109 | Dr. Emma Jones | The Phoenix Blueprint and burnout | Emotional boundaries with patients | Quickly developing rapport | Unconditional positive regard | When you should be advocating for change

Dr. Emma Jones is a hospice and palliative care physician, also worked as a pediatric oncologist and pediatrician. She’s been in the field for over 10 years and is active in helping healthcare professionals with burnout in the modern medical system. She is the author of The Phoenix Blueprint, Emerging Stronger from the Blaze of Healthcare

https://www.emmajonesmd.com

Boundaries are important to set up in your work. Proper emotional boundaries with your patients are important to maintain your separation from another person

You can see another person’s emotions, recognize them and understand that they are not your emotions 

True empathy does not improve your ability to provide patient care

Recognize when you do take on another person’s burden so you can do the work to set it down

We have to always remember to be patient centered. When you express empathy or share a personal experience with someone it should be serving a clinical purpose. It should never be done to help you process something

Is the patient benefiting from you relating to their experience?

Would you be better off to discuss your experience with a therapist or family member?

Spending more time to reassure and answer patient questions will save time in the long run and allows you to fully address the chief concern over the chief complaint

Rapport is developed not with time but can be done instantly by simply being a human being

Unconditional positive regard is viewing the patient or coworker or whoever you are interacting with in a positive light

This allows you to interact better with the patients you see, viewing the problem as the enemy and not each other

Positive attitudes, smiling and friendly behavior can be culturally discouraged in medicine and this needs to change, of course some situations call for a reserved attitude, but many do not

Giving away happiness and positivity does not take something away from you, it actually gives you more joy

We talk about mentoring and teaching the next generation of medical professionals

Advocacy for policy change is one of the last chapters of the book because you really have to overcome burnout in order to have the energy and motivation to take those steps

You must restore yourself to help make changes to the system

We talk about the pit fall of perfectionism. Perfectionism is different than excellence 

Perfectionism is a habit that does not serve

Perfectionism is when you try to bring things from the circle of concern into your circle of control - it doesn’t work