RANZCO Practice Managers Meeting organisers Nick Swain, Ingrid Durkin, Lara Sullivan, Peggy Ekeledo-Smith, Gail Drennan, author Marie Taylor and Lucy Peters

The RANZCO congress, held in the very large Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, welcomed over 150 practice managers, who got their daily steps in by walking between the conference room and the trade exhibition hall.

The opening speaker for both the scientific and practice managers’ meetings was professional trainer and health communicator and advocate Rachel Callander. The New Zealander now lives in Australia and spoke to us about effective communication for practice managers; however, her content was really important for multiple roles in healthcare. Callander introduced the ‘Language Matrix’ and discussed how our words can come across as:

Patronising – clichéd and ‘fluffy’ words, though often well-meant, do not help. One example being, ‘God only gives you what you can handle’.

Confusing – use of medical jargon, acronyms and long technical words will not be understood by many patients and families.

Destructive – dehumanising language labels patients with their diagnosis or symptoms, as do derogatory or negative terms.

Empowering – these words are positive and informative, bolstered by attempts to understand the patient’s experience with their health condition.

The session was highly interactive and we delved into how situations and words could make people feel about their visit to our practices. We discussed the use of opening questions, for example: “What should I call you?” and “What do you know about this referral?” to build a relationship and get an understanding of the patient’s perspective.

Callander then discussed a question she said was important to gaining patient insight: “What will you need to Google when you get home?”. This gives us the opportunity to direct them to reputable websites that will provide clear and accurate information. Having a list of suitable websites and handouts to address commonly asked questions can make a difference to all patients, she said.

Another interactive session was with Poppy Griffiths, founder and director of UnlimitU High Performance Coaching, who presented ‘The performance-management mindset’. Together, we discussed what culture looks like in our practices and how we, as leaders, can foster a positive team culture. What might we also be doing to damage team culture?

Griffiths discussed how different workplaces show their team members they are valued, referencing work by Workhuman that showed recognition resulted in 90% less burnout and 40% less stress, along with strong connections and a feeling of belonging. One great example of encouraging team culture and providing recognition was a ‘rubber ducky’ awarded each month to a team member to recognise success. It can be used to acknowledge success inside or outside the workplace.

Our group also discussed regular ‘quick check-in’ or ‘optimal performance chats’ between managers or team leaders and staff. Griffiths shared the following prompts:

• What is working well?
• What is not working well?
• What feedback do we have for each other?
• How can I support you?
  
  

We identified the constant time pressure our teams are under, which makes catching up regularly quite difficult, but acknowledged how important it is for building connections and feeling valued and listened to.

One interesting question I’ll be adding to many performance reviews is, ‘If you had a magic wand, what would you change?’. At some sites the answers to this have been used to make improvements and identify areas that could be changed easily.

This year’s conference was the best I’ve attended in my journey as a practice manager. We were fortunate to have sponsors outside our conference room again, which was useful for one-to-one conversations about our particular needs. The EyeVantage team donated AU$1,000 vouchers to three lucky winners – an amazing gesture we were all appreciative of, especially since the first prize went to a New Zealand practice manager!

I’m really looking forward to celebrating the 20^th annual practice managers’ conference in Auckland later this year.

Marie Taylor is a registered nurse who has been working in various ophthalmology roles in Auckland and Christchurch for over 25 years. She’s currently the operations manager and clinical research manager at Southern Eye Specialists in Christchurch.