategic talent management for university advancement at Michigan state university. She holds an MBA from Franklin university and is a certified leadership development and succession strategist, which means she is an expert at helping leaders achieve their full potential as they drive the success of an organization.
She is also a leadership practices inventory coach and a Berkman certified professional, which involves coaching leaders and challenging them to create sustainable strategies aimed at increasing their leadership skills. One of those skills, in fact, one that often leads to success is emotional intelligence, also known as EQ. And this is not only important in the business world.
EQ also leads to success and satisfaction and prevention of burnout and better outcomes in all realms of medicine, including clinical care, teaching, research, and service activities. Ms. Banta has joined us for three previous episodes of PediaCast CME. We did sort of an overview of emotional intelligence, sort of an introduction back in episode 74.
We took a closer look at self-awareness in episode 91 and then self-management in episode 108. And I will have links to all three of those previous episodes in the show notes over at pediacastcme.org for this episode 114. So, you have the whole collection there together.
Today we are considering the third pillar of emotional intelligence and that is social awareness. But before we dive into our topic, let's offer a warm welcome back to Erica Banta. Thank you so much for stopping by the studio today.
[Erica Banta]
Well, thanks for having me again, Dr. Mike. It feels like it's been quite some time. Since last we spoke about this.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
I know, I know it has been too long, but we have all those other episodes so folks can listen in order. And I think that this will be a fantastic continuation of our discussion. So, let's start with a, what exactly do we mean by social awareness and then how does that fit into the framework of emotional intelligence?
[Erica Banta]
Always a good place to start. Social awareness is really about tuning into what's happening around you. So, reading the room, noticing emotional cues and understanding the dynamics between people.
So, in academic medicine, it's that skill that maybe lets you sense when a team is anxious during rounds or when a patient's body language might tell a different story than their actual words. So, it's that outward facing side of emotional intelligence. It's about others.
It's not ourselves.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. And we do still connect social awareness to those other two self-awareness and self-management because the way that we experience the world and what others do, we also think about ourselves internally. Like I think it's, it's knee-jerk response to think, well, someone is responding in a way and that's not how I would respond.
So maybe that is the wrong way. So, we do still look inside as we peer outside. Isn't that, right?
[Erica Banta]
It is. It is. And social awareness differs from self-awareness and self-management.
And it's a good distinction to talk about. So, self-awareness is about knowing your own emotions and understanding what you're feeling that way. So then that self-management we've talked about is about regulating those emotions so you can respond effectively and situationally.
So social awareness then shifts that lens outward. It's about perceiving and understanding other people's emotions and perspectives. I like to think of it as somewhat of an emotional radar.
So, it lets you pick up on subtle signals that guide more compassionate and more effective communication.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, which is really important. And I'm going to start with clinical medicine. So really practicing medicine, engaging with patients and families and the general public.
Why is social awareness particularly important in that realm?
[Erica Banta]
Well, I think medicine is, is at its core and its heart a human interaction, right? So social awareness helps clinicians build trust and reduce patient anxiety and improve those outcomes. So, a socially aware clinician notices maybe when a patient hesitates before answering a question or when a team member seems uncomfortable speaking up.
And those moments, those moments matter. Those moments can uncover fears and misunderstandings or even medical errors before they escalate.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
And just like all of us have experiences that really inform who we are as people and the way that we, that we engage with the world, that self-awareness piece and that self-management piece. Then as we look outward and we're seeing how other people respond and react, it's really important for us to sort of separate as much as we can the things that we're experiencing inside because those aren't the things that those other people are experiencing on their inside. And so, in order to really understand where other folks are coming from, because it's very different from where we're necessarily coming from, then empathy becomes a really important piece of social awareness.
Can you talk a little bit about what is empathy and how can we nurture that within ourselves so that we really increase our social awareness?
[Erica Banta]
Yes. Empathy really is what I, what I would say the engine that drives social awareness. So, it's what allows us to not only notice other people's emotions but also understand and validate them.
So, there's cognitive empathy, understanding someone's perspective and emotional empathy, which is feeling with them. Right? And I think those two things are equally, equally important to understand is that cognitive versus emotional empathy.
And in clinical care, both of those matter. Understanding a patient's fear intellectually is one thing, but communicating genuine compassion is what strengthens the clinician-patient relationship.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, absolutely. How can we cultivate that when we're so busy during the day? And we have, you know, our own stress of, we have to see this many patients.
We have to do a great job for each one and really try to understand our patients but also know knowing that there's a waiting room full of people who don't want to have their appointment late. They want to, you know, come on, let's get it moving until they're in the room and then they want your full attention, which is totally understandable. But how can we still cultivate social awareness when we are always busy and always seem to be trying to, to move the day through?
[Erica Banta]
I think it's absolutely possible even in a 10-minute visit. So simple things like pausing before entering a room to center yourself and maybe making eye contact and noticing nonverbal cues. Those things can go a long way.
I often encourage clinicians and other professionals to practice micro presence. And what I mean by that is being fully attentive for even 30 seconds. Fully attentive, listening to learn and understand not to respond.
And that moment of genuine connection that can change the tone of an entire encounter.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you know, with social awareness in the exam room in such a short period of time, I think as clinicians, one of the things we have to learn to do is quiet our inner thoughts a little bit. So, a lot of times when we walk into a room, we know what the chief complaint is.
We've maybe seen it multiple times that same day, certainly hundreds of times, you know, in the past few months. So, it's going to be important to quiet our inner thoughts so that we can have active listening so that we really can listen to understand and not just react with the next thing that we normally say in our, in our disease script. We all have those.
We know what we're going to do for a particular chief complaint. And so, we have to quiet that down so that we can really listen and hear what our patients are telling us, because it may not be the same as the last few times, we've heard that same chief complaint.
[Erica Banta]
Yeah. And, and there's, you know, I think that's, it's a good thing to talk about because there are some barriers to doing this well and to doing this and to practicing social awareness in a healthcare setting. There are other barriers too.
Of course, time pressure, you were just talking about that. That's probably the biggest one, right? But, but there's also emotional fatigue.
There's hierarchical culture in, in many places of, of medical practice. There's cognitive overload. When people are burned out or multitasking, empathy becomes harder and harder to access.
And another subtle barrier I'd like to just address is bias. We all have it. And our unconscious assumptions can really cloud how we interpret others' emotions and behaviors.
So those are all some other barriers to practicing social awareness in these settings other than just plain old time.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. And, and that's why we have to be so intentional about maintaining social awareness.
And I love that you said, let's pause before we enter the exam room and sort of center ourself and say, okay, we're here for this particular patient. We're going to listen to what they have to say. We're going to ask follow-up questions, you know, so that we better understand exactly what they're trying to tell us.
And there are barriers to that. And so, we do have to be very intentional. Now, social awareness is not only important in the exam room.
It's also important as we work within teams in academic medicine, as we collaborate with one another, we also have to be socially aware of our colleagues and the folks that we are working with, correct?
[Erica Banta]
Oh yeah, absolutely. Social awareness can only improve teamwork and collaboration, right? It helps teams communicate with curiosity rather than judgment.
And I think that's a very important distinction. When leaders and colleagues notice each other's stress levels, when you notice a change in communication style or unspoken needs, collaboration becomes smoother. So, an example would be it's the difference between why didn't you do that?
Or it seems like that was a tough situation. Can you tell me what happened? You get, you're getting to the same answer, but that shift invites trust and problem solving instead of defensiveness.
And that's how social awareness really brings together teamwork and a good solid foundation of collaboration.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. Another podcast that I host is called FAMEcast and folks can find that at famecast.org.
It's a faculty development podcast, but we recently had an episode on high functioning teams. And in that episode, we really covered exactly what you're saying right there, that trust is and psychological safety. We talk about that too is really important if we want to function highly as a team, because we're going to have differences of opinions.
There's going to be things that are more beneficial for the endeavor or the institution that other people may not agree with. And we have to give people the space to say, hey, I disagree with that and explain why you disagree with it. And you may learn something from your other team members that if you just said, no, it's my way or the highway, you'd never find out about those other options.
And so, you know, the social awareness thing really is important for high functioning teams. And so, folks, if you want to learn more about that, head over to famecast.org and take a listen to that podcast.
[Erica Banta]
Well, and I would also add to that, that there's a layer that we aren't really touching on that sort of outside of the scope of our topic today, but it's important to keep it in our intellectual pockets when we're thinking about social awareness with our teammates is that, you know, there was Tuckman's model of team dynamics and most people remember it from storming, norming, forming, and how new teams come together and the stages of teamwork and collaboration. Turnover is so high right now that you're constantly starting over with that cycle and having those connections and having a foundation with people and getting to know them in the workplace and maybe even beyond becomes harder and harder because we don't, we're not working with them as long anymore.
And so, there is, there is sort of the layer of retention and employee engagement and the life cycle of practicing clinician and, and think about some of those other roles in the workplace, right? Our triage nurses and, and our techs and, and people aren't staying at jobs as long anymore. So, this social awareness piece is much harder to do with somebody you just met than somebody you already know.
So, so I challenge folks to keep that in the back of your mind. If it feels, if you really want to start practicing more social awareness, it does feel more challenging and difficult when you don't know the other people involved.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. And that's kind of a vicious cycle, isn't it? Because if you don't have great social awareness amongst a team, folks aren't going to feel safe and they're not going to trust.
And as humans, we want to feel safe. We want to feel like, you know, there's trust involved in our relationships. And so that may then drive folks to find other jobs because they're not happy where they are.
But if we can have social awareness and we'll get in our next episode to relationship management, which is the pinnacle of all of this in order to retain great employees, we don't want them looking elsewhere because it's expensive and it takes time to get someone on boarded. And so, we really want high functioning teams right out of the gate. And that does take some time being together and folks not leaving jobs right and left, correct?
[Erica Banta]
Absolutely.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Again, reasons that social awareness are so important. And I know in the business world, which is largely where you live, leadership and leadership effectiveness is going to really require lots of social awareness. Can you talk about that for even in medicine, folks who are in leadership positions, why is social awareness particularly important for them?
[Erica Banta]
Yes. So, leadership effectiveness is sort of the intersect of all of the tenants of EQ that we've talked about thus far. And certainly of course, relationship management as well.
So, leaders who demonstrate social awareness, they're reading their teams like seasoned clinicians might read patients. They pick up subtle cues about morale, about motivation, about engagement. Leaders can tell when they have folks who are just kind of checking in to check boxes off the list and then they're gone.
Levels of engagement, good leader can tell and use that social awareness cue to do so. Socially aware leaders adapt their communications to fit the audience. They celebrate small wins and it's very authentic, right?
And they sense when someone needs support. So, this is a cornerstone of psychologically safe, emotionally intelligent leadership. And that is absolutely industry agnostic.
That doesn't apply to just clinical practitioners. It applies to business. It applies to government.
It applies to higher education. It applies to retail and supply chain, all of these industries. This is a basic human function, and it spans, it spans any industry.
It's all about effective leadership.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. What strategies then can leaders of teams use to increase social awareness within their team?
You know, how can they model and teach social awareness without coming right out and saying, we need to be more socially aware.
[Erica Banta]
Right. Well, I would say first modeling curiosity, right? Be the leader that you want and model curiosity.
Ask open ended questions and really listen to the answers. I would say second would be to normalize talking about emotions at work. We don't give ourselves that option very often.
And especially around stress and burnout, make it a safe place for people to say, I'm really feeling burnout. Can we talk about it? Leaders can use reflective rounds or debriefs where the focus maybe isn't just on clinical outcomes, but how the team felt during a case, right?
It's going back and doing sort of a lessons learned and talking about how we felt rather than just the outcomes and those practices, those teach social awareness by experience, not by lecture. Social awareness to me is part of the, if we look at the 70-20-10 model of adult learning, which says that 70% of what you learn on the job is just by doing it. 10% is in the classroom in a formalized setting, but 20% is a social learning.
And I think that practicing emotional intelligence falls firmly within that 20%, maybe even more so because we have to practice it with others and it's experience. It's not lecture or reading a book. Yeah.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. When we are engaged with others, whether it's in the exam room or it's in a team on a hospital ward or in a research laboratory, whenever we're with a team and we're really trying to have social awareness and maybe someone who's listening to this episode, the next time that you are with a group, like you're really in the forefront of your mind thinking about this, there's going to be others who aren't so well-versed on your team with social awareness. And there are, there's going to be conflict, no matter your best intentions of having social awareness and working together as a really high functioning team, you're still going to have conflict. And again, whether that's a patient who doesn't necessarily agree with what you're proposing the treatment plan should be, or they disagree with your diagnosis or they think you should be doing something different or making a referral that you may or may not feel is necessary.
Lots of place where conflict can occur in the exam room. And the same thing goes with teams all over medicine, again, in the hospital and research labs, in the classroom. How can social awareness help us navigate those conflicts?
[Erica Banta]
Well, I like to say that conflict is often just big emotions masquerading as disagreement. Conflict is often emotions just masquerading as disagreement. Social awareness helps clinicians recognize the feeling underneath, right underneath that conflict.
Is it coming from frustration, fear, exhaustion, and respond to those instead of just the surface issue. So, so when you say I sense this situation has been really stressful for you, that, that disarms some of that tension and now it opens the door to problem solving and sharing where otherwise focus just on the surface conflict, you might not get to that level. So, so it definitely helps navigate conflict in a way that it changes the script a bit and lets us reflect on the underlying themes and emotions that could be causing it in the first place.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. And it really takes that active listening and asking questions to get to that level of understanding.
So, if we go back to my example of perhaps conflict in the exam room, once we start to ask questions about why a patient is frustrated with what we are doing, it would be nice to understand what they've been through before. Maybe they have had providers in the past who they felt weren't listening to them. Or maybe one of the disease options for their symptoms is that, you know, something that you're discounting, and they want you to look at deeper.
Maybe they had an aunt who died with that particular disease. I mean, there may be reasons for underlying reasons for what you're seeing on the outside, as you had said. And so really listening and asking those questions and getting at that a deeper level with social awareness can really help us to be the best in all the teams that we work with, whether it's patient facing or not.
[Erica Banta]
Yes.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Now one of the other things that, and I think this has become something that's unfortunately more difficult to talk about these days, given certain climates. And that is that each of us have, you know, different experiences that we come from, and that includes different cultures, backgrounds. You know, there may be things that are related to family and traditions that are different from one person to another.
And then that can actually cause conflicts when we don't understand. And I think it's a little unfortunate that we can't say certain words anymore, you know, like diversity, equity, inclusion, those kinds of things. But they are important because we have a lot of different folks that make up teams that have different backgrounds, different priorities.
So how can we use social awareness to really help us understand those with different backgrounds from our own?
[Erica Banta]
It's such an important question and so many good points you made just now. You know, social awareness invites us to approach others with a sort of cultural humility, right? Meaning we recognize that our own perspective isn't universal.
When we slow down enough to really, really listen and observe and ask rather than assume, we're opening the door to understanding experiences very different from our own. And so, in clinical care, that might mean being attentive to how a patient's cultural background influences their expression of pain or their comfort with authority, right? It could also mean that recognizing how power dynamics or, or even past healthcare experiences, like you said, would shape trust.
Social awareness, it helps us suspend our judgment and get curious. And I think one of the most humanizing questions that a clinician could ever ask is, tell me more about what this means for you. And that is really, that question comes from a place of social awareness and curiosity.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
And I think a lot of patients would be surprised if we asked that question. And as they reflected, they would probably be very happy that we did because it shows that we care. But again, we, a lot of us are just, there's so much pressure to see more patients faster, get them through.
And there's lots of reasons for that. And there's some good reasons for that. But it oftentimes the, you know, comes at the expense of patients feeling like you didn't spend enough time with them and you didn't care.
And so, I think, you know, by practicing social awareness and asking those questions and really trying to get to the bottom of motivations for our patients' behaviors, it's, it's, it's critical that we have social awareness. What are some practical ways that we can strengthen our social awareness in our daily lives, whether it's at work or at home?
[Erica Banta]
I think just practicing being present, that's number one. We can't notice others if we're mentally somewhere else. So, trying little exercises like observing the mood of a room before speaking, or summarizing what someone just said to show that you truly heard them.
Those are great ways to strengthen social awareness that are very quick, very easy to do. Another is perspective taking. So intentionally trying to see a situation through another person's eyes, especially when you disagree.
So, at home, that might mean pausing before reacting when your teenager rolls their eyes, like that would ever happen. At work, it might mean asking a colleague, help me understand how you're seeing this. And over time, those small acts, those small questions, those small purposeful pauses, strengthen that muscle of empathy and it strengthens that muscle of understanding and your social awareness starts growing the more with that practice.
Yeah.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
So home is training ground for having social awareness in the medical workplace, right?
[Erica Banta]
Yes.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Now, in addition to just, you know, helping our teams function better, having better patient satisfaction, safety and quality of care are also really important things to consider. And social awareness can help us in those realms as well, correct?
[Erica Banta]
It absolutely can. And in probably more ways than people realize. So many adverse events in healthcare don't happen because of a lack of clinical skill.
They happen because of communication breakdowns and social awareness helps clinicians notice when a nurse hesitates to speak up or when a patient looks confused about discharge instructions but just nods politely because they just don't want to say anything by tuning in to those subtle cues. Clinicians can catch misunderstandings before they lead to errors and a socially aware environment. Again, it fosters that we've mentioned psychological safety where every team member regardless of title or level or rank, quote unquote, feel safe to raise concerns.
And that in and of itself in turn directly improves both safety and quality outcomes.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, absolutely. And the important thing there again, is that trust and psychological safety that we're all working together to have great outcomes to have patient safety, to provide quality care, to have quality in the research that we do. We really want best outcomes across the board.
And to do that, we have to really establish trust and safety within our team so people can speak up without it necessarily turning personal and explaining, you know, why we feel the way that we do, but then also trying to understand why some other team member may have a different opinion. And at the end of the day, the point really is to come out with the best practice. And that may take meeting in the middle, you know, there one person may have very good points and someone who wants to do it a different way may have very good points.
Is there a way that we can incorporate all of those things and really have a quality product with, you know, that's good, that's coming out of our team. Now, one more question I wanted to ask that I think is probably a little bit more difficult. And that is, we want to have empathy.
We want to get to the root of behaviors and ideas and things, but we also want to respect emotional boundaries. So, like, we don't want to dig too much. Like it can become like, this doctor's being creepy.
They're asking me too many questions about this particular thing. How can we balance, you know, social awareness and having empathy with also maintaining boundaries?
[Erica Banta]
The million-dollar question, right?
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yes.
[Erica Banta]
So, so empathy without boundaries leads to compassion fatigue. Boundaries without empathy could lead to being detached and coming across as cold. So, the balance comes from empathic concern.
So, so caring deeply with patients, but not for them in a way that consumes you. So, clinicians can practice what I call professional empathy. It means being fully present, acknowledging emotions, but also recognizing what belongs to you and what doesn't.
So, techniques like debriefing after difficult encounters or using mindfulness to reset in between patients, right? Taking some, some deep clarifying breaths, counting, right? Using some kind of mindfulness technique to reset and maintaining strong peer connections.
Also, all of those things can help replenish those emotional reserves. So, I think to, to wrap all of that up, it's not about caring less, but it's about caring sustainably.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. Very, very important.
Well, this has been a wonderful conversation, and we are going to have lots of resources for folks in the show notes over at pdacastcme.org episode 114. I mentioned that we're going to have links to the other episodes in this series. So, we have an introduction to emotional intelligence.
We have another where we really shed light on self-awareness. We had another one where we talk about self-management and then this one follows up with social awareness. We have one more to do and that is going to be on relationship management where we're going to really tie all of this together and that'll be coming out in a few months.
And so, we'll be excited for that. I also wanted to mention emotional intelligence, why it can matter more than IQ. That's kind of the original book on emotional intelligence by Daniel Goldman.
That, that was the first one, correct?
[Erica Banta]
I believe you're right. Daniel Goldman was, was certainly the EQ as we talk about it today. He, he started that movement.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
He's the grandfather and then Jean Greaves and Travis Bradbury kind of put emotional intelligence into practical terms, especially within the business world. But again, that model can, can really be used in any realm, including academic medicine as we're talking about it today. But that book was emotional intelligence 2.0 and that's a fantastic book. And then they also did one on leadership 2.0, which I have not read, but it looks like an interesting, an interesting read. And we'll have links to all of those in the show notes as well. And then we have some academic things for you too.
From the Journal of Graduate Medical Education, we have a systematic review of physician leadership and emotional intelligence. From the McGill Journal of Medicine, we have emotional intelligence use in medical education and practice. And then from Harvard Medical School, emotional intelligence for physician leaders.
And so, we'll have all of those resources in the show notes over at pdacastcme.org. Again, this is episode 114. So once again, Ms. Erica Banta, Director of Strategic Talent Management for University Advancement at Michigan State University. Thank you so much for stopping by and chatting with us today.
[Erica Banta]
Thanks for having me again. And I look forward to talking about relationship management soon.
[Music]
[Dr Mike Patrick]
We are back with just enough time to say thanks once again to all of you for taking time out of your day and making PediaCast CME a part of it. We really do appreciate your support. And thanks again to our guest this week, Erica Banta, Director of Strategic Talent Management for University Advancement at Michigan State University.
Don't forget to check out the rest of the series. We began with an introduction to emotional intelligence and medicine back in episode 74. And then we looked into self-awareness in episode 91 and self-management in episode 108.
So be sure to check out those episodes as well, and we will have links to them in the show notes. Also, you can find PediaCast CME wherever podcasts are found. We're in the Apple podcast app, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Audible, YouTube, and most other podcast apps for iOS and Android.
Our landing site is PediaCastCME.org. You'll find our entire archive of past programs there, all 114 of them. We do have show notes for each of the episodes, our continuing medical education information.
Again, category one credit is free. We also have our terms of use agreement and a handy contact page. If you would like to suggest a future topic for the program, reviews are helpful wherever you get your podcasts.
We always appreciate when you share your thoughts about the show and we love connecting with you on social media. You'll find us on Facebook, Instagram threads, LinkedIn, X and Blue Sky. Simply search for PediaCast.
So, you've listened to the podcast. Now again, be sure to claim your free category one, continuing medical education credit. Really easy to do.
Just head over to the show notes for this episode. Again, at PDACastCME.org. You'll find a link to the post test in the show notes.
Follow that link to cloud CME, click on the materials tab and then taken past the post test. It's all you got to do. Then the category one credit is yours.
Super easy, right? And again, we do offer credit to many pediatric professionals, including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, psychologists, social workers, and dentists. Of course, you want to make sure the episode matches your scope of practice, which in this case, emotional intelligence is for everyone.
Complete details are available again at PediaCastCME.org. A couple of other podcasts to tell you about. We do have PediaCast… without the CME.
That's our evidence-based podcast for moms and dads. Lots of pediatricians and other medical providers also tune in as we cover pediatric news, answer listener questions and interview pediatric and parenting experts. Shows are available on the landing site for that program, PDACast.org.
Also, wherever podcasts are found, simply search for PediaCast without the CME. And then finally, I also host FAMEcast. This is a faculty development podcast from the Center for Faculty Advancement, Mentoring, and Engagement at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.
So, if you are a teacher in academic medicine or a faculty member in any of the health sciences, then this is a podcast for you. And you can find FAMEcast at FameCast.org and wherever podcasts are found by simply searching for FAMEcast. Thanks again for stopping by.
And until next time, this is Dr. Mike saying, stay informed, keep it evidence-based and take care of those kids. So long, everybody.
[Music]
