Some people are intimidated by the unknown, but I find limitless possibility exciting.
It’s why I’ve always enjoyed fishing. You never know if you are going to catch a big fish, a small fish or if you will catch any at all.
The Arkansas farm I grew up in had a stocked catfish pond. It was great fun fishing at our pond because I was always confident my efforts would be rewarded – it was guaranteed that I’d catch a lot of fish.
Launching PritikinLIVE in March 2022 was like a fishing trip without the guarantee of a stocked pond, or so I thought.
The inspiration for the initiative stemmed from my years launching and managing multiple cardiac rehab programs. Facilities teaching the Pritikin ICR curriculum are required to employ a multi-disciplinary team including a Registered Dietitian (RD), Exercise Physiologist (EP), and a healthy-mindset professional (such as a licensed social worker, psychologist, or chaplain). In a perfect cardiac rehab world, the director fills these positions with the best candidates and that dream team is in it for the long haul. However, that is rarely the case as team members take vacation time, family leave, fall ill, relocate, or resign unexpectedly. I designed PritikinLIVE to fill those short-term vacancies while maintaining the quality of the program to ensure a positive patient experience and outcomes.
I knew I’d have appreciated something like this when I was managing cardiac rehab facilities and remained hopeful other ICR directors would make use of this latest offering.
Thankfully, PritikinLIVE has been successful! Pritikin ICR facilities across the country have appreciated the flexibility of PritikinLIVE. We have been able to alleviate staffing anxieties by live streaming our specially trained education specialists into pre-scheduled workshops, patient 1:1 consultation sessions, and even weekly cooking schools - all as if we were part of the on-site treatment team. Our seamless integration has helped to maintain the quality of a patient’s cardiac rehab experience regardless of staffing gaps.
We had no idea what the catch might look like when we cast PritikinLIVE into the waters, but we have been both pleasantly surprised and honored to be able to positively impact so many clinics and patients in the first 10 months. As of early January 2023, the PritikinLIVE team and I have conducted a total of 528 Education Encounters between teaching workshops, demonstrating cooking schools, and 1:1 consultations with patients.
PritikinLIVE is available to all our current and new clients that need a helpmate to fill a staff vacancy. If you are interested in learning more about PritikinLIVE, please email us at pritikinlive@pritikin.com.
