Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Multimedia
    • Collections
    • Past Issues
    • Articles by Subject
    • Articles by Type
    • Supplements
    • Plain Language Summaries
    • Call for Papers
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Media
    • Job Seekers
  • About
    • Annals of Family Medicine
    • Editorial Staff & Boards
    • Sponsoring Organizations
    • Copyrights & Permissions
    • Announcements
  • Engage
    • Engage
    • e-Letters (Comments)
    • Subscribe
    • RSS
    • Email Alerts
    • Journal Club
    • Annals Forum (Archive)
  • Contact
    • Feedback
    • Contact Us
  • Careers

User menu

  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
Annals of Family Medicine
  • My alerts
Annals of Family Medicine

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Multimedia
    • Collections
    • Past Issues
    • Articles by Subject
    • Articles by Type
    • Supplements
    • Plain Language Summaries
    • Call for Papers
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Media
    • Job Seekers
  • About
    • Annals of Family Medicine
    • Editorial Staff & Boards
    • Sponsoring Organizations
    • Copyrights & Permissions
    • Announcements
  • Engage
    • Engage
    • e-Letters (Comments)
    • Subscribe
    • RSS
    • Email Alerts
    • Journal Club
    • Annals Forum (Archive)
  • Contact
    • Feedback
    • Contact Us
  • Careers
  • Follow annalsfm on Twitter
  • Visit annalsfm on Facebook
NewsDepartmentsF

WHAT ADFM LEARNED FROM BRINGING A PUBLIC MEMBER ONTO ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ardis Davis, Valerie Gilchrist, Julie Moretz, Amanda Weidner, Kevin Grumbach and Ned Holland
The Annals of Family Medicine September 2020, 18 (5) 472-473; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2598
Ardis Davis
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Valerie Gilchrist
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Julie Moretz
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Amanda Weidner
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Kevin Grumbach
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ned Holland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

The Association of Departments of Family Medicine’s (ADFM’s) overall mission is to “support academic departments of family medicine to lead and achieve their full potential in care, education, scholarship, and advocacy to promote health and health equity.”1 A core value guiding ADFM in its work is a commitment “to engaging with patients and communities as partners in our mission.”1

In 2018, in partnership with Family Medicine for America’s Health (FMAHealth), ADFM launched a pilot of a public ADFM Board member with the hypothesis that “an individual not within our ‘family’ of academic departments but who appreciates our mission and is committed to success of departments of family medicine, will bring complementary views and experiences that enhance the work of ADFM.”2 A 2-year evaluation period was established to include: (1) choosing someone who brought an experienced public academic medicine perspective; (2) surveying ADFM Board members; and (3) reviewing specific contributions.

Our learning also reflects outreach to other family medicine organizations with public and patient Board members. Pursuant to a recommendation from the ADFM public member, public and patient Board members from the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation (AAFP-F), the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), and the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) participated in focus group meetings to discuss their roles, contributions, and experiences on their respective Boards. Additionally, executive staff from the AAFP-F and ABFM were interviewed about their perceptions of the value and contributions of public and patient Board members.

This multidimensional evaluation and ADFM’s evaluation resulted in the ADFM Board transitioning the public member pilot position to a permanent position, with a 3-year renewable term at the end of 2019. Our key learnings and rationale follow.

Critical Attention to Process

The assumptions of our pilot focused on the content which the public member would bring to Board deliberations and decisions; however, she also brought us understanding of our process. Our public member provided a critical function of “holding up a mirror”to challenge our Board to think outside of potential inadvertent contextual and framing limits, to question why things are done the way they are, and to call out voices which are absent during critical conversations. Additionally, we learned how important it is to attend to the process of onboarding a new public member who has no prior history with the organization and its Board members. We realized that ADFM’s 2-year pilot timeframe was too short to allow for optimal acculturation of a new public member.

Finding the Right Person

It was during review of all of the evaluation information that the Board recognized that ADFM had indeed found “the right person.” However, we needed to implement necessary processes (eg, proactive mentoring, explicitly drawing on experiences relative to specific issues) to take full advantage of her expertise and potential contributions within the pilot’s short timeline. As she herself said, it is “…about the willingness of the board to include someone who is not a Chair (with a different perspective), the acceptance of this new position/role by the members, and the ongoing support by the Board and Executive team …to continue to strengthen the role and the individual in the position.” For ADFM there was a modest travel expense with this pilot. In both the public/patient member focus group meetings and executive staff interviews, the point was made that the decision to add a public or patient perspective to a Board is not a “return on investment” issue. It is more about including the “right person” and these articulated issues.

Key Functions of Patient and Public Board Members

Evaluation information from the family medicine public and patient Board focus group meetings highlighted the importance of being clear about the unique perspectives these members bring to Boards. Allowing their expertise to be tapped through appropriate initial and ongoing onboarding/mentoring, and inclusionary governance provisions (eg, chairing committees, voting) are important for a Board to explicitly think through and accommodate. For example, our ADFM public member voted along with other Board members on important issues and provided critical input into our website redesign. Another example is being seen as a legitimate Board member by the membership through speaking at annual meetings. Understanding the different perspectives and intended contributions of patient and public members is critical. In the case of ADFM, this pilot was about a public member with knowledge about and experience within institutions similar to environments in which Departments of Family Medicine are embedded.

As ADFM continues to move ahead during the COVID-19 pandemic and the coming financial and social justice challenges, the value of “patient- and community-centeredness” in guiding our work is critical.

Acknowledgments

With acknowledgement of contributions to learnings from these family medicine organization Boards’ public and patient members: Beth Bortz, Maret Felzien, Warren Jones, Kirk Kelly, Arturo Martinez-Guijosa, Richard Smith, Diane Stollenwerk, and Melissa Thomason

  • © 2020 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

References

  1. ↵
    1. Association of Departments of Family Medicine
    . About us. https://www.adfm.org/about/about-us/. Accessed Jun 5, 2020.
  2. ↵
    1. Grumbach K,
    2. Gilchrist V,
    3. Davis A,
    4. et al
    . ADFM and FMA Health boards’ engagement around a public member pilot study. Ann Fam Med. 2018; 16(2): 182–183. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2212.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

The Annals of Family Medicine: 18 (5)
The Annals of Family Medicine: 18 (5)
Vol. 18, Issue 5
September/October 2020
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
  • In Brief
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Annals of Family Medicine.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
WHAT ADFM LEARNED FROM BRINGING A PUBLIC MEMBER ONTO ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Annals of Family Medicine
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Annals of Family Medicine web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
2 + 1 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
Citation Tools
WHAT ADFM LEARNED FROM BRINGING A PUBLIC MEMBER ONTO ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Ardis Davis, Valerie Gilchrist, Julie Moretz, Amanda Weidner, Kevin Grumbach, Ned Holland
The Annals of Family Medicine Sep 2020, 18 (5) 472-473; DOI: 10.1370/afm.2598

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Get Permissions
Share
WHAT ADFM LEARNED FROM BRINGING A PUBLIC MEMBER ONTO ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Ardis Davis, Valerie Gilchrist, Julie Moretz, Amanda Weidner, Kevin Grumbach, Ned Holland
The Annals of Family Medicine Sep 2020, 18 (5) 472-473; DOI: 10.1370/afm.2598
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Critical Attention to Process
    • Finding the Right Person
    • Key Functions of Patient and Public Board Members
    • Acknowledgments
    • References
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • The COVID-19 Pandemic and Silver Linings for Patient-Centered Care
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

Departments

  • Integrating Scholarship and Research into Clinical Practice
  • Climate Change as a Threat to Health: Family Medicine Call to Action and Response
  • Soaring to New Heights: Strengthening Outcomes and Assessment in Residency
Show more Departments

Family Medicine Updates

  • Integrating Scholarship and Research into Clinical Practice
  • Climate Change as a Threat to Health: Family Medicine Call to Action and Response
  • Soaring to New Heights: Strengthening Outcomes and Assessment in Residency
Show more Family Medicine Updates

Similar Articles

Content

  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Past Issues in Brief
  • Multimedia
  • Articles by Type
  • Articles by Subject
  • Multimedia
  • Supplements
  • Online First
  • Calls for Papers

Info for

  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • Media
  • Job Seekers

Engage

  • E-mail Alerts
  • e-Letters (Comments)
  • RSS
  • Journal Club
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Subscribe
  • Family Medicine Careers

About

  • About Us
  • Editorial Board & Staff
  • Sponsoring Organizations
  • Copyrights & Permissions
  • Contact Us
  • eLetter/Comments Policy

© 2023 Annals of Family Medicine