Inside CHIME: CIO Boot Camp Is Learning Experience for Faculty Too

Inside CHIME - header

8.17.17
By Myra Davis

When I attended my first CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp, I didn’t know what I was in for. Now I do, from both sides of the classroom. Whether as an attendee or a faculty member, I know one thing is for sure: I will learn something.

I wasn’t even a CIO at the time I went through boot camp. Instead, I was a director at Texas Children’s Hospital who was encouraged to develop my professional skills, deepen my knowledge and challenge myself. I was nervous; the first day of boot camp, everyone is nervous. Three days later, I was inspired. I felt I had the tools and support to become a leader in healthcare IT. The experience has served me well over the years. I am now a senior vice president and CIO at Texas Children’s and CHIME’s newest boot camp faculty member.

Davis presenting at 2016 Spring CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp

This spring, at the CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp in Chicago, I joined nine CHIME faculty colleagues, many of them legacy leaders who witnessed the transition of our profession from technologists to integral partners in healthcare systems’ management teams. For me, listening to them reinforced what it means to be a leader. We all know the job is hard; the challenge is inspiring others to work as a team toward common goals, to be enthusiastic and take pride in their individual contributions and the collective gains.

Here is a lesson I learned from my boot camp colleagues and from my own experience. Titles are just titles. Titles don’t motivate your staff and colleagues. Titles don’t magically confer the skills and depth of knowledge to understand the complexities of health IT in today’s dynamic healthcare environment while simultaneously navigating the C-suite culture in a hospital. When I speak at this fall’s boot camp, I plan to discuss how to maintain composure as a leader despite this barrage of demands and pressures; to be the person others look to for solutions, not because of your title but because you offer a leader’s vision.

My boot camp experience also has allowed me to reflect on myself. I know that only I can change myself. A leader shows others pathways, but true transformation requires each of us to embrace and act on the changes that can improve patient care and make our hospitals better places to practice medicine. For me, it is a constant journey of learning and leading.

I hope to see you at the 2017 CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp Oct. 27-30 in San Antonio. If I don’t see you then, be sure to look for me at the Fall CIO Forum that directly follows on Oct. 31-Nov. 3, also in San Antonio. I’m sure I will have gleaned some more nuggets of boot camp wisdom that I will gladly share.

More Inside CHIME Volume 2, No. 17: