Your place of work is a big part of your life. You spend several hours a day working, and the monthly paycheques allow you to pay for your various and necessary expenses. For this reason, it is also important work in a place that you enjoy.

There are a lot of factors to consider when looking for this perfect workplace, and all entrepreneurs and business owners should take note as to exactly what needs to be done in order to establish this environment. For instance, communication is key to any job, and the way people talk to one another at work can impact productivity.

Moreover, the various values and ethics that the organization believes in must also be clearly outlined. It is important to ask for employee feedback, engage in fun company culture activities, choose the right office space design, encourage teamwork, maintain positivity and lastly let in enough natural light in.

All 8 of these tips above will be outlined in greater detail below. [Read more…]

By Kim Bassett

We’ve all been there. That moment when you present your boss with the best idea ever and their response is not what you imagined. You can see your amazing idea crashing and burning right before your eyes, stamped out before it even got off the ground. At this juncture, you must make an important decision. To let “no” mean “no” or to retreat and re-evaluate your next move.

I’m a strong believer that when you want something bad enough, you should not give up at the first roadblock. When someone tells me no, I simply think to myself, “I must not have explained myself well enough.”  I retreat, revise my game plan, and relaunch my idea. [Read more…]

Smartphone etiquette in the hospital setting

By Kim Bassett

We use our phone for everything-literally everything. We have our life story on our phones.  We store our contacts, emails, texts, music, and pictures on our phones. There are recent studies that reveal the average person looks at their phone up to 150 times each day.  Assuming the average person sleeps 8 hours/day that would mean we look at our phone a little more than 9 times an hour during the remaining 16 hours.  Every 6 minutes, you are looking at your phone. 

You know we have a problem when a word has been coined to describe all of this attention we are giving to our phones…phubbing.  This is the word created to describe the “snubbing” of someone in order to check your phone.  Doesn’t it make you crazy when you walk into a service-type of organization such as a restaurant or clothing store and the person behind the counter is looking at their cell phone and ignoring you?  I hate to say it but it happens in hospitals, too. 

It’s inevitable that as a healthcare worker you will, at times, need to use your phone in the presence of a patient.  We have reference and educational materials on our phones.  Nurses and pharmacists have lists of medications and drug doses on their phones for quick reference.  There are numerous times a day you have to “Google-It,” to access information that can actually be work-related.  The challenge is to not make your patient feel they are being ignored while you access this information.  [Read more…]

Robert C. Cicco, MD, has been nominated to serve as the 2018 president of the Allegheny County Medical Society (ACMS). He is the 153rd president of the local organization that represents physicians from all specialties and provides leadership and advocacy for patients and physicians. The physician organization has been serving Allegheny County since 1865.

Dr. Cicco is board certified in pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine. He is now retired, but most recently served as associate director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at West Penn Hospital and was a clinical assistant professor, pediatrics, at Temple University School of Medicine.

A member of ACMS since 1980, Dr. Cicco has served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee since 2014. He was the ACMS treasurer in 2014, secretary in 2015, vice president in 2016, and president-elect in 2017. At the state level, Dr. Cicco served as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Medical Society in 2013. He was a member of the PAMED Task Force on State of Medicine from 2010 to 2013.  In addition, he has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the ACMS Physician Volunteer Award and the PAMED Physician Volunteer Award. In 2012, The Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics named Dr. Cicco Pediatrician of the Year. [Read more…]