Minimizing Medical Burnout: Dr. Dominique Aimee Jean On How Hospitals and Medical Practices Are Helping To Reduce Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout
An Interview With Dan Rodrigues
Now this may seem odd, but I think it would be fantastic for 10-minute chair massages to be available to healthcare workers! The physical stress that we carry in our bodies takes its toll. This 10 minutes can shift the way people go about their days and it can make them feel well taken care of. If people don’t like the idea of massages, perhaps meditation breaks!
The pandemic was hard on all of us. But statistics have shown that the pressures of the pandemic may have hit physicians and healthcare workers the hardest. While employment is starting to return to pre-pandemic levels generally, the healthcare sector is lagging behind with a significant percentage of healthcare workers not returning to work. This is one of the factors that is causing a shortage of doctors. Some experts say that the US may soon be short almost 124,000 physicians. (See here for example) What are hospitals and medical practices doing to help ease the extreme mental strain of doctors and healthcare workers? What are hospitals and medical practices doing to help solve the scourge of physician and healthcare worker burnout?
To address these questions, we are talking to hospital administrators, medical clinic executives, medical school experts, and experienced physicians who can share stories and insights from their experience about “How Hospitals and Medical Practices Are Helping To Reduce Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout”. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Dominique Aimee Jean.
Dr. Dominique Aimee Jean is a Double Board Certified Pediatric Anesthesiologist based in New York City. She is also a professional fashion stylist, having gone back to school to earn this degree, speaker, Founder and President of Haute Healing Foundation. Dr. Jean is currently working on a guide book for medical students.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! I know that you are a very busy person. Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Thank you for having me. I was born in NYC (Queens) and grew up on Long Island, NY. My parents are originally from Haiti, so it always makes for an interesting childhood when you have immigrant parents. West Indian culture is quite different from American culture, so balancing the two growing up was sometimes uneasy, but I found balance.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
I am fortunate that I have a large extended family so I was able to see and hear about different careers. The most prevalent career in my family was medicine. I have an aunt who was a pediatrician, an uncle who was also a pediatrician, an uncle who was an OB/GYN, and another uncle who was a radiologist. Medicine was always on the radar I think. With this background, it was hard not to consider medicine. There’s a saying that “you can’t be what you don’t see.” Becoming a physician was always something I knew I could achieve because I saw people, family members, who quite literally look like me, prospering in this profession. Representation matters and I don’t take for granted that I had more representation regarding higher education than perhaps some other Black people in the United States.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I founded a charity called Haute Healing Foundation when I lived in Los Angeles. The charity’s primary purpose is to bring the gift of hope, self-confidence, and wellbeing to chronically ill, terminally ill, homeless, or disadvantaged children and young adults, including LGBTQ+ youth, by providing them with full beauty and grooming services and pampering products, makeovers, and professional photoshoots with the assistance of volunteer professional wardrobe stylists, hair stylists, makeup artists, nail artists, and fashion photographers. We had amazing events in LA and I was planning to have events in New York, but the pandemic stopped us in our tracks as far as in-person events. I am excited to grow Haute Healing in NYC. It will take time, but we will get there!
Personally I am also putting the finishing touches on a whimsical guide book for medical students. It will make for a great gift to anyone who is on the road to becoming a physician. I am so excited! To stay up to date on the release of my book, please visit dominiqueaimee.com to join my mailing list.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
First, I think the ability to delegate or ask for help is instrumental to success. It is not a character trait per se, but its importance cannot be understated. I am a pretty independent worker, which works well for me as an anesthesiologist, but learning to let others help you is a skill I continually need to work on. For example, if there is a challenging medical procedure at work, I can’t let pride get in the way of proper medical care for a patient. I won’t hesitate to call another anesthesiologist if it means a better outcome.
A second trait is patience. This is a character trait I continually have to work on. It is a virtue, as they say! Not everyone or everything works on the same time frame as you. Sometimes you may actually have to take deep breaths and give someone else or a process some grace. Sometimes I struggle with patience in the operating room. If it seems like a surgeon is taking what I perceive as a long time with the surgery, instead of letting frustration take over; I can ask the surgeon what can I do to help (perhaps call for an additional surgeon, adjust the position of the patient, etc.). Hahaha! This can be a tough one if you have been in an operating room for 8 hours and are only on the first case! No one wants a leader who doesn’t have patience, so this is the most important trait and the one that likely requires the most active work to achieve.
A third trait is desire for excellence. It’s probably my Haitian upbringing, but there was an expectation of excellence in my household and that expectation led to the desire to do all things well. It is okay to expect excellence as long as it doesn’t lead you to believe in perfection. Excellence and perfection are two different things. The desire to do things well is motivational and aspirational. A leader’s desire for excellence can transform a team’s vision and effort. I found the desire for excellence to be instrumental in having successful and transformative Haute Healing Foundation events.
Ok, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview about minimizing medical burnout. Let’s begin with a basic definition of terms so that all of us are on the same page. How do you define “Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout”? Does it just mean poor job satisfaction? Can you explain?
To me, “Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout” is more than just poor job satisfaction. It is the loss of desire to perform your job as a healer to the best of your ability with an attitude that is uplifting and inspiring.
How would you define or describe the opposite of burnout?
Consistent and abundant excitement for your work, your colleagues, and the future.
From your experience, perspective, or research, what are the main causes of Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout?
Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout has always been an issue, but I believe this is the only time in recent history where the majority of people in the healthcare feel it at the same time. I personally had intermittent burnout during my residency and fellowship training (as many trainees do), but now it seems like people are feeling burnout for years, especially since 2020). The pandemic limiting genuine human connection such as seeing family and friends, witnessing multiple deaths, worrying for your own personal safety, and the public disintegration in trust of physician experts has taken its toll. The obvious disparities in health (in Black and Brown communities versus white communities) also has had a lasting impact.
Have you seen burnout impact your own organization? Can you give a first-hand description of how burnout can impact the operations of an organization?
I have absolutely seen burnout impact my organization. I think most physicians and healthcare workers work to achieve a standard of care, but most strive to go above and beyond. I personally feel that most are no longer striving for “above and beyond,” and unfortunately “good enough” becomes the standard when burnout takes over. Self-preservation takes over and can impact patient care.
Does your practice currently offer any mental health resources for providers or clinical staff? We’d love to hear about it.
I work as an independent contractor, but I know hospitals I have worked at have mental health resources for healthcare workers. But it is more of an email and mandatory wellness nodule on the computer rather than something that is actively offered. In general those resources feel like something like a box that a hospital needs to check rather than genuine concern. There is probably great support offered at hospitals, but it is not talked about or promoted in a way that connects to hospital workers. Every hospital is different though. Some will be better at this than others. I personally think that, unfortunately, if you need help, you may have to be the one that is proactive in getting support.
In my work I have found that streamlining operational efficiency with digital transformation and automated processes helps to ease the workload of providers and clinical staff. Has that been your experience as well? Do you think that streamlining operational efficiency can be one of the tools to minimize medical burnout? We’d love to hear your perspective.
I think that any technology that can give physicians and staff extra time (less time performing redundant or tedious computer related tasks) is a plus. Digital transformation is only helpful if it consistently works. I have worked at hospitals where they have fantastic technology to streamline operational efficiency, but if the technology frequently breaks down, or there isn’t immediate on site help for technical issues, it actually makes the problem worse.
Fantastic. Here is the main question of our discussion. Can you share 5 things that hospitals and medical practices can do to reduce physician and healthcare worker burnout?
1. More personal days off. Life happens. Even if no one is sick or there is no death in the family, people sometimes need seemingly random days off. People shouldn’t have to feign sickness to get a mental break. If that means hospitals have to hire additional workers (more than they think they will need) to fill this need, so be it. This would be a great investment in my opinion.
2. Physicians in particular are not unionized and therefore are not legally required to get lunch breaks, or any break during the day for that matter. This means that we are eating and resting in between patients and we don’t have time to care for ourselves during the workday. There are days where I don’t have a bite to eat until I get home after my shift! This goes along with my first point, but hospitals need to start treating physicians like they matter. This includes uninterrupted time to eat and rest.
3. Offer mental health services in a real way — someone who comes to each department and explains what is available and answers questions. An email just does not carry the same weight. Some information really just needs to be relayed in person. Mental health services that are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week would be great too. Physicians and healthcare workers are usually not 9–5 people and so services geared toward them shouldn’t be either.
4. I am not a parent but becoming a new parent is stressful, especially if even hospitals can’t offer decent family leave. In my opinion, the person giving birth needs 6 months and honestly the other parent should get the same time as well. This is my experience with my friends and colleagues who are new parents, and even the experience of my patients. This 4-week/6-week family leave is barbaric. It takes 6 weeks for the person giving birth to even get back to their normal physiologic state!
5. Now this may seem odd, but I think it would be fantastic for 10-minute chair massages to be available to healthcare workers! The physical stress that we carry in our bodies takes its toll. This 10 minutes can shift the way people go about their days and it can make them feel well taken care of. If people don’t like the idea of massages, perhaps meditation breaks!
What can concerned friends, colleagues, and life partners do to help someone they care about reverse burnout?
Sometimes burnout can persist if this person is in a toxic work environment. Although hospitals are healing places, some places can feel like burnout is not a symptom but rather the culture. Sometimes it takes a large shift (changing jobs) to find a place that has a more caring environment. Of course, I think therapy is a great option for all humans but especially physicians and healthcare workers. It has been a long 2 years. Destigmatizing therapy is the best thing one can do for their burned-out loved ones.
What are a few of the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they try to reverse burnout in themselves or others? What can they do to avoid those mistakes?
One of the most common mistakes one can make when trying to reverse burnout is to let out their frustrations onto someone else in an attempt to relieve stress. You don’t want to bury hard feelings but you don’t want to unleash it onto someone else. I have been guilty of this. It only makes burnout worse.
I would caution that trying to relieve burnout with cocktails is also not a great idea. It can be a slippery slope that can have serious consequences. Same goes for overeating to self-soothe (or intentionally starving to feel control), which is a bit harder to reel in, but also has significant medical consequences.
It has been said that our mistakes are our greatest teachers. Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
When I was an anesthesia resident in NYC, we heard that a plane flew into the Hudson and that survivors would be brought to our hospital. I set up multiple trauma operating rooms and was ready to see patients in horrific conditions. One patient came, but only with a very minor injury — nothing horrific except our expectations. This reminds me to over prepare so that I am not underprepared — in medicine and in life — and I may be pleasantly surprised at the outcome. Thank you, Captain Sully!
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?
“Just because the patient is alive at the end of the day, does not mean you did them a service.” Honestly, I feel like I made this quote up, but I may be mistaken, hahaha! This just reminds me that “good enough” is not “good enough” when you care for human beings.
Ok, we are nearly done. Because of your role, you are a person of significant influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Gosh, that’s a great question. My subspecialty in medicine is pediatric anesthesia and my charity focuses on the spiritual wellbeing of young people. I am very connected to the idea that children should have full and complete childhoods and that all children deserve the chance to grow up to be adults. In the United States, gun violence is the number one cause of death for children. We can do better and the greatest thing we can do is put an end to that statistic with sensible gun laws.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Instagram: @dominique_aimee
Instagram: @hautehealing
This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!
About The Interviewer: Dan Rodrigues is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tebra, a leader in practice growth technology and cloud-based clinical and financial software for independent practices. With an all-in-one, purpose-built platform to drive practice success and modernize every step of the patient journey, Tebra provides digital tools and support to attract new patients, deliver modern care, get paid quickly, and operate efficiently.
