“Less Is More” Initiative by Juliana Bueno, MD, Plays Key Role in Annual Retraining

Adapted from an original article by Sudha Kamath published in UVA Connect.

The new “Less Is More” initiative — conceived by University of Virginia Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging Professor Juliana Bueno, MD — will make its first mark through the UVA Health University Medical Center 2024 Annual Retraining.

Dr. Bueno serves as one of UVA Health’s four current culture leads, who work to enhance the professional lives of faculty and staff throughout the health system. She was motivated by a faculty engagement survey which identified increasing burdens from administrative tasks, inability to leave work tasks behind after working hours, and other system challenges.

Dr. Bueno hopes that Less Is More will help address these problems, which can contribute to feelings of burnout among faculty and staff. The initiative incorporates concepts from “Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less” by UVA School of Engineering Professor Leidy Klotz, PhD. Through “subtractive transformation,” Dr. Bueno aims to reduce extraneous duties for care providers — and increase satisfaction and fulfillment as a result.

Now, the initiative is coming to fruition through a revamped Annual Retraining for employees. The new version includes only mandatory content: which means shorter sections and fewer questions. But while the training is now less, the work behind the scenes was anything but small.

“This initial effort to modify the presentation of the content in the Annual Retraining was an enormous interdisciplinary effort between HR, compliance, project management, and other teams that own content in Annual Retraining,” said Dr. Bueno.

Other areas are changing as a result of Less Is More. The orientation video for new hires was changed from a 45-minute version to one that lasts about 10 minutes. And in collaboration with Human Resources, a first-time standard operating procedure has been developed to cut out redundancy within computer-based learning modules.

“I am excited about the ripple effect that this initiative will have in our institution, specifically in the culture of our workplace,” said Dr. Bueno. “The concept of simplification is not new, but we struggle with incorporating it in our everyday practices; so I am hopeful Less Is More becomes a movement, and permeates every area of our organization to improve the engagement, well-being, and satisfaction at work in our academic community. I believe we can lead from within and accomplish this.”

Read the original article by Sudha Kamath, which contains a Q&A with Dr. Bueno, on UVA Connect.