Healthcare Experience Matters – How Physicians Can Mitigate Burnout by Maintaining a Positive Practice Culture

On this episode of Healthcare Experience Matters, Casey Callanan chats with special guest Dr. Natasha Beauvais about reducing burnout in healthcare by maintaining a positive practice culture. Dr. Beauvais discusses the importance of learning to genuinely care for one another within the workplace–a skill that can be cultivated over time. She also explores the need to build real trust between healthcare workers, creating the safety to show up as our whole selves and receive support when we need it.

Event Highlights: 

Burnout Reduction

How can cultivating care within the workplace can reduce burnout? Building a positive practice culture “starts with really, really basic fundamentals of human relationship,” Dr. Beauvais explains. It starts with connecting to one another. She explores the importance of truly caring for one another in the workplace and creating space for each person to be honest. What’s working? What’s needs improvement? What do people need to feel supported? When we’re able to create that safety and trust, she explains, we start seeing each other human to human—not just coworker to coworker.

Cultivating Care

High quality medicine, then, isn’t just about genuine care between provider and patient. It’s about genuine care between staff at every level of the workplace. It’s about showing up authentically with each other and recognizing that people have complex lives outside the office. You never know what burden someone may be carrying from home. And it’s only natural that our home lives would affect our work lives. We’re whole people, Dr. Beauvais emphasizes, and we need to be able to see each other in that.

Room to Be Human

Building a positive practice culture is also about creating space for people to get things wrong, ask questions, and learn to problem-solve. People are all here for a reason: they are passionate about healthcare and they have a drive to help people. But when staff members don’t feel safe enough to make mistakes and learn, they remain stagnant. Dr. Beauvais highlights the importance of intentional skill-building within the practice so that people feel empowered to grow. “It’s not like you do it because it’s gonna change your efficiency,” Dr. Beauvais concludes, “You do it because it’s a better way to live.”