The [Systems] learning experience aims to teach healthcare teams how to address complexity in patient care through 320 hours of experiential learning over three years. Teams including physicians, nurses, behavioral health clinicians and administrators are exposed to workshops developing skills in systems thinking, change management, and learning organization processes. The experience teaches that medicine is complex rather than simple; illness is the lived experience rather than just a diagnosis; and a healer's role is to help the patient emerge with a new identity incorporating their illness. Skills taught include personal mastery, communication, complex care planning, collaboration, and understanding that patients and teams are complex adaptive systems embedded within the larger healthcare system. The goal is to transform learning and enhance the medical model to

1. [Systems] Learning Experience:
Including Complexity in Family Medicine Education and Patient Care
Andrew S. Valeras DO, MPH, Dominic Geffken MD MPH, Dan Eubank MD, Rocco Ricci MS, Aimee Burke Valeras Ph.D.
Angela Yerdon MD, Carole Kaufman BA, Doug Dreffer MD, Joni Haley MFT, John Orzano MD, MPH, Lora Council MD, MPH, Martha Seery MS, Mary Danca MD, Patricia Finn RN, Sue Hemingway MS,
Tina Kenyon MSW, Travis Harker MD, MPH, William Gunn Ph.D
Phase 1
Process | Using Learning Pathways as a model for
transformational learning, healthcare teams (physician,
RN, behavioral health clinician, administrative staff) are
exposed to 320 hours, over three years, of experiential
learning and skill development workshops. The [Systems]
learning experience aims to expand mental models of
patient care, team membership, and change management,
while incorporating Learning Organization process skills.
Conclusion | Imperative in 21st century healthcare is to go beyond problem-focused
methodologies to address issues embedded in a CAS. To achieve transformational learning, it
is necessary to provide time, space and resources for the requisite double-loop and triple-loop
learning. [Systems] guides healthcare teams to acknowledge complexity and teaches the skills
necessary to address complexity in the provision of patient care.
Introduction | The [Systems] learning experience
teaches complexity to residents embedded within clinical
healthcare teams by introducing skills and knowledge
through narrative-based reflection, information mastery,
and systems thinking. Understanding and managing the
complexity inherent in the primary care milieu requires
transformational learning of all team members. This
transformation enhances the medical model to include
an awareness and approach to addressing complex
adaptive systems (CAS) in the process of achieving the
tenets of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH).
Learner Patient Team Clinic Healthcare System
Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
Mental
Model
Shift
Skills
Needed
๏ Medicine is complex vs. simple or complicated
๏ All individuals are CAS
๏ Illness is the lived experience of having a
disease rather than simply a diagnosis
๏ A healer’s role in complex care delivery is to
influence the patient to eventually emerge with a
new identity that is inclusive of this new illness
narrative
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
๏ Personal Mastery | taught via Mindfulness
training, Healers Art TM, Narrative MedicineTM,
and Colors Personality at Work
๏ Interpersonal Communication Skills | taught
via Positive Power and InfluenceTM and
Motivational InterviewingTM
๏ Complex Care Plans | Learners complete a
Patient Centered Care Plan to explore
complexity and patient narratives
๏ Collaboration and Facilitation |
taught via Situational LeadershipTM
and Learning Conversations
๏ Team Membership | taught via
internally developed workshops
๏ Change Management | taught via
Crucial ConversationsTM, Advanced
Positive Power and InfluenceTM and
a quality improvement project
๏ Systems Thinking | taught via
internally developed workshops and
practice management
๏ Culture Change | taught via a two-year
practicum as part of the
Dartmouth Hitchcock Leadership and
Preventive Medicine Residency, using
Clinical MicrosystemsTM as a quality
improvement platform.
๏ All team members are interdependent
and equal in this fact, and hierarchy is
real and needs to be acknowledged
๏ Physician-as-hero is a myth that is
unsustainable in current healthcare
๏ Patients experience care as an
embedded CAS within the team CAS
๏ Improvement in the delivery of care
(emergence) is possible, especially
when achieved via a complexity lens
๏ Non-linearity allows for small changes
to have a significant impact - iterative
Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles
๏ If a different result is desired that goes
beyond acting differently, it may be
necessary to check assumptions and
mental models to reframe
๏ Creating sustainable culture change is
possible, however may require further
personal development and leadership
training, and an ever-growing
understanding of complexity science.