POSITIVE HEALTH, RESILIENCE and PROFESSIONALISM: Creating Healthy Doctors and a Robust Health Economy

POSITIVE HEALTH, RESILIENCE and PROFESSIONALISM: Creating Healthy Doctors and a Robust Health Economy

POSITIVE HEALTH, RESILIENCE and PROFESSIONALISM: Creating Healthy Doctors and a Robust Health Economy (136)

Marsha Snyder ¹ ²

Center for Physician Success and Wellbeing, St. Luke's University Hospital, Bethlehem, PA, USA
Creating Positive Health, Center Valley, PA., USA

Medical practice is challenging and stressful. Many doctors are unhappy with their professional lives. They are burned out, stressed out, and suffer other physical and emotional impairments. And the doctor only teaches to the patient what the doctor actively practices, so patients suffer, as well. This stress and burnout begins as early as the first year of medical training.
Although modern medicine is now focused on the prevention of disease and the understanding of the physiological and psychological thriving of human beings, very little educational focus is given to these key topics in the education of physicians.
Positive health, an outgrowth of the science of positive psychology, refers to health assets that exist above and beyond the mere absence of disease. These assets predict or enable flourishing and longevity. Health assets are individual factors that produce longer life, lower morbidity, lower healthcare expenditures, and improved prognosis and quality of life when illness does strike.
This workshop will describe how teaching a curriculum of positive health, resilience and professionalism to physicians can lead to healthier physicians and healthier patients, with an expected trickle-down effect of lower healthcare expenditures.

Authors contributing to this abstract.

Snyder, M

Dr. Marsha Snyder is a trailblazer, an experienced leader and teacher in Positive Health, Physician Health and the development of Medical Education Curricula and Medical Leadership skills. With twenty years leading the Center for Physician Success and Wellbeing at St Luke’s Health Network in Bethlehem, PA, a large multi-hospital academic health system with over 1,000 affiliated doctors, multiple residency and fellowship programs serving over 500,000 outpatient and 57,500 in patient admissions per year. She has ten years experience developing programs and online tools to help individuals and organizations realize their potential to deliver compassionate, cost-effective and error-free care and she is well-prepared to lead transformational work applying Positive Health to the issues of individuals and organizations. Dr. Snyder has been invited to give presentations on physician health and the role of positive health to national and international professional audiences on three continents, including Adelaide, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; London, England; Toronto, Canada; and multiple cities in the United States. She has appeared on the NBC Today Show, and given numerous local and regional presentations in the US on positive psychology and physician health. Dr. Snyder has a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology, Doctor of Medicine and Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees all from the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, with high honors. She in a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Society and received the American Women’s Medical Association Award for Outstanding Scholastic Achievement while at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and has been certified in Geriatric Psychiatry by the same board. Dr. Snyder is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. She is certified by the American Institute for Life Coach Training. She has held faculty appointments at the Professor level at King’s College, The University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine and De Sales University.

POSITIVE HEALTH, RESILIENCE and PROFESSIONALISM: Creating Healthy Doctors and a Robust Health Economy (136)

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