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March 2008
Feature Story
Sunflower Project to cast new light on education program
 As sunflowers turn their faces toward the sun, so the MUSC Pediatric and Peds/Med residency program is turning toward the light with a new approach to its educational program.
It's an approach to organizational change called appreciative inquiry (AI), and it involves discovering your core strengths and then building on them, explains Dr. Michael Southgate of the Department of Pediatrics.
"It's about focusing on what works - instead of focusing on what's wrong," he notes.
Dr. Southgate aims to apply this new approach to expand and enhance student and residency training and education. He's been instrumental in organizing the upcoming Sunflower Project, a day-long workshop for attendings and physicians from across MUSC, as well as community practitioners.
"We're calling it the Sunflower Project because of the way sunflowers 'look' to the energy of the sun," says Dr. Southgate. "Likewise, the goal is to find the positive energy within the residency program and turn to that. The concept of AI is that we will then be drawn in that direction. We will build on that, using those successes as a foundation."
AI has been successfully used in business, military, religious, governmental and educational organizations since it was developed in the 1980s. A process used to facilitate positive change in human systems, AI is known for effecting across-the-board change quickly.
The Sunflower Project is a joint effort among faculty, house staff and others both inside and outside of the MUSC community with a vested interest in pediatric education.
"We're expecting 100 to 150 participants - folks who are and will continue to be involved in shaping future pediatricians," says Dr. Southgate. The goal? To gather feedback and input, and generate ideas about what's right with the program to enhance and improve the future of pediatric training.
"It's an inquiry process to discover what we do well, to pinpoint our strengths, envision the ideal future and then make it happen," he says.
Physicians are already playing a role by participating in and conducting appreciative interviews across the department.
He anticipates the changes will be palpable almost immediately, yet will also translate into the future through a continual process of renewal instilled in the program. "We train close to 50 residents each year, and conceivably they will be practicing until the mid-21ST century, so it's a process of change that will hopefully be felt and built upon for a while to come."
Though AI flies in the face of traditional problem-solving - identifying problems, coming up with diagnoses, and then attacking them one-by-one - businesses have latched on to the concept.
"It's worked for big names like British Airways, the U.S. Navy, AT&T, and The Cleveland Clinic," notes Dr. Southgate.
He hopes the Sunflower Project will be a jumping off point for change in MUSC's educational program approach, and anticipates it will be an ongoing process. "I'd like to see it occur annually, each spring before current residents leave and new ones begin."
The Sunflower Project is scheduled for April 19, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., at the Marriott Charleston (formerly the Charleston Riverview Hotel) on Lockwood Blvd. For more information or to participate, please contact Dr. Southgate at southgaw@musc.edu.
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