Partnerships Were Strengthened with These 2023 Tracks and Topics
From April 25 to April 27, 2023, Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA) held its eighth annual Spark Summit in Tampa, Florida. This yearly summit provides an opportunity for UMA and its healthcare employer partners to come together both to discuss and to develop solutions for some of the most pressing workforce issues. By working as a team, UMA believes that it and its employer partners can strengthen not just the organizations in attendance but create a positive impact on the industry as a whole.
This year, UMA’s Spark Summit was divided into two different tracks, each of which included discussions about some of the most relevant topics in healthcare today.
Two Spark Tracks
While the 2023 summit started the same for all attendees, around mid-morning on the second day, the event was split into two different tracks:
- Learning and development
- Culture and engagement
The learning and development track was designed, in part, to address various strategies that UMA employer partners can use to promote the professional development of their employees. This development could help the employees feel and perform better within their current roles. It could also be used to prepare them for higher-level healthcare positions within the partner organization, boosting retention and inspiring greater employee loyalty.
The culture and engagement track focused on ways that employers can develop a workplace environment that provides employees the support they need while also reducing stress and burnout and increasing engagement. This track included a more in-depth look at diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in the workplace and why it is so important.
2023 Topics Discussed
In addition to covering these two tracks, attendees at the eighth annual UMA Spark Summit also had the opportunity to discuss and strategize about some of the most pressing topics in the healthcare workforce today. The goal of these sessions was to inspire and encourage growth, empathy, and innovation in each topic area.
Overall, the topics discussed were divided into five basic categories:
- Employee engagement. It’s important to meet team members where they are. Employers can benefit from finding ways to encourage and inspire employees to become involved, getting them so excited about the organization’s mission and vision that they’ll want to take an active role in achieving both. Employee engagement also involves helping team members see the importance of their roles and making them feel valued for their contributions. This is where DE&I comes into play, which was a topic discussed in one of the sessions.
- Employee retention. One of the issues faced by many UMA employer partners – and healthcare employers as a whole – is a high turnover rate. Employees are leaving their healthcare positions, creating workforce gaps that can sometimes be difficult and costly to fill. Attendees spent some time at the 2023 Spark Summit talking about strategies for retaining top healthcare talent. Solving the employee retention issue can ease a lot of headaches for healthcare employers. DE&I can help promote employee retention, as can utilizing technology to lead with care, the topic of another one of this year’s sessions.
- Upskilling. Upskilling involves helping employees reach their peak potential. Attendees talked about various methods healthcare employers could use to help their team members strengthen their skill sets. This can help these team members increase their confidence while also giving them the tools that enable them to perform their jobs with better speed and efficiency. One of the first sessions this year was dedicated solely to upskilling and the research surrounding its benefits.
- Learning and development. This topic was so important that it was a 2023 summit track along with being the focus of several individual sessions. For example, this topic was discussed in the session on coaching and development in a virtual environment. When healthcare organizations are willing to invest in their employees’ learning and development, it can also help them attract and retain talent in a competitive market, which was the focus of another one of this year’s sessions.
- Team member wellness. A very important topic area for this year’s summit was employee wellness. Burnout has been a major issue in recent years, so an entire session was dedicated to discussing ways to combat this effect. Another session talked about the “Wellness Waterfall.” If you were in attendance at this session, then you know exactly what this is and the impact it can have.
Where Do We Go From Here?
While the goal of UMA’s annual Spark Summits is to have an open conversation with our employer partners about the challenges faced in healthcare and how to overcome them, we also want our partners to understand that they are not in this alone. UMA is there with you every step of the way, and we are dedicated to helping you find solutions to your workforce-related issues.
If you missed the eight annual UMA Spark Summit and would like to talk about what was discussed or learn more about these tracks or topics, let us know. We’re also open to suggestions about the topics you’d like to go over in future summits.