The word "negotiation" conjures up many images: tourists haggling in Mexican markets; high-priced lawyers "swimming with sharks" in elegant board rooms; rumpled politicians in smoky back rooms hammering out contracts for highways and landfills; statesmen at Versailles, posing and posturing as world peace hangs in the balance.

But negotiation is more than haggling, and the places where we use it are varied and are often close to home.

Negotiation is convincing the technical support guy to fix your computer problem the hard way -- without deleting your files and reformatting your drive. Negotiation is helping a forgetful patient develop a plan for complying with her medication regimen. Expressway driving is a constant ballet of silent negotiations among high-speed person-machine complexes. Balancing responsibilities as a physician with responsibilities to the family involves negotiation, as does distributing workload, resources, and responsibility among colleagues.  Teaching a toddler to use the potty takes months of complex negotiations and may require the use of nearly every technique discussed in this course.

A few negotiations are one-time events with strangers you will never meet again, but most negotiations are part of ongoing relationships with family members, colleagues, employers, business associates, and others. Thus, it is worthwhile to learn how to get what you need from negotiations in a way that preserves and enhances those relationships. Negotiation is just life. In order to get the things you want, you sometimes have to help others get what they want.

Course Description
This course was developed for the American Medical Women’s Association by Karen G. Bandy, MS, a Maryland-based science writer and owner of Akilah Media, a publishing services firm. Ms Bandy has provided her expertise to such groups as the National Science Foundation and the Forum for the Future of Education, and she has developed e-books and professional education courses for Smart Planet and Online Workshops.

"How to Negotiate - A Guide for Women in Medicine" offers a variety of techniques and tools that can be used in any negotiating situation, from a formal and structured setting to a spur-of-the-moment exchange with a family member. Choose the ones that are appropriate for your situation.

CME Statements
The American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to sponsor continuing medical education for physicians.

The American Medical Women’s Association designates this CME activity for a maximum of 1 hour of category 1 credit toward the Physician's Recognition Award of the American Medical Association.  Each physician should claim only those hours for credit that she/he actually spent in the education activity.

This course is valid until December 31, 2007.

CME Disclosure
The ACCME Standards require that all CME activities disclose the existence of any relationship that the faculty has with the sponsor or manufacturer of any commercial product(s) in educational activity. In compliance, and to assure the highest quality of CME programming, the following disclosures are provided:

Karen G. Bandy, MS, has indicated having no relationship that can be perceived as a potential conflict of interest in association with this educational activity.

Printable Format
If you would prefer to print out "How to Negotiate - A Guide for Women in Medicine," you may access the PDF by clicking HERE.

Having problems?
If you are experiencing technical difficulties with the course, email pjohnson@amwa-doc.org.