Post Author: Dawn Sears, MD
Dawn Sears is a gastroenterologist and can be reached on Twitter @GutGirlMD, YouTube, and at GutGirlMD Consulting.
Dr. Sears is passionate about helping physicians thrive in health care. She is a successful wellness grant recipient who ran a two-year women leaders in medicine program which moved the needle for engagement, retention and burnout.
Her latest passion is forming GutGirlMD Consulting to provide a roadmap to formulating women in medicine programs at any institution, consulting and executive coaching. She works with organizations to leverage their strengths and understand their unique challenges to create thriving environments to help retain their most valuable asset: their physicians. You can download a free 18-page PDF of business cases, agendas, timelines, budgets, and sample surveys for your women in medicine program.
Dr. Sears is also the lead author of the papers, Evaluation of gastric bypass patients 1 year after surgery: changes in quality of life and obesity-related conditions and Frequency and clinical outcome of capsule retention during capsule endoscopy for GI bleeding of obscure origin.
Not a week goes by that I don’t have a conversation with an amazingly successful women physician who states: “I’m thinking of quitting.” They are succeeding in all their goals: leadership, family, practice improvement, the highest level of patient care, contributing meaningful research and/or teaching, and even getting some homemade muffins or a bottle of cherry wine from patients on occasion.
Why would someone in this situation feel so dissatisfied to …
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The current era of health care delivery has been aptly compared with going to war against an invisible enemy that can attack anywhere, at any time and with novel means.
This invisible enemy was attacking the civilians as well as the “front line” with vigor.
We have attempted to learn on the fly and use our intelligence to develop a defensive strategy against the enemy’s ever-changing tactics and learn from prior battlefronts.
This …
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Physicians are leaving the broken medical system at unprecedented rates. We continue through a war with an uncertain liberation day, and we are exhausted. Meanwhile, the only battlefront in which we have control is that of our mind. We have not been taught how to tame this beast. If we hope to thrive in medicine, we need to “capture our thoughts” and redirect how these result in feelings, actions, and …
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“That’s great. You want to start a women in medicine program! How are you going to pay for it?”
This is the most common question and potential barrier from colleagues, leaders, and those who understand the value of these programs. We found that our two-year Women Leaders in Medicine program improved burnout, retention, and engagement of the over 400 women physicians who participated. However, funding remained the chronic barrier to sustainability.
We …
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