Listen and followApple PodcastsSpotifyYouTubeMore apps · Browse all episodes
“I see lamenting the Great Resignation. I celebrate it. It’s not so much about what people are leaving – but where are they going? What have they empowered themselves to become?
The thought, ‘There has to be something more,’ has been pondered and fleshed out. We are stretching our wings, becoming educators, influencers, and entrepreneurs; creating movements and businesses; becoming the parents we always wanted to be. And I dare say that the writing is on the wall for organized medicine. We can lament that physicians are resigning and feverishly design retention programs. Or we can see that physicians do not want to be retained in this system. We are big thinkers, we are idealists, we are creative, and we are creating the future of medicine right now.”
Wendy Schofer is a pediatrician.
She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, “Why we should celebrate the Great Resignation.”
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD.
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out.
Reflect and earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CME for this episode.
Also available in Category 1 CME bundles.
Powered by CMEfy – a seamless way for busy clinician learners to discover Internet Point-of-Care Learning opportunities that reward AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info
Do you know someone who might enjoy this episode? Share this episode with anyone who wants to hear health care stories filled with information, insight, and inspiration.
ADVERTISEMENT
Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from.
Transcript
Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show, where we share the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. My name is Kevin Pho, founder and editor of KevinMD. Today on the show, we have Wendy Schofer. She is a pediatrician, and she wrote the KevinMD article “Why we should celebrate the Great Resignation.” Wendy, welcome to the show.
Wendy Schofer: Oh, it is such a wonderful opportunity to be here and to get to connect with you in person. It’s such a pleasure.
Kevin Pho: Well, thank you so much for joining me. Now, we’ll get into your article in a little bit, but first off, can you just share your story and journey to where you are today?
Wendy Schofer: Wow, yeah. I always kind of question where I’m supposed to start with everything, you know? Where is that story? But really, I’m a pediatrician, I’m a lifestyle physician, and I’m a certified life and health coach for parents. Really, the first 15 years of my career were spent thinking that I wasn’t cut out for clinical medicine. I had experienced burnout several times, and quite honestly, I didn’t have the words for it then. I just thought that it meant that I wasn’t meant to work full time, that I didn’t have the focus, that I didn’t have the energy to do it.
And so I kind of wandered a lot. I transitioned to part-time medicine. I did a lot of community work, and eventually, it just kind of got me to this place where I started recognizing that it wasn’t me. It wasn’t that I had, you know, challenges. It was more the question of: What is it that I actually want to do with my training, with my passions, and not trying to fit in someone else’s mold? And so that’s where this journey has taken this beautiful path for me, to be able to start doing things that really bring me joy.
Kevin Pho: So you mentioned that you’re a lifestyle physician, and you’re also a coach to parents, as well as a practicing pediatrician. Tell me about that intersection and how you manage all these avenues of your professional life into who you are.
Wendy Schofer: I don’t think it’s so much about managing all the different aspects. It’s just kind of like if you’re an athlete and a parent and a race car enthusiast and a dog parent too. It’s just all these things that kind of come together. And so for me, it’s all just part of this big, beautiful composition, this big picture for me.
I dove into lifestyle medicine several years ago, when I was actually doing research as a part of that nonprofit work. I was trying to look up programs for pediatric diabetes prevention, and I just discovered lifestyle medicine as a concept, and I said, “This is a thing. This is what I do every day. This is what I practice.” And so I moved toward that because I wanted to collaborate with like-minded people who were looking outside of the medical office: How can we integrate with what’s going on in the home, as far as nutrition and movement and sleep? And so it’s just a part of me. Those labels, you know, “I’m this type of physician, this type of coach,” are just trying to describe to other people what it is that I’m putting out into the world. It’s just me.
Kevin Pho: So, what are the things that we were talking about offline? You had mentioned how much you loved clinical medicine, and not every physician loves what they’re doing in medicine. On this blog, on my podcast, we talk about things like physician burnout a lot, and so I always like to focus on physicians who love what they’re doing. Now, walk us through a typical day, you choose any day you like, that really encapsulates and illustrates that joy of medicine that you describe.
Wendy Schofer: My heart is so full just thinking about that. So I’m a pediatrician. I can’t think of doing any other type of medicine. It’s just so much fun for me. And so walking through that day, every day is different. Every day is different, so I really enjoy the variety. I really enjoy connecting with patients and with their families, with their parents, and it’s that connection in the office that totally makes it for me. I have so much fun with my patients and with my colleagues.
And that is where I’ve gotten myself, because in the past, I did experience burnout, and I wasn’t able to find that joy, find that connection. I really kind of thought that I was up against the system. I was fighting all of the different pressures that were being forced upon me to practice a certain way. I learned the hard way that I need to speak to my strengths. I need to work to my strengths, and that’s where I get to find the joy, and that’s how I got to fall back in love with clinical medicine.
Kevin Pho: Was there a specific event or lightbulb moment that you can describe that transitioned you into this joy of medicine from what you were before, fighting against that?
Wendy Schofer: Yeah, I’d say that it was when I started looking at how I can practice medicine on my own terms, and recognizing that I don’t have to practice someone else’s medicine. I don’t have to do their schedule. I don’t have to do it their way. Ultimately, when I started practicing my way, that’s totally when I found the love.
So the practice that I like, working to, yeah, working to my strengths, and I keep on saying that, but it’s something where I work in pediatric urgent care now, and so there are lots of things where I’m like, “I’m still not so good at that. I’m not so good at that.” But you know what? I have colleagues who are amazing at it, and so I’ve learned that we work really well as a team. I can either focus on what it is that I don’t like and try to make myself better at that, or I can say, “Hey, you guys take this, and I’m totally going to focus on the things that I excel at.” And it works so well. It’s such a great partnership, and again, that’s where I get to have the joy, getting into the more complicated patients, because that’s my zone of genius.
Kevin Pho: Well, it’s so good hearing that. I always like to hear from physicians who articulate their joy in medicine. So wonderful advice, wonderful tips. So let’s transition into your KevinMD article. It’s titled “Why we should celebrate the Great Resignation.” Now, for those who didn’t get a chance to read your article, can you just walk my audience through it and share the story of why you decided to write it?
Wendy Schofer: Yeah, it’s interesting. The phrase “the Great Resignation” kept on coming up, and so I started seeing different threads coming together. It was funny that at the same time that I was submitting my own resignation from my regular contract, so I am, you know, still on a PRN contract, but I was submitting that at the same time that my own son was resigning from his first job. So, teenagers have plenty of jobs that they will go through over time.
But it also came up in a conversation with a client of mine. She’s a teacher, and what she was really looking at was all of the burnout and the stress that she was experiencing at work. We started talking about how she didn’t want to run away from her job. She didn’t want to just leave it, because there was so much that she loved about her job. We started talking around what it is that she wanted to be able to move toward, what opportunities she saw, but also what it is that she wanted to take with her no matter where she went, if she stayed in her job, or if she went and found another profession or another workplace.
And that’s where it really came from, looking at the fact that there are so many different ways that folks are transitioning right now. It’s not all this resignation of “We can’t take it anymore. We don’t want this job. We don’t want this position.” It’s more of “We are evolving.” Just because we’re in a position right now does not mean that we need to stay there. Just because this is the outline of the job that we have right now does not mean that we have to conform within that space. We get to grow as humans. We get to grow as physicians.
And I recognized that my son was learning all the things that he didn’t like about fast food, so he was resigning. Honestly, he was running away from that, but he also had learned what it is that he didn’t want. My client was learning what it is that she did love and wanted to take with her wherever she went, and she’s still trying to figure out what she’s going to be doing. And then I saw that in myself, how I was evolving too. It wasn’t that I was resigning my job because I didn’t like it. I love my job, but I’m evolving, and I’m taking those things that I love with me wherever I go, including being a doctor. Wherever I go, I’m a doctor. I cannot divorce that. I can’t get rid of that healing heart. I’m taking it with me everywhere I go.
Kevin Pho: So you talk about that evolution that sometimes is associated with the Great Resignation. You mentioned also that as you resigned from this job, you took that part of being a doctor into who you are now. What are some other things that you took with you? What are some other strengths that you took with you as you made that evolution, as you resigned from your prior job?
Wendy Schofer: So much of it is looking at the connection. I am totally fueled by making connections with other people, and that isn’t something that’s just confined within the medical office. That healing connection, I can take that wherever I go, and I’m using that now, you know, in my business, but also just in my family, in my community. That’s going with me.
Other strengths? My goodness, creativity, absolutely. There are many different ways to approach whatever it is I’m looking at, whether it’s a medical practice, whether it’s creating health at home, or whether it’s improving relationships with family members, using the creativity and really tapping into that. And then again, just that love for other people. I always thought that I needed to translate that through my medical practice, that it had to look a certain way. Well, again, I’m taking that love, I’m taking my medical background, all of my years of experience, and then I’m translating that into the next chapter.
Kevin Pho: Sometimes it’s not easy for physicians especially to take that step into the next chapter. It’s very difficult, I think more difficult compared to other professions, for a physician to move from one job to another. Now, for all these physicians who are forced into these transitions because of the Great Resignation and the pandemic, if you are coaching them, how can they see that transition more as an opportunity rather than something negative?
Wendy Schofer: You know, I think a lot of it is looking at: What is it that you’re doing for yourself? How do you bring joy to yourself? What are the values that you connect with? I bring up joy because that is one of my values that I’m looking for, but that may not be your value. What are your values, and then how can you connect with that? And it may be something that you find right in the position where you are right now. I’m not someone who’s trying to tell everyone that we need to leave clinical medicine. No. But when we find what our values are, when we define our values and then work toward that, that’s something where we can find the passion, reignite that passion, for all of our interests.
I don’t see a resignation as being negative. I think it’s really recognizing where we have the opportunity to make decisions, to make choices, and to really own that, to really see what it is that we can decide for ourselves. Just because you made a decision before doesn’t mean that you can’t revisit that and make a different decision now. My resignation is something that I see ultimately as my choice for right now. It’s the right choice for right now. My prior decisions, my prior resignations or jobs or whatever it was, it was the right decision at that time.
Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Wendy Schofer. She’s a pediatrician, and she wrote the KevinMD article “Why we should celebrate the Great Resignation.” What are some of your take-home messages that you want to leave with the KevinMD audience?
Wendy Schofer: I think one of the biggest ones is that we take it with us wherever we go. You know, we are taking ourselves with us, and part of that, I see, is being a physician. Wherever I go, I take that with me. But it’s not the end of the road. It’s not like I became a physician and that’s it. I’m a physician, and I, you know, am a parent, I’m a wife, I’m an athlete, I’m a community activist, all of this. And so it’s something where I can really see becoming a physician as being a stepping stone into what else is next. What is that next chapter that I’m writing?
That, for me, has been liberating, because I can see that I’m on this beautiful journey, and it’s not that I’m trapped in this identity of being a physician, that it needs to look a certain way, that I need to practice a certain way. And so I share that openly with all of my colleagues. We are on this journey. It’s a story that’s still evolving. What’s your next chapter?
Kevin Pho: Wendy, thank you so much for sharing your time and insight, and thanks again for being on the show.
Wendy Schofer: Thank you so much. Such a pleasure.
Listen and followApple PodcastsSpotifyYouTubeMore apps · Browse all episodes
