COVID-19 was brutal on SHM chapters nationwide, immediately forcing events to teleconference technology and eliminating the in-person networking and education that has become a staple of the industry’s confabs over the years.
Dr. Sansbury
But in the Pee Dee—a section of northeast South Carolina most known for Myrtle Beach—the pandemic was even worse. The already-reeling chapter saw membership at an all-time low and, honestly, had reached a “dead end,” according to Pee Dee chapter president Jilian Sansbury, MD, FACP, CHSE, FHM.
“We didn’t really have the bandwidth to reach out to other places, either in person or virtually, to try to garner new memberships,” said Dr. Sansbury, is the transitional-year program director, internal-medicine associate program director, chair of the department of medicine, and medical director of the Grand Strand Health Education and Simulation Center at Grand Strand Health in Myrtle Beach, S.C. “So, we were kind of just at a stalemate. So, when I took over, my first goal was to get us back into in-person events, or events in general. And we found that after a couple of events, the interest started blooming again.”
One could say that again, as in 2023 the group won both a Gold Chapter Excellence Award and a Resiliency Award.
So, what broke the impasse of getting folks involved?
“In late 2022, I took over as the acting president of our chapter,” Dr. Sansbury said. “We had been involved in in-person events or trying to create more opportunities for networking in our chapter, and we found through a series of exploratory question-and-answers with the SHM staff, that there was a large area of our chapter that was essentially unreached, untouched…either didn’t know SHM existed or hadn’t even been approached about membership opportunities.
“We saw a huge opportunity for our leadership group to reach into those areas, find some folks who were interested in becoming members, and then grow those members into future leaders. We created a multi-tiered leadership roster. We had me as the acting president, and we decided to align leaders in each of our major areas. That included Myrtle Beach, Florence, which is about halfway between here and Columbia, and the eastern portion of Columbia.”
Then, it was time for good old-fashioned networking and events. Perhaps unsurprisingly in hindsight, that turned out easier than thought.
“People were craving face-to-face social interaction,” Dr. Sansbury said. “We weren’t getting it in our patient interactions. We were masked and covered in gowns and personal protective equipment we had to wear in the hospital. And we weren’t really getting it outside of the hospital because either everything was closed, or we were just getting takeout and going home while trying not to get our families sick.
“So, it wasn’t very difficult to get people to come out. They were excited about it and excited about the opportunity to meet up. The first couple of events we had were masked but we were still able to see each other in a social setting and hold meetings. That’s what broke the stalemate.”
Now, as is common in chapters moving past purely pandemic scheduling, the Pee Dee chapter thrives with a mix of in-person and virtual accessibility.
“I’m able to offer lots of in-person opportunities for people who might be traveling as locums, as part of their day-to-day work, or movement with their families. We’re able to recruit speakers for these events who are really exciting: people in other leadership roles, people who are doing novel things in hospital medicine, and people whose reach is beyond just our area. Our state is, for the most part, very rural. So, there’s a big push toward, ‘How do we reach these rural populations for different issues?’
“For most of our meetings, we also offer a virtual option and continuing medical education. So, in the event that I live in Myrtle Beach and can’t drive to Columbia for an event, I can join on Zoom. I can have dinner at home and listen to the speaker. We try to keep it as flexible as possible and offer as many opportunities for engagement as we can.”
The goal for the Pee Dee chapter now is to keep the momentum going. As a member of SHM’s Physicians in Training Committee, Dr. Sansbury knows that resting on laurels is a death knell for participation, so she and her board are focused on developing new leaders and on scheduling events, speakers, and content that appeal to a cross-section of members.
“Engagement begets engagement,” she said. “So, if you have folks at your facility who are engaged and love and have passion for the SHM community, they’re going to share that. They’re going to get other people interested. So, your job as a chapter leader is to find those people and get them involved.
“Find people who have a little spot of time in their schedule that they can devote to your chapter’s growth, and engage them, give them projects, delegate tasks, delegate roles, give them leadership opportunities, have them actually help and participate. We would not be successful without the hard work, joy, and commitment of the members of our chapter’s leadership ladder. They make our chapter work, and their excitement is contagious!”
Richard Quinn is a freelance writer in New Jersey.