We are humans first and inspiring, gifted healers second
Our profession often sends the message that we are invincible heroes.
Here’s my vulnerable and honest admission: I lapped that up. There was something so seductive about denying pesky human requirements, like sleep, regular exercise, and time to decompress. I liked being needed more than I liked having needs.
I sublimated mine under my superhero cape right up until the time I hit a kryptonite wall. There …
The 5 secrets to setting boundaries at work
Hello, health care organization leader, are you listening?
I’m not an organizational leader, a member of the C-suite, a department chair, or a VP of anything. I’m a coach who guides physicians as they try to provide exceptional care and actually have a life. But I know a lot about setting goals, executing on priorities, and inspiring through vision statements.
Here’s the thing. This is not a successful long-term strategy:
- Tell exhausted clinicians and staff to “do more with …
The sense of powerlessness and being a cog in a wheel is now at an all-time high
Toward the end of my clinical career, I didn’t feel like I had control over much at all. The patient safety issues loomed large. We used ridiculous workarounds for broken processes. The constant vigilance to provide excellent care in a suboptimal environment was exhausting. I didn’t see anything I could change. Based on my work with physicians as a coach, I think that the sense of powerlessness and being a …
An organizational solution to lactation support for women physicians
In a previous post, I recognized lactation support for women physicians as an equity issue. Many of the women physicians I’ve interviewed have identified returning to work while breastfeeding as a major challenge and a major source of stress. Providing accommodations to ensure that these professionals have access to the resources they need to do their work is essential to creating an equitable workplace.
Soon after I published …
Institute policies to proactively support physicians who are breastfeeding
I’ve been speaking with women physicians about the top challenges they face today. I’ve learned there are many—which honestly didn’t surprise me, given that 48 percent of women physicians report burnout symptoms (compared with 37 percent of their male counterparts).
Several have mentioned the challenge of breastfeeding while working—rather ironic considering what is known about the health benefits for mother and infant. Maybe their colleagues and …
Solving imposter syndrome in physicians
“I no longer start every day in dread,” Sheila (not her real name) told me as we completed a six-month coaching engagement. Her statement initially surprised me because that’s not how she described her interest in coaching when we began. She had simply and unemotionally told me that she needed a career change and didn’t want to jump into another not-quite-right situation. But as I recalled the time we spent …
Innovative approaches to solve physician burnout
Health care organizations are moving to address clinician burnout with a real sense of urgency. It is now commonly accepted that burnout is widespread among health care professionals and has serious repercussions for patient safety and the quality of care. A report released by several major Massachusetts health care organizations labeled the situation “a public health crisis” and warned about the adverse impact “on the health and well-being …
How positive deviance can address clinician burnout
I love the idea of turning a negative approach to improvement in health care — looking for problems — on its head. Appreciative inquiry, a process of focusing on a group’s inherent strengths and fostering positive interactions among group members, is one way of fostering change with a positive approach. Positive deviance (PD) is another.
Basically, PD involves identifying what’s working and usual local solutions owned by the people involved to make …
Don’t let physician identity define you
When I left clinical practice, I thought I was prepared for the change in my identity.
Wrong.
I was shocked by the degree to which my sense of myself and my value in the world were rocked by leaving the profession. After all, I left practice less than seven years after I could legally write MD after my name. In residency and when practicing (and even to some extent as a medical …
Why physicians need disclosure coaching
In March 2018, The Collaborative for Healing and Renewal in Medicine (CHARM) published an article titled “Charter on Physician Well-being” in JAMA. The piece describes guiding principles and lists recommendations for promoting well-being among physicians. The charter successfully pulls together, in a 2-page document, a comprehensive approach to preventing burnout and fostering well-being among physicians.
One recommendation especially caught my attention. “Anticipate and Respond to Inherent Emotional Challenges …
The many benefits of self-rooming patients
In 2017, the flagship multispecialty practice of Oregon Medical Group, moved into its new digs — a 46,000 square foot redesigned medical office building. Practice leaders and the 30-odd clinicians in six different specialties were committed to a coordinated patient experience. They wanted to ensure that patients could move smoothly between sequential visits with different care providers — on the same day. To this end, the group invested in a …
The messages that sanctify a culture of physician burnout
I realize today that shame, and the stigma about needing help if you’re a care provider, profoundly affected my career path and even my sense of identity. When I was overwhelmed, exhausted, stressed, and scared, did I reach out for help? No, I kept going until I hit a wall, burned out, and left clinical practice. After leaving, did I talk publicly about the chaotic conditions and broken system that …
Physician burnout is caused by systems problems. Here’s how to fix that.
I am very resistant to burnout solutions that focus solely on the individual, as these seem to imply that the problem originates in the affected person. This approach pokes at a sore spot, because of the years I spent secretly worried that the reason I left practice was personal weakness or inadequacy, something I lacked or failed to do.
When in 2013, I ran across the research on burnout, I learned …
Fix the system to address physician burnout
The prevalence of burnout among physicians is estimated to be more than 50 percent and has grown in recent years. This alarming trend is largely due to changing patient demographics, increasing cost constraints, new federal and state regulations, and other external factors that have reshaped the daily work experience of physicians. Too often today, physicians spend more time on data entry than in direct …
What’s the one word to improve the well-being of clinicians?
Recently, I was asked an intriguing question by an interviewer: “If you had a magic wand and could have one wish for improving the well-being of clinicians and addressing burnout, what would it be?”
My response? Respect. Respect for the humanity of everyone who touches the health care system — patients, family members, administrative staff, organizational leaders, clinical staff, clinicians, cleaning staff, parking valets, pharmacists, lab technicians, front desk staff, and …
For women physicians, is there a connection between productivity and burnout?
Is the practice of medicine a different experience for male and female physicians? Two recent studies from athenahealth suggest that it is — in ways that should make us rethink what we value in health care.
The first study found that male physicians are more productive than their female counterparts. In an analysis of 47 million visits on the athenahealth network in 2016, male physicians generated 30 to 40 percent more …
Scribes for physician burnout: How scribes help reconnect doctors with their patients
Recently, I had an opportunity to drop in on two of the foremost researchers in physician burnout, Sara Poplau and Mark Linzer of Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. We chatted about various aspects of the current burnout crisis and exciting new initiatives on the horizon. Then we spent some time contemplating a frustrating truth: leaders in health care often fail to acknowledge a reality that leaders in other industries …
What this physician practice did to fight burnout
As a physician who left clinical medicine because of burnout and as a writer, I’m drawn to stories of physicians whose professional and personal lives have improved after reasoned interventions. So my ears jumped to attention earlier this month when a colleague at a summit on physician burnout described the positive results his practice had achieved in reducing burnout. Read Pierce, MD, is interim director of the Hospital Medicine Group …
Physician leaders’ role in preventing burnout
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview a faculty physician at a large academic medical center. We spoke about burnout in students and faculty in general terms. He was aware of the problem yet did not seem affected himself.
I asked him how he managed to avoid burnout. He talked about remembering his purpose in entering medicine — that the profession is a calling, not just the daily …
Past Week
-
A physician’s typical day, as envisioned by a non-clinician health care MBA: a satire
-
The rising threat of lung cancer in Asian American female nonsmokers
-
Revealing America’s expansion: the dark truth of Native American suffering and unjustified abuses
-
Georgia’s new law promoting truth and transparency in health care credentials
-
The tragic story of Mr. G: a painful journey towards understanding suicide
-
Decoding name displays in health care: Privacy, identification, and compliance unveiled
-
Past 6 Months
-
“Is your surgeon really skilled? The hidden threat to public safety in medicine.
-
A physician’s typical day, as envisioned by a non-clinician health care MBA: a satire
-
Unveiling the hidden damage: the secretive world of medical boards
-
Proactive risk management: a game-changer in preventing physician burnout
-
An inspiring tribute to an exceptional radiologist who made a lasting impact
-
The hidden factor in physician burnout: How the climate crisis is contributing to the erosion of well-being
-
Recent Posts
-
Unfilled residency spots and the future of emergency medicine [PODCAST]
-
How excessively regulating doctors can harm patients
-
AI-driven solutions for burnout, patient empathy, and worker shortage
-
How modern lifestyle changes are disrupting our immune systems
-
Empathy and awareness: Unveiling the hidden dangers of food allergies [PODCAST]
-
The alarming epidemic of physician burnout and how we can combat it
-
Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
Past Week
-
A physician’s typical day, as envisioned by a non-clinician health care MBA: a satire
-
The rising threat of lung cancer in Asian American female nonsmokers
-
Revealing America’s expansion: the dark truth of Native American suffering and unjustified abuses
-
Georgia’s new law promoting truth and transparency in health care credentials
-
The tragic story of Mr. G: a painful journey towards understanding suicide
-
Decoding name displays in health care: Privacy, identification, and compliance unveiled
-
Past 6 Months
-
“Is your surgeon really skilled? The hidden threat to public safety in medicine.
-
A physician’s typical day, as envisioned by a non-clinician health care MBA: a satire
-
Unveiling the hidden damage: the secretive world of medical boards
-
Proactive risk management: a game-changer in preventing physician burnout
-
An inspiring tribute to an exceptional radiologist who made a lasting impact
-
The hidden factor in physician burnout: How the climate crisis is contributing to the erosion of well-being
-
Recent Posts
-
Unfilled residency spots and the future of emergency medicine [PODCAST]
-
How excessively regulating doctors can harm patients
-
AI-driven solutions for burnout, patient empathy, and worker shortage
-
How modern lifestyle changes are disrupting our immune systems
-
Empathy and awareness: Unveiling the hidden dangers of food allergies [PODCAST]
-
The alarming epidemic of physician burnout and how we can combat it
-
