Minimizing Medical Burnout: Miriam Groom Of Mindful Career On How Hospitals and Medical Practices Are Helping To Reduce Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout
An Interview With Dan Rodrigues
Get to know your stress profile: This one is my favorite approach since it relates directly to my wheelhouse. By profiling physicians and health care workers — specifically their behavior and stress tolerance — they obtain a blueprint of what triggers their stress, how to acknowledge it and respond to it appropriately.
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 Miriam Groom at Mindful Career.
She is proud and grateful to have founded Mindful Career in order to transform people’s lives who are unfulfilled and suffering from sadness, isolation and dread when it comes to their career. Her passion has always been to make a true and long-lasting impact on peoples’ lives, and She couldn’t think of a better way to do so but to amalgamate my extensive experience in counselling, natural therapy, corporate recruitment & talent management and offer it to the people who need it most.
Her own experience with severe burn-out prompted me to create a revolutionary behavioural career coaching process that unveils a person’s ideal career (something I needed desperately at the time!). She used leading strategies from the biggest corporations in the nation, and reverse engineered it to create Mindful Career’s revolutionary behavioural career coaching process. This process allows us to uncover your unique strengths, abilities, interests, optimal work environment & finally your ideal career!
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! I know that you are a very busy person. What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
I am a nationally renowned Industrial and Organizational Therapist and HR Strategist specializing in coaching and counseling, employee experience, recruitment, retention and employee development. I work as a Director in Talent Management for KPMG, run my own national recruitment firm (Groom & Associates) as well as founded a national career counseling practice (Mindful Career).
I am proud and grateful to have founded Mindful Career in order to transform people who are suffering from sadness, isolation and dread when it comes to their career. My passion has always been to make a true and long-lasting impact on people’s lives. This passion, and the gap I noticed in the career counseling market, led me to amalgamate my extensive experience in counseling, natural therapy, corporate recruitment and talent management to help those who need it most. My own experience with severe burn-out prompted me to create a revolutionary behavioral career coaching process that unveils a person’s ideal career (something I needed desperately at the time!). I used leading strategies from the biggest corporations in the nation, and reverse-engineered it to create Mindful Career’s unique behavioral career coaching process. This process allows individuals to uncover their unique strengths, abilities, interests, optimal work environment and finally, their ideal career!
I am also a Human Capital Strategist & IO (Industrial/Org) Therapist working as a Talent Management leader for KPMG. I specialize in strategic and innovative employee experience, talent management and workforce optimization strategies that are highly employee-centric. Being employee-centric means that I focus on gathering in-depth psychological, behavioral, cultural and personality insights from employees that unveil valuable cognitive and leadership data, allowing for a deep understanding of each employee’s unique skill-set, interests, motivators and workplace preferences. These insights drive every strategy I lead, including ones for talent sourcing, talent acquisition, employee retention, training, technology adoption, compensation, and employee development; thus making them highly personalized, effective and impactful.
My goal is to personalize every employee’s experience at work to help them create a life of balance, purpose and fulfillment. Assisting them throughout this journey is my life’s purpose.
My unique perspective comes from my:
- 15+ years in Global Talent Acquisition, leading a National professional recruitment firm
- 5+ years in corporate Human Capital Consulting specializing in Talent Management, Employee Experience & Workforce Optimization
- Masters in Counseling Psychology & Industrial Psychology
- Licensed Psychometric Counselor
- Licensed Naturotherapist, by the Quebec Naturotherapist Association (ANQ)
- Accredited Integrative Holistic Health Coach (INHC)
For more extensive information, check out my Linkedin Profile
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
Many of my projects on the consulting side are confidential. For privacy reasons, I don’t like revealing too many details about the professionals I work with, but let’s say I’ve been consulting with young, passionate creatives as well as preeminent CEOs and it has been rewarding to say the least!
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?
I see myself more as a guide than a leader. I do, however, assess and work with people in leadership positions and can comment on qualities that make a great manager or leader.
- Trusting: Give employees your trust, don’t make them earn it. Giving teams opportunities to win and fail at things (without having to earn it) is empowering and allows them to learn more quickly.
- Empathetic: Empathetic leadership involves truly caring for employees’ wellbeing. A good leader genuinely wants employees to advance and feel satisfied in both work and in their personal life. Examples of empathetic leadership include regular encouragement, active listening, showing genuine interest and leading from within the team, not from the top. When you show you care and are interested, people feel safe and want to come to work and be their authentic selves. This directly affects positive retention rates too!
- Egoless: Egoless leaders don’t hold their employees and team to the same standards they hold themselves. Employees don’t need to be the leaders or have their level of commitment, drive or skill. The problem with ego-driven leaders is that they drive their employees to impossible standards and place themselves at the center of everything. The team as a whole should be at the center of all things!
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?
In my experience, poor job satisfaction can sometimes lead to burnout, but it is not the definition of burnout. Burnout is characterized by the physical manifestations of chronic workplace stressors that have not been managed or addressed. These stressors can be different for everyone. For some, it can be a toxic workplace relationship/bullying, poor job satisfaction, doing a job that doesn’t align to your values, overworking etc.
I agree with the WHO’s (World Health Organization) definition of burnout: “Burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job.”
How would you define or describe the opposite of burnout?
That’s an interesting question. The opposite of burnout means that your job brings you balance, purpose and fulfillment. When work no longer feels like work, it feels like you are doing what you naturally feel called to do, and that you are fulfilling your life’s purpose. I know this sounds like a tall order, but it is indeed possible. When you find a career that aligns with your values, personality, behavior, skills and interests, you are better able to find balance and fulfillment. People who love their career often feel they are making a positive impact on the world, and don’t hate waking up on a monday morning!
From your experience, perspective, or research, what are the main causes of Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout?
In the healthcare field, the first and main cause is usually a combination of immense responsibility with little control; and this stress is inescapable if you are seeing patients.
The next big one is poor work-home balance. As a healthcare worker, home is usually where you recharge, although that is not the case for most. Their training actually teaches them the opposite! They are taught from their residency to ignore their own physical and mental symptoms and survive all-nighters. They are encouraged to work until they just can’t anymore, and these habits translate into every aspect of their lives. They believe if they don’t work like this, they will be seen as weak.
If we want to look at the root cause for much of the burnout, it lies in the character traits that are necessary to become a premed. The same traits that contribute to their success are the same ones that contribute to burnout, like “workaholic”, “superhero” and “emotion-free”. The actual directives they are given are also directly linked with characteristics that lead to burnout, such as “patient comes first” and “never show weakness”. Combined, this leads to the mentality of a warrior and self-denial, and then, inevitably, burnout.
Have you seen burnout impact your own organization? Can you give a firsthand description of how burnout can impact the operations of an organization?
I am sure this question is directed at healthcare field workers, and I am a HR specialist, but burnout has not only affected my organization, but it has also affected me. My own experience with burnout led me to found an organization that helps individuals deal with burnout and to find a career that suits their abilities and leads to more balance and fulfillment.
Does your practice currently offer any mental health resources for providers or clinical staff? We’d love to hear about it.
I cannot provide an answer here, as I work as an HR specialist and not as a healthcare worker.
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.
Yes indeed. The ability to provide healthcare workers with an environment optimized for productivity and to reduce the burden of labor-intensive admin tasks can surely ease health care team burnout. [are these points taken somewhere? Perhaps introduce them with a link so it’s not plagiarized]
Simple online scheduling and intuitive appointment reminders: It lets patients schedule appointments anytime, anywhere and integrates to a clinic’s rules and guidelines. The appointment reminders also reduce no-shows and increase patients’ chances to keep their referral appointments.
Efficient patient intake: Scanning forms and filing endless paperwork can be a thing of the past. Once collected, the patient’s data is secured and discreetly delivered directly to EHR and PM systems.
Easily accessible health information: The ability to synchronize patients with their entire care team provides convenience, improves workflow, and is user-friendly for all consumers. Digital portals result in fewer calls to a clinic, reduced administrative tasks, and streamlined logistics.
Handling patient populations: With proper analytics and automation tools, doctors and care managers can define populations, target their most complex patients, and identify rising-risk patients.
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. Digital transformation: Digital transformation aids in reducing burnout (as explained previously) and it also helps to empower the patient to have an active role in their care. An active patient is more likely to catch warning signs, take their medication and schedule follow up visits. The engagement also benefits the provider, by reducing cancellations, forms, paperwork, questionnaires which therefore increases efficiencies and improved workflows.
2. Time: Limited working hours, modified work schedules and promoted time banking can relieve physician burnout. You can also offer time banking which allows workers to spend time on additional activities, like teaching and mentorship which improves job satisfaction.
3. Self-care: It’s important for physicians and healthcare workers to practice self-care, for their own sake and to treat others with compassion. They should plan how they will take care of their mental health and wellbeing at the beginning of the week. This could include yoga classes, meditation, massage, therapy etc. Formally planning it and adding it to the agenda increases the chances of sticking to it.
4. Get to know your stress profile: This one is my favorite approach since it relates directly to my wheelhouse. By profiling physicians and health care workers — specifically their behavior and stress tolerance — they obtain a blueprint of what triggers their stress, how to acknowledge it and respond to it appropriately.
The Stress Profile is a psychometric assessment that quickly identifies individual characteristics and behaviors that protect against or contribute to stress. We often use this tool within organizational settings as part of wellness, stress management, and health promotion programs. Because it is quick and easy to administer, the Stress Profile is ideal for routine use in organizations, outpatient clinics, hospitals, and medical practices.
It also measures a variety of factors that may affect your physical health and psychological well-being. Your profile outlines scores on the Stress; Health Habits (including Exercise, Sleep/Relaxation, Prevention, and Eating/Nutrition); Social Support Network; Type A Behavior; Cognitive Hardiness; Coping Style (including Positive Appraisal, Negative Appraisal, Threat Minimization, and Problem-Focused Coping); and Psychological Well-Being.
5. Stress resiliency profile: Another way to help reduce burnout is for physicians and healthcare workers to have a better idea of how to manage their stress habits. [According to the official “Society of Psychometrics”–add the source here so we don’t have to paraphrase every word] The Stress Resiliency Profile psychometric assessment is an easy-to-administer, self-scoring assessment that gives clients new insights into ways to control the stressors that have an impact on their work effectiveness and capability to influence stressful events. It offers new perceptions of the ways they may be unintentionally raising their stress level and measures the mental habits that determine their level of “stress resiliency.” By understanding the thought patterns that can cause stress, clients can increase positive thinking and ability to make change, gain control over themselves, and change areas where bad habits exist.
Three cognitive habits that create stress are identified and evaluated:
a. Deficiency focusing — the habit of focusing on the negatives at the expense of the positives
b. Necessitating — the perception that tasks are inflexible demands that must be met — with no room for discretion or choice
c. Low skill recognition — the tendency to underestimate one’s own competence and abilities; feeling that success depends on things outside ourselves
The profile measures the level of use of each of these habits and shows where stress symptoms are most likely to occur. It offers guidelines to help design a strategy for increasing stress resiliency by asking “stress-inducing” and “balancing” questions.
The Stress Resiliency Profile is a powerful tool that will add new insights to any learning and development program. It can be used in a variety of programs, such as stress management training, organizational change, work/life balance, executive coaching, management development, team building, supervisory training, and personal development. The profile is useful in a structured setting or as a stand-alone personal development exercise to give individuals fresh perspectives into their feelings about their job and their performance. It provides an important route to stress reduction that is ignored in many stress programs.
What can concerned friends, colleagues, and life partners do to help someone they care about reverse burnout?
The first thing to do is address the issue in a sensitive manner. This supportive person can also try to plan a self-care ritual with the stressed individual; like a yoga class, massage, or meditation class. Make it as easy as possible to integrate it into their lives, by offering to take over a personal commitment (grocery shopping, for example) and encouraging them to take a break and hit the spa!
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?
Not taking any breaks is a huge mistake, along with believing that things can stay the same and that they will improve on their own. If you continue working the same hours and stressing at the same level and think that something will magically shift, you are wrong. You need to take active measures, like take time off work as soon as you can. The fear of disappointing people, leadership and patients will set in, but if you hit a burnout, you will be gone for much longer, and won’t be of use to anyone, including yourself.
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?
My own burnout prompted me to start my career in industrial psychology and coaching!
I was in a constant cycle of people pleasing, saying yes to everything, overworking and never taking time for myself. I ran myself ragged, and couldn’t even get out of bed. I went to the doctor and couldn’t find the physical problem, until I was diagnosed with burnout. This was a wake-up call. I was feeling depleted, lost, unfulfilled and suffering from sadness, isolation, and dread when it comes to my career and life. I needed to find my passion, and a career that would give me purpose, balance, and fulfillment. I was looking high and low for a solution but couldn’t find a therapist or coach to help me with my specific need. I wanted to find my ideal career, one that fit with my psychological profile, strengths, behavior, and optimal work environment.
This prompted me to create the ideal job myself, and I now find myself energized and excited to work.
I created a fresh behavioral career coaching process that unveils a person’s ideal career. My extensive HR background allowed me to tap into my knowledge and use leading strategies from the biggest corporations in the nation, and I thus created a revolutionary behavioral career coaching process. This process allowed me to uncover my unique strengths, abilities, interests, optimal work environment and finally, my ideal career!
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?
“The only mistake you can make is not asking for help.” — Sandeep Jauhar-google that?
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.
I would love to see people spend more time working with counselors and specialists to discover what they love to do and what they are good at. There’s often so much pressure to choose a particular role or career and to stick with it despite a lack of passion. There also seems to be pressure to pick yourself up when feeling burnt out, and to figure it out on your own. Working with a career counselor can certainly help people in need better understand what their next move should be. Experts are here to help — you just need to be ready to ask for it!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
www.mindfulcareer.ca; www.linkedin.com/in/miriamgroom
This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!
About The Interviewer: Dan Rodrigues is the founder and CEO of Kareo, a Tebra company, a leading provider of cloud-based clinical and practice management software solutions for independent healthcare practices and billing companies. Rodrigues is known for his visionary leadership in the healthcare technology industry. Rodrigues’ future-forward expertise has led companies such as Scour and Skematix. He is highly committed to providing patients with a seamless, digital experience in healthcare. Rodrigues’ business insights have been featured in publications including Forbes, Fierce Healthcare, and AP News.
