Breaking the Cycle of Healthcare Burnout with Dr. Pamela Buchanan

Are you feeling overwhelmed with the demands of your healthcare career? You're not alone. This episode features Dr. Pamela Buchanan, a seasoned expert with over two decades in the trenches of ERs, private practice, and correctional healthcare, unraveling the critical issue of burnout in the healthcare industry.

Through her own personal battles and victory against burnout, Dr. Buchanan has crafted unique solutions that she's eager to share with the world—especially women in healthcare. 

What You'll Discover:

• Reconnecting with Your 'Why': Discover how finding your personal healthcare mission can anchor you through tough times.
• The Oxygen Mask Principle: Exploring Dr. Buchanan's philosophy on prioritizing personal well-being for optimal patient care.
• A Mental Health Crisis: Key strategies for early support and prevention in healthcare to tackle physician suicides and worker burnout.

Dr. Buchanan's story of overcoming burnout, along with her expert insights, holds the promise of renewal and resilience for healthcare professionals everywhere. 

Join us to learn how you can start putting yourself first and rekindle your passion for healthcare.

CONNECT WITH DR. PAMELA BUCHANAN: text  “Strong” to 55444

Chapters

• 0:01 Navigating Healthcare Workforce Burnout
• 4:59 The Humanity Framework in Healthcare
• 15:09 Prioritizing Wellbeing in Healthcare Professionals
• 24:46 Empowering Healthcare Workers to Thrive

Transcript

Dr. Buchanan: 0:01

If patients are going to be healthy, then they need a healthy workforce. We have to care for the people who care for others. You cannot skip that part, and I think management is getting to the point where it's going to necessitate that they understand that.

Dr. Tamar: 0:14

If you want to break the mold of traditional pharmacy and healthcare, you are in the right place. Welcome to the Pivoting Pharmacy with Nutrigenomics podcast, part of the Pharmacy Podcast Network. Here's a little truth bomb. We're all unique, down to our DNA, so it's no wonder we react differently to the same medications, foods and environment. Here's a million dollar question how can you discover exactly what your body needs, which medication, what foods or supplements and which exercises are right for you? How can you manage chronic conditions like diabetes without more medications? How can you lose weight and keep it off? How do you tap into your genetic blueprint so you can stop surviving and start thriving in health and life? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. I'm your host, dr Tamar, lawful doctor of pharmacy. Let's pivot into genomics and bring healthcare to higher levels. Welcome back. I'm your host, Dr. Tamar Lawful, doctor of pharmacy and certified nutritional genomics specialist.

Dr. Tamar: 1:25

Today I'm pivoting slightly to address an issue many healthcare professionals face. Those in the healthcare profession need to be on a health journey as well, more specifically, one of healing. So we're diving into the topic of burnout. It's the shadow following many healthcare professionals from the corridors of hospitals to the quiet of private practices. It's easier said than done right, because far too often we are suffering from emotional exhaustion, with the relentless demand and exposure to suffering that actually depletes our emotional reserves. It leaves us feeling like we have nothing left to give. As a defense mechanism, we then emotionally detach from patients and colleagues, which can affect the quality of care we give and the personal fulfillment we get from our work. But it doesn't have to be, and it shouldn't be, an inevitable part of our career path, career path To help us navigate the muddy waters of burnout.

Dr. Tamar: 2:28

It is my pleasure to introduce you to our guest, Dr. Pamela Buchanan. With over two decades of experience that spans emergency rooms, private practice and correctional medicine, dr Buchanan is not just a frontline warrior but a living, breathing beacon of hope. A board-certified physician, tedx speaker and an unyielding advocate for healthcare workforce wellness, she brings a wealth of knowledge and a personal testament to overcoming the dark clutches of burnout. Having weathered the storm herself, especially during the exhausting days of the pandemic, dr Buchanan emerged with not just her spirit intact but with groundbreaking solutions. The creator of the Humanity Framework and the Life-Saving Oxygen Mass Principle, she's passionately committed to transforming the landscape of healthcare wellness, of healthcare wellness.

Dr. Tamar: 3:16

Beyond her medical achievements, Dr. Buchanan is a published author, a voice of physician suicide prevention through her work with the Lorna Breen Foundation, and a dedicated mother of three. If you're seeking ways to reconnect with your why, prioritize your well-being and reclaim the joy in your healthcare journey, then you won't want to miss Dr. Buchanan's insights. So, without further ado, let's listen in to my conversation with Dr. Pamela Buchanan. Dr. Buchanan, thank you for joining us on Pivoting Pharmacy with Nutrigenomics. It's a pleasure to have you here.

Dr. Buchanan: 3:53

I really appreciate you having me on. You're welcome. I'm excited to talk today.

Dr. Tamar: 3:58

I wish we had recorded our pre-conversation before this. That can be like three different podcast topics, episodes right there, but today we are focused on burnout. So, Dr. Buchanan, you know your journey spans over two decades in the emergency room, private practice and correctional healthcare. Can you share a pivotal moment when you actually realized that burnout was a crisis not just for you but across the health care profession?

Dr. Buchanan: 4:23

It was insidious for me, just like snuck up on me because I love being a doctor. It's like all I've wanted to do since I was 12. I thought my pediatrician was cool and I was like I want to be like that and it just so happened my pediatrician was on the board when I was applying to college, and so it came full circle. You know, I just work hard, it's what I do. It's how I was raised and I was working hard and I never got burned out. I worked a lot of hours. I wanted to pay off those loans. I grew up poor and so once I finished medical school, it was nothing to work a lot of hours. I always had a job and a half or at least two. But during that pandemic that was different. That hit differently. I worked a lot of hours. I never got sick, and so that meant I worked in comfort for colleagues who were sick. And just all of a sudden, just one day, I was like I don't want to be here and I was like I don't want to do this anymore and then I realized I needed some help, because I was thinking I really don't want to be here, like a strong sense, like I'd like to jump off a bridge. So I thought it was just, you know, me being tired, getting up early. The pandemic is like apocalyptic. The streets were empty. You know, I thought that I'm just tripping, I'm tired, I'm sleepy. I shrugged it off.

Dr. Buchanan: 5:32

It came to be real to me when two colleagues one colleague who I knew very well and your doctor he committed suicide. You never would have thought it. He was instrumental in my training and just had me go lucky. He had a good wife and beautiful kids and just out of nowhere. And then one of our cardiologists did too and I was like, okay, this could happen to them, it could happen to me. I need to get some help.

Dr. Buchanan: 5:56

It was so hard to find a therapist, it's so hard to find somebody who took my insurance. In fact I didn't find anybody who took my insurance and I paid out of pocket and for me to get well it took thousands of dollars and I thought what do regular people do? This is not right and that's why they end up in the ER. I said you know, have an attitude when people come to the ER like that. But now I understand and it made me want to be more proactive in mental health and physician burnout and even physician suicide, which I never thought about. But one physician dies every day from suicide, like 400 a year. That's a whole medical school class.

Dr. Tamar: 6:32

Wow, when you put it that way, that is, it's definitely well. I guess we could say that's another pandemic when it comes to the healthcare professionals.

Dr. Buchanan: 6:42

Exactly, I call it the pandemic within the pandemic, you know, but it was happening before that, but it's more pronounced now.

Dr. Tamar: 6:50

Yeah Well, thank you for sharing that background with us as to what led you to made you realize that we have a burnout crisis in the healthcare profession. Now you've created what you call the humanity framework and the oxygen mask principle. Can you explain these concepts and how they differ from the traditional approaches to handling burnout in the healthcare sector?

Dr. Buchanan: 7:12

Primarily, the approach I use to helping people to burnout is reconnecting them with purpose. I think you know if you find your purpose within medicine, medicine or whatever high level job you're doing, then you're more apt to stay with it. You know getting really truly connected with your why. But how many of us know our purpose? Most of us don't, and I went through a process with a mentor who'd been studying purpose for 10 years where they helped me uncover my purpose and once I did that, then it helped me figure out how I wanted to be a doctor, why I was a doctor, and it gave me complete clarity. So that's how I start off when I'm working with people and I use the oxygen mask principle.

Dr. Buchanan: 7:51

For burned out women I say you know, think about when you're on a plane. They tell you to put your oxygen mask on first, because if you are not taken care of then you cannot take care of anyone else. I see this specifically and particularly in women, more than I do in other demographics. I can remember several patients. One in particular she had, was it ovarian cancer, and she was in dire straits, but she was like I got to get my kids a soccer practice and I was like, but you have ovarian cancer. We need to start treatments right away because there's a shot here. And that's how we think we do not take care of ourselves first, and that's kind of the framework of the oxygen mask principle.

Dr. Buchanan: 8:29

And when I speak to corporations and health care institutions about why the doctors and nurses keep leaving 41 percent left after the pandemic and with me, I can feel it and see it when I'm working in the ER, because it's different now. More people are there for their primary care problems. We don't have a primary care doctor because a lot of primary care doctors are not doing it anymore. I have a patient. He's ready to go to a bed. I can't send him up to the hospital floor because there are no nurses. We have a whole wing ready but nobody's there to work it and I'm thinking this is just going to get worse and worse. What can we do to keep people? I'm thinking what did my job do to keep me? Well, they treat me like a human. They don't treat me like a thing that needs to feel out of shift. They treat me like a person, and so that's how the humanity framework.

Dr. Tamar: 9:14

I love that humanity framework and you hit the nail on the head when you speak about not prioritizing yourself and many women. We are in positions where we're caretakers and I believe we have an innate desire and drive to be the person that takes care of things, takes care of people. So we tend to put ourselves on a back burner and put ourselves last, ignore our needs, no matter how life-saving they are. So I think that's wonderful that you are helping these professionals realize that they need to put that oxygen mask on first. And it ties in a lot with my company called Life Balance. It's an acronym, l-y-f-e that stands for love yourself first every day. So we see eye to eye on that, Dr. Buchanan 100%. We have to help these women prioritize themselves 100%. So, in advocating for this more holistic approach in preventing burnout, where do you see most healthcare organizations missing the mark? Where are they missing the mark and how does your model address that gap?

Dr. Buchanan: 10:24

Well, healthcare organizations just think they need to fill the schedule. And then I was just working with the healthcare organization as their nursing home in particular, and they were like, well, we can pay more, we can pay the nurses more. That is not the answer. I've worked at places and been much happier for less money when I was treated like a human, and that's how I came up with the framework. I'm like why do I work where I work these days? If you are a doctor in good standing, you can work wherever. It's like.

Dr. Buchanan: 10:50

It's our buyer's market right now, and doctors and pharmacists and nurses should all feel empowered because there are more spots than there are people, and so it's more of a time to be proactive, to be vocal and say what we need. And so the particular hospital I work in is a small hospital, community hospital, not the trauma center, not a place where I was when I was training. But their managers get into the humanistic side of each person. They know simple things, like when your birthday is, and this is one thing that impressed me. I'm on a weight loss journey and I don't eat much junk anymore. It was my birthday and they buy something. They get you something for your birthday for everyone. It makes you feel kind of special. I like it. And they got me beef jerky and a basket full of things like almonds and smart water and that's not cake, not cupcake pizza.

Dr. Buchanan: 11:40

I didn't want that. They know I didn't want that because I'm trying to live, you know. So they're supporting you, right, and they're supporting me. And the way they do the schedule just makes sense. Like the doctors who don't celebrate Christmas, they're working on Christmas. They don't even ask the ones who do celebrate, the people who work on Ramadan, they're always off, those types of things. I think it's going to have to get more to that. People who are single parents the management knows it and they curtail their schedule too. And I think if we're going to keep the workforce, we have to be more intuitive and more creative in how we work with the individualized workforce.

Dr. Tamar: 12:14

Yeah, that is a great point Make it individualized, personalized. And you know, you're right, a lot ofplaces you kind of touched on earlier it's just the body or we're just chess pieces. Sometimes I've been at places where I just feel like, oh, I'm just a chess piece on their board and they can just move me here and there, or maybe even just checkers is even better, right, because sometimes there's no rhyme or reason, you're just a pawn pretty much, that they can just move whenever they need it, not really considering the personal aspect of the employee. So I can completely see how making it more personalized will create a better work environment, one that you look forward to going to and you stay at, and that can definitely alleviate the stress that we see, we feel day to day.

Dr. Buchanan: 12:59

And it's not hard to do. It's not hard to do because most organizations have their direct managers and all the direct managers say just one key thing you know and you'll know it when you're talking to you. Actually, it's going to require you talk to your workforce and usually there's that one thing where they light up, they go like, for instance, my son is getting in an honor society and so they make sure I wasn't on that day. You know just little, just intuitive listening, and that's how you're going to be able to keep the workforce. Especially when we're fighting, we're all like five to one. It's like five jobs, one person.

Dr. Tamar: 13:31

Yeah, yeah, that can be burdensome.

Dr. Buchanan: 13:36

So we can't lose anymore and maybe we need to attract some who decided to sit on the sidelines. Maybe we need to attract them back if we're going to have enough people to take care of this aging workforce, especially since the boomers are getting older.

Dr. Tamar: 14:43

That's a good point. Now you mentioned earlier you in your approach. You're helping professionals, or people in general, find their purpose in medicine to prevent burnout. Now, are there any, is there anyone that maybe, along that journey of finding their purpose, they realize that maybe being a doctor is not what I want to do, or maybe the specialty is not what I want to do? Have you ever come across that?

Dr. Buchanan: 15:06

Oh, that's inevitable. That will happen sometimes, more often than not. Most people who decide I want to be a doctor, it's not always. There's some moment, there's some person or it was something that attracted you to that, and then you lose your way and you forget your why, because the way to get there is so hard, like all of the schoolwork. And then you're thinking I know the way my journey went.

Dr. Buchanan: 15:28

I was thinking, if I can only be an attendant, it'll be better, and you know so. When I'm in school, I can't wait to be in residency, and when I'm in residency, I can't wait to be an attendant. And I'm an attendant. I was like, oh, is this it? And this is not what I thought. It's actually not great and that is what I hear from most people because you're doing it the way the system wants you to do it. And if you do it the way the system wants you to do it, your hospital system and you're just working, working, working, working, working, not really thinking about yourself, not putting yourself first, you will burn out. But if you take a step back and realize why you want to do this and then frame doing your medicine or your practice, your job, in a way that you want. So I always tell my patients I use the acronym FIRST. I was like so you know, first and foremost, let's think of you FIRST and then imagine a reality where you have all your needs met. You know emotional, physical, financial. And then you know what do you have to do when you visualize that imagined reality to get there. What do you have to do when you visualize that imagined reality to get there? And then the R is for taking real, actionable steps. S is for setting standards, because the standard is really those boundaries as women.

Dr. Buchanan: 16:38

I find many women will say yeah, I can do it. I can do it. I used to be one. I can do the PTA, I can go to work. I can be on the health ministry at church. You can't. And then time, protect your time, like you know, for me in particular, can you come to the baby shower? I'm sorry, cousin, I can't come. This is your fourth baby, you won't miss me, but I was working this weekend. I can't go, you know. And just, it's not in our nature as women to say no. But no is a gift, a gift that will give you back peace, power, rest, and those simple things are what keep you from burning out.

Dr. Tamar: 17:16

Yeah, the set and those boundaries. Those boundaries are very important. We tend to overextend ourselves and when you were talking, it reminded me of where I started when I decided this is a business I need to do to help other women as well. I was that woman that you were talking. It reminded me of where I started when I decided I know this is a business I need to do to help other women as well. I was that woman that you were talking about. I was serving on a board of three nonprofits, I was working full-time, I was newly married, I was pregnant, I was going to the gym, trying to go to the gym every single day. You know I was burning out. Burning out in my in life in general as, just with everything combined, you know we don't have to be super woman.

Dr. Buchanan: 17:55

We don't. I go through an exercise with my clients. It's like we have to decide what's really important first before and we put that on, you know, when we're making our reality, we put that on first. For me, first I'm important, you know, then my partner, then my children, that's it, that's the most important thing, and everything else will have to fit if it can.

Dr. Buchanan: 18:16

And once I do that, I realize it can't and I'm OK with that because you know, if I'm taking care of me, then I'm getting up early and I'm working out and I am getting the appropriate nutrition and I'm going to bed on time. I'm trying to get eight hours. So if I'm doing all those things, that's already half the day, really Right, I don't have much time left. You want to go on date night and you want to make sure you're there for your kids activities? I kind of set a standard for myself. Sixty percent to 70 percent of their games is what I make. And you know, once I do that, I don't have time for a board, I don't have time to volunteer, the one thing that I do. I do volunteer at the health ministry at church. That's important to me, but I split the activities with two other people and I hold them to that because I cannot.

Dr. Tamar: 19:01

I love it. I love it and that's setting those boundaries delegating and it helps to let other people know this is what I'm doing and this is how it's going to be, and stand firm in it and follow through. I absolutely love it. How do you work with your clients? Are you doing one-to-one? Are you doing organizations? What do you do?

Dr. Buchanan: 19:21

I have a cohort starting soon, in February, and it'll be like an eight-week journey where we go through uncovering your purpose and your mental fitness, your health, wellness, and then we talk about you know ways to you know improve your money habits so you don't overwork we all know overwork because we think we're not making enough. You probably have more than enough. It's just disorganized and so that's the process I go through. That's when I do a group and then I do some one to one if I can find time, and I like to do the purpose discovery, as that's a one-off where it's really enlightening to most people when we go through and discover what is your purpose.

Dr. Tamar: 20:00

Now, Dr. Buchanan, what advice would you offer to health care professionals who are currently experiencing burnout, but they they may feel isolated or without any support.

Dr. Buchanan: 20:10

Number one. You're one of many. You're absolutely not isolated. This is so common and you should reach out for help. There are so many community organizations. I know I'm an ambassador with a foundation called the Lorna Breen Foundation that works for physician suicide prevention, and then you can also reach out for coach. Coaching helps. I never knew anything about it before I started going through my you know my issues when life started lifing, but I haven't found coaching more helpful than my therapeutic sessions, because when you're speaking with someone who gets it, someone who's like okay, I do understand, the context is so important, and so those are the things I really recommend community and support. Also, in this climate, don't be afraid. Speak to your management about what your needs are and how you can work. I've given that advice to so many people and they've been able to pivot, to work part-time, to job share. I even know of a cardiologist who works PRN. That's unheard of. So she's got a real estate business and she works PRN as a cardiologist. You just have to ask.

Dr. Tamar: 21:17

Communication is key and you know that's a good point because if you don't say anything, your management really doesn't know that you're bothered or what you're going through. So if you let them know you can make some steps for improvement and adjustments moving forward. So communication is very important indeed. Now, looking forward, how do you envision the future of healthcare in terms of addressing the wellbeing of both healthcare professionals and patients?

Dr. Buchanan: 21:42

If patients are going to be healthy, then they need a healthy workforce.

Dr. Buchanan: 21:45

We have to care for the people who care for others. You cannot skip that part, and I think management is getting to the point where it's going to necessitate that they understand that. I know that other allied health professional nurses and pharmacists do have unions, and doctors talk of it. That may be a way to go. The Lorna Breen Foundation has been instrumental in passing the bill in 2022, wherein all hospitals are supposed to set aside funds. They receive some funds for suicide prevention for doctors, and so those programs need to be more robust.

Dr. Buchanan: 22:18

In particular, paramedics and cops they have counseling in the heart of what they do. You have to go to counseling when there's a hard call, and I've been on the other end of hard calls with my colleagues who are paramedics and I'm like where are they? They aren't working Well. They're in mandatory counseling. In particular, I took care of a burn victim and he looked like a charcoal briquette. It was very hard on me because he was alive and suffering and I could hear it, but there was no counseling that I had to do, but the paramedic who brought him in he was out for two weeks.

Dr. Buchanan: 22:49

Wow, those are the types of things that we need to make at the core of regular everyday management and I think we're getting there, and I think it's just one to many. I think each of us needs to be more vocal. I know I will be and you know I am working on a program that I do workshops for hospitals and nursing homes because I want to make sure that they understand what we need and how they can help us, because I know what I need, and so that's one thing, that's one way I think we can make some change and some headway.

Dr. Tamar: 23:23

Yeah, I love that. That's great and you are definitely providing a needed service for health care professionals and individuals in general who are going through burnout, and I never knew that paramedics receive that type of support and it only makes sense for other health care professionals to receive that support as well, because we are seeing we have PTSD.

Dr. Buchanan: 23:48

You know from from work, from the things that we experience, the patients that we come in touch with At very minimum, the extremes, I mean, and I think the people who see the extremes are the people who work in the ER the ER nurses, doctors, even the techs who have to clean up the blood. Yeah, you know those things. You know, I've had dreams and I just thought, OK, that's normal. This is not normal, Not at all.

Dr. Tamar: 24:13

Not at all. Well, Dr. Buchanan, it's been a pleasure having this conversation with you. Now, for our listeners, who are inspired by your approach and wish to learn more about your work, what's the best way for them to connect with you?

Dr. Buchanan: 24:26

My website is drbstrongcom. Drbstrongcom and you can text me at textable, at text strong to 55444.

Dr. Tamar: 24:37

Great, and is there anything else that you'd like to leave for our listeners today?

Dr. Buchanan: 24:41

I want our listeners to know to put yourself first, it's okay, and to stay well so you don't have to get well. Especially in this new upcoming climate, I think that healthcare is going to be fleeting for many.

Dr. Tamar: 24:52

I love that. Yes, indeed, thank you for tuning in to today's illuminating discussion with Dr. Buchanan on the critical and often overlooked issue of burnout in the healthcare profession. We've explored not only the profound challenges but also the innovative strategies and personal insights Dr Buchanan brings to promoting wellness and resilience among healthcare workers. Remember, putting on your own oxygen mask first isn't just a safety tip for flying, it's a vital strategy for thriving in healthcare. I hope today's episode empowers you to take the first step towards reclaiming your passion and well-being in your professional and personal life.

Dr. Tamar: 25:31

If you found this episode helpful or had an aha moment with something you learned, please reach out to me or Dr. Buchanan. You can send a direct message to me on social media platforms at Dr Tamar Lawful, or leave it in a five-star review on this podcast today. Also, share this episode with someone you know could benefit from the information. Is there a coworker you see struggling? Share this episode with them. All right, I'll talk to you next Friday. Until then, always remember to raise the script on health, because together we can bring healthcare to higher levels.