Physicians, Heal: Recent Episodes
Physicians Heal
Doctors Arlene McCain and Jason Asistores share stories of physician burnout as a means to help their colleagues find their own path towards healing, and hope amidst suffering.
Dr. Asistores and Dr. McCain speak with Dr. Trent Mazer about burnout in residency, healthy boundaries, and the importance of relationship. Dr. Mazer is a family physician with Sentara Timber Way Health Center. He shares insights into the team care model for finding work-life balance, and its potential for preventing physician burnout.
Questions or comments? Contact us at: physiciansheal@gmail.com
Dr. Asistores and Dr. McCain reflect upon conversations with Dr. Wenger and Dr. Domingus, and consider their individual stories within the larger communal story of physician burnout and healing. They explore the meanings of "contemplation" and "discipleship" both within and outside of their spiritual tradition. Using Ronald Rolheiser's "Domestic Monastery: Creating a Spiritual Life at Home," they discuss how framing career stages into Essential, Generative, and Radical stages could offer healing to physicians seeking meaning and purpose in their work.
Questions or comments? Contact us at: physiciansheal@gmail.com
Dr. Asistores and Dr. McCain talk with Dr. Jeff Domingus about burnout, healing, and finding meaning in medicine. Dr. Domingus is a family physician with Healthy Community Health Centers (HCHC). He shares how burnout is related to autonomy, mastery, and fulfillment.
"Founded in 2007, HCHC’s mission is to provide patient-centered healthcare that is accessible and affordable for all. As a nonprofit health care organization, HCHC seeks to ensure that affordable, high quality primary health care services are made available to all residents of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, including family medicine, pediatrics, behavioral health, women’s health, prenatal care, dental services, HIV/AIDs care management, and pharmacy.
HCHC provides care at three locations in the Valley: Stone Port on Little Sorrell Drive in Harrisonburg; Park View located within Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community in Harrisonburg; and Elkton located in the Shen Elk Plaza in Elkton. With donor support and as a federally qualified health center (FQHC), HCHC makes health care possible for a wide range of individuals and families that would not otherwise have access to quality medical care. HCHC strives to be a “medical home” for its patients so that health and well-being are a priority in our community."
Book recommendations:
"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change" by Stephen Covey
"On Becoming a Healer: The Journey from Patient Care to Caring about Your Patients" by Saul Weiner, MD
"The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right" by Atul Gawande
Questions or comments? Contact us at: physiciansheal@gmail.com
Welcome to Season 2, Episode 1 of Physicians, Heal! This season, Dr. Asistores and Dr. McCain invite physicians to sit and dialogue with them about physician burnout and healing; or, as Dr. McCain calls it, "bringing in a third other." As we broaden the conversation by bringing other people in, we will simplify the format and offer you raw, unedited conversations.We are thrilled to start the season with Dr. John Wenger, a fellow family physician passionate about the well-being of both patients and physicians. He is actively involved in improving the healthcare system in his community.
Questions or comments? Contact us at: physiciansheal@gmail.com
We end this season by reflecting on the two most important things in our vocations -- and our lives -- that can either hold us back, or, when empowered by grace, can also launch us forward into the fullness of life.
Please feel free to check out some of the resources mentioned in this episode:
A Journey with Jonah: The Spirituality of Bewilderment, by Paul Murray, OP - https://bookstore.wordonfire.org/products/a-journey-with-jonah-the-spirituality-of-bewilderment
Embrace Grace: New Medicine for a Wounded World, by Arlene McCain, MD - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3KHCMT5/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_33Q65CED26QKKWBBSW14
Lastly, if you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please don't hesitate to reach out by sending us an email at physiciansheal@gmail.com.
A retired nephrologist shares a concise account of his experience with physician burnout, and sparks a very probing conversation between Jason and Arlene about the idea of medicine as ministry. Their discussion takes some unexpected turns as they meditate on the concept of service, the proposal to consider that our lives are NOT about us, and the freedom one can possibly find in surrendering to whatever it is that causes us pain, including our own burnout.
Please feel free to check out some of the people and resources mentioned in this episode:
The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton, OCSO - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0156010860/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_9GNKMWR0E83FRKH5T5C8
Thoughts in Solitude, by Thomas Merton, OCSO - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374513252/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_ZJA339HWPHCGBQTS8GXX
Bishop Robert Barron - https://youtu.be/IGkeOsCpN9g
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM - https://cac.org/about/our-teachers/richard-rohr
Lastly, if you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please email your story to physiciansheal@gmail.com.
So who's fault is it essentially that physicians are burning out? More importantly, who's responsible for getting us out of it? In this conversation, Jason and Arlene struggle with these questions, and touch on the value of a non-dualistic mindset, a healthy detachment from our roles, the topic of freedom and agency, and the invitation to love all of reality, including our own suffering.
Please feel free to check out some of the people and resources mentioned in this episode:
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM - https://cac.org/about/our-teachers/richard-rohr
Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV - https://www.frtimothygallagher.org
Lastly, if you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please email your story to physiciansheal@gmail.com.
This past Memorial Day weekend, Arlene and Jason (along with their shadowing pre-med student, Luke!) gathered with other Direct Primary Care physicians in Richmond, VA for some food and fellowship. Hear their reflections on the value of community, and how we can all encourage and inspire each other just by living our vocations authentically.
Please feel free to check out some of the people mentioned in this episode:
Dr. Andrew Anderson - https://boonsborodirectprimarycare.com
Dr. Kenneth Qiu - https://www.eudoc.me
Lastly, if you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please email your story to physiciansheal@gmail.com.
Hear the story of a family physician who eventually retired from medicine after having burned out towards the latter part of his career...but did he or did he not win the battle against #physicianburnout? Did he lose his vocation after leaving his profession? Join Jason and Arlene as they reflect on these questions, in addition to shining a little bit more light on the systemic problems that plague the US healthcare system of the present day.
Please feel free to check out some of the resources mentioned in this episode:
PeerRxMed - https://www.peerrxmed.com
An Introduction to the Devout Life, by St. Francis de Sales - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0895552280/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_J0SZCRMJEXZ7WD2TM73G
Lastly, if you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please email your story to physiciansheal@gmail.com.
As we reach a midpoint of sorts, Arlene starts an inviting conversation on a variety of things that we've talked about during the first half of this season of Physicians, Heal. We revisit the question of what it means to be healed from #physicianburnout, discuss the prospect of leaving medicine, and dive a little deeper into what we mean by "grace."
Please feel free to check out some of the people and resources mentioned in this episode:
Jocko Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/7irxBvxNqGYnUdFo1c2gMc?si=d07c33e9e9f24773
Richard Rohr, OFM - https://cac.org/about/our-teachers/richard-rohr
Bishop Robert Barron - https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/barron
Life of the Beloved, by Henri Nowen - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0824519868/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_NXH4V2PZSD2TVZVS4SDF
Lastly, if you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please email your story to physiciansheal@gmail.com.
In this episode, Jason and Arlene begin to share stories of their fellow physicians struggling with burnout and moral injury. Their conversation raises some difficult questions on a variety of topics that include patient panel size, the RVU system (#relationshipsoverrvus), autonomy for clinicians, and hoping for change in healthcare.
Please feel free to check out some of the people and resources mentioned in this episode:
Reframing Clinician Distress: Moral Injury, Not Burnout, by Dr. Wendy Dean et. al. - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6752815
Physicians aren't "burning out," they're suffering from moral injury, by Dr. Wendy Dean and Dr. Simon Talbot - https://www.statnews.com/2018/07/26/physicians-not-burning-out-they-are-suffering-moral-injury
Amid doctor shortage, NPs and PAs seemed like a fix. Data’s in: Nope, by Andis Robeznieks - https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/scope-practice/amid-doctor-shortage-nps-and-pas-seemed-fix-data-s-nope
The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care, by Dr. Marty Makary - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1635575915/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_HX7SJEBNV3YQKB73R24Y
Turning to the Mystics, podcast series by James Finley - https://cac.org/podcast/turning-to-the-mystics
Lastly, if you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please email your story to physiciansheal@gmail.com.
Dr. Asistores and Dr. McCain get a little (too) excited talking about spirituality, not only as a means to deal with physician burnout, but also as a door into one's identity, and as a path to find what is true in life.
Please feel free to check out some of the people and resources mentioned in this episode:
ZDoggMD - https://zdoggmd.com
4-7-8 breathing - https://youtu.be/p8fjYPC-k2k
Simon Sinek - https://youtu.be/nRaqe9M2DYc
Life of the Beloved, by Henri Nouwen - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0824519868/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_SRWA8CQNSWHHX8VXWX27
Lastly, if you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please email your story to physiciansheal@gmail.com.
Dr. Arlene McCain shares her journey through physician burnout and how she found meaning and purpose by weaving her own story within the Christian story of redemption and of love.
Please feel free to check out some of the people and books mentioned in this episode:
Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062316117/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_AJ5JY08900N1EGHT8KGC
Abandonment to Divine Providence, by Jean-Pierre de Caussade - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0895552264/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_PN4BQWA7NH5Z0C1WXTC9
Lastly, if you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please email your story to physiciansheal@gmail.com.
Drs. Arlene McCain and Jason Asistores talk (or should we say gush?) about Direct Primary Care (DPC) and how it's played a role in their own physician burnout stories.
Please feel free to check out these online resources on Direct Primary Care:
Direct Primary Care Coalition - https://www.dpcare.org
DPC Frontier - https://www.dpcfrontier.com
Lastly, if you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please email your story to physiciansheal@gmail.com.
Dr. Jason Asistores shares his struggle with physician burnout, along with the lessons he's learned along the way.
Please feel free to check out some of the people and resources mentioned in this episode:
Pamela Wible, MD - http://www.pamelawible.com
Viktor Frankl, MD - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0807014273/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_988TRDW1B0M9GM8WD6S0
Richard Rohr, OFM - https://cac.org/about/our-teachers/richard-rohr/
Lastly, If you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please email your story to physiciansheal@gmail.com.
Come and join us as we kick off the podcast with some brief introductions, and talk a little bit more about what we'd love to offer our fellow physicians through the show. Also, if you're a physician and you'd like to share your own story dealing with the moral injury brought about by working in the healthcare system, please feel free to send us an email at physiciansheal@gmail.com.
Now more than ever before, a large percentage of doctors suffer from burnout and moral injury, and yet as physicians, often our instinct is to keep this ordeal all to ourselves. In Physicians, Heal, we share stories of physician burnout to break the silence surrounding the issue, and in our shared experiences, allow others to find their own paths towards healing, hope, and meaning.