The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly changed how we interact with everyone, including our family, friends, patients, students, and coworkers. CPNP worked quickly to provide webinars on telehealth and to develop resources so that psychiatric pharmacists would continue to provide a high level of care. The CPNP RPD Community presented on precepting during a pandemic. The CPNP Teaching Community discussed supporting student mental health during a pandemic. You have likely worked hard to find ways to stay connected to others on a personal level.
However, many have neglected a skillset that governs the world. Inefficient in-person meetings have been converted into painful virtual meetings. Recall the deafening silence when no one chimes in – or the confusion when people talk over each other. Think of your many meetings with no resolution, and decide to put an end to Zoom fatigue. We all need to make more time to talk and to have meaningful discussions.
Meeting design and facilitation are real skills that can be learned, practiced, and improved. Indeed, the workshop will be led by a Certified Technology of Participation (ToP) Facilitator with years of experience and a background in public health. The Facilitating Effective Virtual Meetings Workshop provides hands-on training in established techniques to plan and facilitate effective virtual meetings. The resulting skills can be applied to peer discussions, office planning meetings, project review meetings, and other types of professional and personal meetings. Meeting design is an essential step, especially with virtual meetings, but the facilitation tools will help participants to lead consensus-building discussions in any context.
The CPNP Foundation understands that tomorrow’s psychiatric pharmacists need more than just clinical skills. Facilitation will help the participants be well-rounded professionals who can contribute more effectively to their health care teams, to their institutions, and to their communities.
The workshop spans 10 weeks, culminating in facilitating discussions at CPNP 2021. By leading the Daily Debrief sessions, participants will gain hands-on experience with the techniques while building connections with other CPNP members and helping everyone to have the best possible Annual Meeting experience.