DRIVE TIME DEBRIEF: A Physician Wellness Podcast with The Whole Physician

We are honored to host a special guest who is so brave to advocate for such a special topic.  In this episode, Dr Michelle Chestovich shares her beautiful and heartbreaking story of how she lost her sister to suicide She has become a voice and an advocate for not only awareness but "normalizing" this conversation. She is bringing it out of the darkness that is usually hides it and illuminating it with the amazing tools she learned by certifying as a physician coach. We are so glad she is with us on this episode and join her as allies in the quest to bring physician mental health to the forefront of every wellbeing initiative. Favorite moments from Dr Chestovich:  The work that you are doing is certainly helping people because I think it begins, number one, raising awareness, and number two, normalizing that we too are human and we can have problems with our brain. Just like we can have kidney stones and back problems, our brains can get sick too, and in fact, we're at higher risk for such things. And again, this is like my town cry. Not only are we all at risk, but number two, children aren't gonna save us. I mean, I get it that it's part of our culture that we so identify with our profession, particularly physicians, but maybe we can realize like we are amazing humans outside of that. When we take that hat off, we're still pretty badass. Where to find Dr. Chestovich: Re-Mind Yourself Podcast #11 Exhaustion https://www.mamadoclifecoach.com Instagram: @Mamadoclifecoach 988 - Physician Support Line Medscape Article - https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2023-lifestyle-burnout-6016058?icd=login_success_email_match_norm   If you want to work with us, visit our website: www.thewholephysician.com. We have private coaching and online courses available. Additionally, we're happy to lecture for your institution. Sign up for our Weekly Well Check by clicking the link. The Weekly Well Check is your weekly dose of encouragement and your only access to secret insider sales on our products. If you're interested in a personal loan from Doc2Doc Lending, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: www.doc2doclending.com/thewholephysician For a free quote on Own-Occupation Insurance from Pattern, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: patternlife.com/drivetime  If you are interested in finding out more about Lumos and their new tech to help with night shift, click here! (We are not affiliated - just interested in solving the problem or circadian rhythm disturbances in shift workers.) The CE experience for this Podcast is powered by CMEfy - click here to reflect and earn credits: https://earnc.me/vY4Kg

Today Kenton Allen, MD, MBA, FASA joins the show to talk about starting Doc2Doc Lending with another co-resident.  After experiencing his own difficulties within the existing banking systems, he helped re-write the script for how doctors can get funding for transitions, side-hustles, fertility journeys, credit card consolidation, and more. He shares: why they started their own lending program to fill a void the difference between secured and unsecured loans the importance of developing positive financial habits and educating yourself the importance of understanding your own financial priorities, which can widely vary from person to person the importance of being proactive about financial conversations with significant others to prevent significant discontent later be choosy with opportunities for side hustles: is it with the right people? is it something you really believe in? is it the right timing? Mentioned: The White Coat Investor If you want to work with us, visit our website: www.thewholephysician.com. We have private coaching and online courses available. Additionally, we're happy to lecture for your institution. Sign up for our Weekly Well Check by clicking the link. The Weekly Well Check is your weekly dose of encouragement and your only access to secret insider sales on our products. If you're interested in a personal loan from Doc2Doc Lending, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: www.doc2doclending.com/thewholephysician For a free quote on Own-Occupation Insurance from Pattern, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: patternlife.com/drivetime  If you are interested in finding out more about Lumos and their new tech to help with night shift, click here! (We are not affiliated - just interested in solving the problem or circadian rhythm disturbances in shift workers.) The CE experience for this Podcast is powered by CMEfy - click here to reflect and earn credits: https://earnc.me/vY4Kgo  

Today the three of us sat down to talk about judgment within medicine. This conversation started at a conference we recently attended.  We listened to an amazing lecturer give his account of what keeping empathy looks like and how it helps us care for our patients and others, like our colleagues. It is also a way to take care of ourselves.  We are taught and modeled this idea that what ever service you are on or whatever your role is in taking care of a patient, that if something isn't done or said how you think it should be said, then we immediately judge that person.  We judge management of patients, outcomes of patients, etc.  We also judge the people that are on the same team as us working together to achieve the same goal!  So we introduce another side to consider and ways to keep ourselves in the judgement-free zone. Favorite moments: And so when we judge, we tend to dehumanize each other and we can also do it in our, in our own patient care. But really, we have to normalize this conversation and we have to be able to kind of take a step back and consider that. Hmm. I wonder what's going on today. We talk about in coaching, like maybe try to be a little more curious than furious. So this is just a conversation just to start bringing awareness because I would argue it would be a much better culture if we could start being allowed to be vulnerable, if we could stop going instantly to judgment, because we weren't even there in the room  Curiosity keeps us open to the possibility that there may be more to the story. This is between me and me and how I wanna show up and I wanna show up as the most empathetic, non-judgmental person that I can. Realizing that my brain's default is going to be judging.   References: https://sholarichards.com/judging-others/ https://brenebrown.com/book/atlas-of-the-heart/   If you want to work with us, visit our website: www.thewholephysician.com. We have private coaching and online courses available. Additionally, we're happy to lecture for your institution. Sign up for our Weekly Well Check by clicking the link. The Weekly Well Check is your weekly dose of encouragement and your only access to secret insider sales on our products. For a free quote on Own-Occupation Insurance, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: patternlife.com/drivetime  If you are interested in finding out more about Lumos and their new tech to help with night shift, click here!  If you'd like to earn CME credit for listening to this podcast, follow this link: https://earnc.me/fnAPK9 The CE experience for this Podcast is powered by CMEfy - click here to reflect and earn credits: https://earnc.me/fnAPK9    

In this episode, we continue our interview with Dr. Al'ai Alvarez, a national leader and educator on physician wellness. He's an emergency physician, clinical associate profession of emergency, and the director the Physician Wellness Fellowship at Stanford. We discuss: creating environments where we can talk and acknowledge our lived experiences lessons from the Mission Critical Team Institute and the subsequent formation of the High Performance Resuscitation Team how to deal with the residue of working in medicine relationship-centered care gratitude focusing on the "goosebumps moments" and being reminded of the good things that we do finding your passion what is the 1% you can do or stop to make your life better Wise words from Dr. Alvarez: "...each one of us has the capacity and the ability to make a choice of what is within our control, what is beyond our control, and what do we want to do with all the things that are facing us. And I hope that people feel that sense of empowerment...[and make] a choice that is alignment with their values. What is truly aligned with myself, my core being, and focus more on that, and do more of that. ... I hope that it'll also inspire people to think about ways to be kinder to yourself. Because then, as much as we try to be kind to everybody else, and do all the good things for other people, we often forget ourselves. And if there's, the one thing that I can leave you, is that all of my work is really rooted in self-compassion. How can we show up for others by taking care of ourselves in a way that is healthy?" Resources: Mission Critical Team Institute Stanford's Physician Wellness Fellowship The Body Keeps the Score The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama Couldn't join us for our FREE CLASS: "Too Much to Do and Not Enough Time," Said Every Doctor Every Day? Check here for the replay. If you want to work with us, visit our website: www.thewholephysician.com. We have private coaching and online courses available. Additionally, we're happy to lecture for your institution. Sign up for our Weekly Well Check by clicking the link. The Weekly Well Check is your weekly dose of encouragement and your only access to secret insider sales on our products. For a free quote on Own-Occupation Insurance, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: patternlife.com/drivetime 

Dr. Alvarez is joining us today to talk about all things wellness in medicine. I met Dr Alvarez at ACOEP Spring Seminar last month. He is an emergency physician and clinical associate professor of Emergency Medicine (EM) at Stanford University. He is the Director of Well-Being and co-chair of the Human Potential Team at Stanford Emergency Medicine. He gave 2 lectures titled, “Beating the Blame” and “Well, for what it’s worth”, both resonated with me due to the work we do at The Whole Physician. Stanford is setting the standard for what meaningful wellness in the workplace looks like when implemented as a whole institution approach.  Everyone at the table and everyone engaged at all levels. There is so much experience Dr Alvarez imparts that we had to do a part 1 AND part 2.  So stay tuned... Most favorite memories: "I think that kind of gives you a sense of how vulnerable I'm willing to be to share about myself because I, this is me, and hopefully it can get as much as you can from that lived experience that I have." "Hey, what happens when these are my strengths? And also I'm getting feedback and anonymous evaluations that I'm overwhelming, like these two things. Like how do I coexist? Like how do I have the duality of like, I have a lot of personality, I have a lot of energy as you can tell. And also that's overwhelming to people." "Human Potential team which is an awesome team in our department. Our job is to really like understand, think, dissect, and break apart the dilemmas that we encounter in our practice. Not just clinical, but academic space.  And not necessarily find solutions because there are dilemmas there's usually no solutions, but can we be creative enough to address parts of it that will at least make it easy for us to empower us to be better at our work and to find meaning in our work." Resources:  Twitter: @alvarezzzy https://www.lizandmollie.com/book/ "No Hard Feelings"   Couldn't join us for our FREE CLASS how to work in the dumpster fire of healthcare without getting burned? Check here for the replay. If you want to work with us, visit our website: www.thewholephysician.com. We have private coaching and online courses available. Additionally, we're happy to lecture for your institution. Sign up for our Weekly Well Check by clicking the link. The Weekly Well Check is your weekly dose of encouragement and your only access to secret insider sales on our products. For a free quote on Own-Occupation Insurance, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: patternlife.com/drivetime  If you'd like to earn CME credit for listening to this podcast, follow this link: https://earnc.me/fnAPK9 The CE experience for this Podcast is powered by CMEfy - click here to reflect and earn credits: https://earnc.me/fnAPK9    

Sometimes the smallest changes in habits can lead to huge results. Sometimes trying to change too much all at once backfires. In this episode, we discuss just how life changing it can be to start with smaller steps.  Little bursts of exercise can have a bigger impact than you might suspect. Starting with just cleaning your sink can lead to an organized house. Eating ice cream in a bowl instead of a carton can lead to losing 100 pounds.  The important thing is just get on the ladder, and that's easier with lower rungs. A ladder with many easily accessed closely-spaced rungs can, after all, lead to the exact same place (and many times easier) as a ladder with widely-spaced, difficult rungs. Resources: Atomic Habits by James Clear Importance of Smaller Steps Video (with picture of the ladders mentioned) YouTube Video with References Regarding Brief Workouts Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg FlyLady Change Anything by Kerry Patterson Marie Kondo Losing 100 Pounds with Corinne Podcast   Couldn't join us for our FREE CLASS how to work in the dumpster fire of healthcare without getting burned? Check here for the replay. If you want to work with us, visit our website: www.thewholephysician.com. We have private coaching and online courses available. Additionally, we're happy to lecture for your institution. Sign up for our Weekly Well Check by clicking the link. The Weekly Well Check is your weekly dose of encouragement and your only access to secret insider sales on our products. For a free quote on Own-Occupation Insurance, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: patternlife.com/drivetime  If you'd like to earn CME credit for listening to this podcast, follow this link:  CME for Small Steps to Big Change Podcast

What is the difference between feeling guilty and spiraling into shame? On today's podcast, we dive deeper into these two very poignant emotions. Shame is when the focus is on self, it's not really on a behavior. You actually label yourself as bad or negative or not good enough. Which then makes you feel unworthy of love, belonging, or connection. So it's really not a positive change driver because you really don't feel like enough. Guilt is also a feeling and it's more or less like I did something bad. So it's focused more on a behavior. It's a thought that you made a bad choice and then you get that uncomfortable feeling. Like you made the decision in a way that was against something that we value or we believe or some sort of moral standard that we have for ourselves. And so it actually can be a driver of positive change. During medical school and residency training, the constant perfectionism bred shame and it led to unhealthy coping mechanisms.  We were taught that we do not make mistakes and if you did, you should feel shame.  We shame each other as colleagues when we bring cases in front of peer review or M&M conference. Knowing that we all have been there and the goal is actually to learn and move on, sheds light on the dark places we go when we feel shame.  Empathy is the antidote to shame and guilt.  To build resiliency, we must understand that self-compassion, common humanity and mindfulness are the recipe for healing and overcoming the thoughts that breed these feelings. Resources: https://brenebrown.com/books-audio Atlas of the Heart   Couldn't join us for our FREE CLASS how to work in the dumpster fire of healthcare without getting burned? Check here for the replay. If you want to work with us, visit our website: www.thewholephysician.com. We have private coaching and online courses available. Additionally, we're happy to lecture for your institution. Sign up for our Weekly Well Check by clicking the link. The Weekly Well Check is your weekly dose of encouragement and your only access to secret insider sales on our products. For a free quote on Own-Occupation Insurance, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: patternlife.com/drivetime 

This week we're sharing a podcast we did onsite at ACOEP23 with EM Over Easy Podcast's Dr. Andy Little. Hope you enjoy! In this episode we discuss our personal moral injury journeys far before the COVID pandemic. Additionally we cover: coaching teaches the same mindset tools commonly used in professional athletics and high level business but glaringly missing in medicine perfectionism isn't helpful in the ED peer coaching can fill a critical void for physician support the importance of recognizing your value the importance of being realistic about what is and what isn't in your control so many times the thing you're beating yourself up about isn't your fault don't downplay the good that you're doing you're worthy inherently, and deserving of wellbeing - never listen to the shame gremlins your coaching journey is fully dependent on the results you want for yourself and is considered skill building rather than mental health support there is tremendous value, as team leaders, for EM docs to have coaching support to function optimally over the span of their careers Quotable: "...the biggest piece is knowing my own value and knowing what is in my control and what is not in my control, and always having my own back. I always know that I show up and do the very best job I can do. And I will never, ever punish myself for thing that happen that are out of my control. And if I make a mistake, I'll say, okay, how can I avoid that in the future? But I am never going to rail on myself ever again." - Laura Cazier, MD EM Over Easy Links: Twitter Podcast Website References: Katrina Ubell's Podcast The Star Thrower Couldn't join us for our FREE CLASS how to work in the dumpster fire of healthcare without getting burned? Check here for the replay. If you want to work with us, visit our website: www.thewholephysician.com. We have private coaching and online courses available. Additionally, we're happy to lecture for your institution. Sign up for our Weekly Well Check by clicking the link. The Weekly Well Check is your weekly dose of encouragement and your only access to secret insider sales on our products. For a free quote on Own-Occupation Insurance, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: patternlife.com/drivetime 

This episode we dive into the topic of boundaries...finally!  We have a fun and candid conversation about what boundaries are and what it means to have boundaries and where we use the boundaries to serve us in our lives.  A - Boundaries are like property lines. It's where your property ends and someone else's property begins. So be careful who you open the gate to and allow into your yard. K - when you invest in not only setting clear boundaries with people, these are actually relationships that you care very deeply for and that you wanna maintain for a long time. So that's why it is picking your relationship wisely. You have limited energy, you know which relationships are the most important to you, and these are actually things that you wanna apply to relationships that you actually want to hold very dear to you and for a long period of time. L - And so our job really is not to control our kids. It's to help them get control of themselves. And to teach them self-control.  That's our job because ultimately we can't control them. The more we try to control them, the more we will drive them away from us. Resources:  Dr Caroline Leaf and Dr Henry cloud on "Cleaning up your Mental Mess"  podcast episode, “How to Know When & How to Say NO". January 15, 2020 Dr Henry Cloud: www.boundaries.me Dr Caroline Leaf: www.drleaf.com "Good Boundaries and Good Byes" book by Lysa TerKeurst   Couldn't join us for our FREE CLASS how to work in the dumpster fire of healthcare without getting burned? Check here for the replay. If you want to work with us, visit our website: www.thewholephysician.com. We have private coaching and online courses available. Additionally, we're happy to lecture for your institution. Sign up for our Weekly Well Check by clicking the link. The Weekly Well Check is your weekly dose of encouragement and your only access to secret insider sales on our products. For a free quote on Own-Occupation Insurance, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: patternlife.com/drivetime  The CE experience for this Podcast is powered by CMEfy - click here to reflect and earn credits: https://earnc.me/JyxXTI   This experience is powered by CMEfy – an AI-powered platform that directs learners along a pathway to capture reflections at the point of inspiration, point of care. Clinicians may earn CME/CE credit via ReflectCE, the accredited activity portal. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info

In this episode we talk about what happens during one of our private coaching sessions. We realize most of our listeners have never personally experienced being coached by a life/wellness coach and may come with some assumptions about what goes on. First, coaching is client directed. You pick what you want to work on.  Next, we listen...without judgement. We purely help bring to the surface what thoughts your brain is offering up. And you get to decide if they are getting you to where you want to go or not. Then, if your thoughts aren't serving you, we help you create a game plan to change that. Coaching believes that you are capable and that the answers that best serve your life are within you. We just act as a guide. Consider that it is estimated each person has ~60,000 thoughts daily, the majority are automatic without awareness. Your thoughts create your feelings, and your feelings drive actions that give you the results in your life. If you aren't where you want to be, a fantastic exercise is to go upstream to examine your thoughts. A coach helps you create the best version of your life. Information from Lumos about the Night Shift/Circadian Rhythm Study: "If you are currently working night shifts and have poor sleep because of the night shifts, we have a new product testing opportunity for you. Lumos is a Silicon Valley-based startup company developing a product with technology from Stanford that aims to ease the transition from day shift to night shift work rotations.We are inviting individuals who currently work regular night shift rotations to test out our newest prototype device. The study is free to participate. All we ask is that you tell us about your experience using our product, which will come in the form of surveys, quick cognitive tasks, sleep tracking devices, wearable light sensor devices, and using our iOS compatible app.     Are you eligible?     1. Currently working regular night shift rotations     2. Access to iOS device     3. 18-65 years of ageFor more information, contact us at study@lumos.tech, or fill out our quick interest form (https://forms.gle/zgJTMQhNdL5JYwdw8). Thank you!"   *Couldn't join us for our FREE CLASS how to work in the dumpster fire of healthcare without getting burned? Check here for the replay. If you want to work with us, visit our website: www.thewholephysician.com. We have private coaching and online courses available. Additionally, we're happy to lecture for your institution. Sign up for our Weekly Well Check by clicking the link. The Weekly Well Check is your weekly dose of encouragement and your only access to secret insider sales on our products. For a free quote on Own-Occupation Insurance, you're welcomed to use our affiliate link: patternlife.com/drivetime To earn CME creditThe CE experience for this Podcast is powered by CMEfy - click here to reflect and earn credits: https://earnc.me/vhSwYO This experience is powered by CMEfy – an AI-powered platform that directs learners along a pathway to capture reflections at the point of inspiration, point of care. Clinicians may earn CME/CE credit via ReflectCE, the accredited activity portal. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info