Episode 8: Dr. Katie Bean, PA-C

In this episode of Finding the Balance, Karen O’Donnell sits down with Dr. Katie Bean, PA-C, founder of Escape the Clinic, to talk about burnout, purpose, and what happens when life forces you to rethink everything.

Dr. Bean shares her journey from over a decade in emergency medicine to building a business that helps healthcare providers break out of burnout and reclaim control of their time, income, and impact. After experiencing both professional burnout and personal tragedy, she made a decision to stop living on autopilot—and started helping others do the same.

This conversation explores:

•  The reality of burnout in healthcare and why it’s more common than people admit 
•  How personal loss can reshape priorities and force meaningful change 
•  A simple but powerful framework for daily self-care (physical, mental, and spiritual) 
•  Why healthcare providers are more equipped than they think to build something of their own 
•  How online businesses are opening doors beyond the traditional clinic model 

If you’ve ever felt stuck, overworked, or like your life doesn’t match your priorities, this episode offers a different perspective—and a practical path forward.

Connect with Dr. Katie Bean:
Instagram: @escapetheclinic – https://instagram.com/escapetheclinic

Email: katie@escapetheclinic.com

Listen to Escape the Clinic Podcast:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escape-the-clinic/id1761218364

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4OKavlb8jRqCBGzff63V5h?si=fab88d9d02dd4682

About the Podcast:
Hosted by functional medicine nurse Karen O’Donnell RN, BSN, BC-FMNS "Finding the Balance" explores health, wellness, and personal empowerment, encouraging listeners to listen to their bodies and take steps toward improving their quality of life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Before we get started, make sure that you like and subscribe to the podcast. And if you like the episode, be sure to share it with your friends, as that's the number one way we get found by others. Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Holistic Inner Balance podcast. We are going to be discussing a lot of great wellness and health tips by a friend of mine, Dr. Katie Bean. I will introduce her in just a second, but here is what I need you to know about this podcast. We help to support people on their human journey, and that means that whatever you need for your health and wellness, we discuss it and we look at the person holistically. So it's not just about your health, it's about your social climate, your economic climate, everything that you experience in terms of your daily life, and we want to reduce your stress and help you to live better in your body. So that is what our focus is. We are a health and wellness podcast, and I'm so excited to introduce my friend, Dr. Katie Bean. This is Katie. She is a DMS PA certified, and her business is she first of all has a wonderful company that has a podcast in and of itself. The company is called Escape the Clinic, and she teaches providers how to use their clinical background and experiences to start and build an online business. Katie's been doing this for a long time, and I want to absolutely welcome you to this podcast, Dr. Katie Bean.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

So we have been connected for quite a while, and I have been a guest on your podcast. This is so exciting that you are experiencing this from the guest perspective, and we'll talk about that later. But tell me one thing that you can identify that you do for yourself on a daily basis or you know, just on a regular basis for self-care for your own health.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Yes, I love this question so much, and I love the topic of your podcast as well because I think that self-care is something that women especially, it is the first thing to fall to the wayside because you're so focused on caring for everything and everyone else. So I love this question, and I actually break it up in my own life into three different categories uh physical, mental, and spiritual. And I do at least one thing in each of those categories every single day, and it makes such a huge difference because when you take care of yourself that way, you're so much more equipped to take care of other people. Um, as far as physical, I do some sort of body movement every single day. Fortunately, I have always been really health conscious, and fun fact, I actually used to teach group fitness classes in college and then a little bit after college too. So uh have always been into the fitness world in some capacity. Uh so I move my body in some way. Um I also love, love, love contrast therapy, like sauna, cold plunge. I think that is so good for your health and just your mental mindset and resetting every single day. Um, and then as far as mental, um, I have, as I've gotten older, really discovered that how you think, what you think, especially about yourself and your beliefs, have such a huge impact on what your reality looks like. So every single day I do some sort of meditation. And then that kind of leads into the spiritual aspect. I am faith-based, I am a Jesus follower, and every single day I start my day with God, and it sets the entire tone and it refocuses my priorities so that I can focus on Him and not me, and go about and serve using my gifts and my talents and make an impact that way.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Wow, you have quite the program. I have to say that it is so impressive to hear all of the things that you do on a daily basis. That's amazing. And I'm so glad that you shared that. A lot of our other guests, you know, talk about kind of one thing or another thing, but having a whole program that is unique to you and that's really special. And I I can absolutely see you being able to take care of others because you are taking care of yourself so holistically in all of those different manners, and that is beautiful. So thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Thank you, thank you. And I I hope your listeners don't get too overwhelmed by that whole program and know that like it doesn't have to take a ton of time. You know, as busy women, we have very limited time, and my routine is by no means perfect, but pulling something that is meaningful to you into every day, even if it's just five minutes, that reset in and of itself can just set the tone for the whole day.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah, I completely agree. And it's interesting because one of my previous guests was talking about a practice that she did before bed, and I was thinking to myself, that really is also mindful in that you are setting yourself up for the next day. It's not just about going to bed, and it was like really powerful to hear that. I was I was impressed, and I never thought of that for myself. I always think, like you, first thing in the morning, I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna look at my gratitude journal, I'm going to kind of you know get into my workout, do my daily routine. But you know, a bedtime activity would be really interesting too. But you absolutely would set your your day off so that you are in the moment and like energized first thing in the morning. So I love that. So tell us about Escape the Clinic.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Yeah, so um, long story short, I started out, I love medicine, love healthcare, love patient care. I've been a PA for a really long time, and um I spent about 11 years in emergency medicine, and during that time got super, super burned out. Um, I thought that I needed more education to fix the burnout. So I went back to school and got my doctor of medical science degree, and that did not fix the problem. Um and then a chain of events happened in my life that changed everything. Um, so one COVID happened, and like so many other people, I was furloughed, lost jobs, and it just blew my mind that in healthcare I would ever lose my job. Like everybody needs healthcare, everybody needs a medical provider. Uh so that was one thing. That was definitely like an identity shift and wake-up call that um, you know, I had put a lot, way too much emphasis into my career and my success in my career. At the same time, um, I lost my little sister in a car accident, and I had just a very abrupt slap in the face that life is so short and each day is not guaranteed. And I was determined not to spend another second living in burnout or dreading waking up in the morning or, you know, being uh spending more time at work than with the people that I love. Like, what is truly meaningful to me? And back then, if you would have asked me like Katie, what are your priorities? I would have told you God, family, and then career. But if you actually looked at my planner, if you actually looked at my schedule, it was such a lie. Like that is not how I was living. You know, I was spending so many hours in clinic, and then my family got what was left over, and then God got the leftovers. And so it was just that time period was just such a just a pivotal moment, and it took a lot of reflection. It was a very hard lesson to learn. All of those lessons were very difficult, and of course, you're, you know, grieving the loss of a loved one and you know, that tragedy. But all that to say, I never wanted anyone else to have to stay in burnout, any other healthcare provider to stay stuck in burnout and missing a time with their families. Like I missed everything with my kids growing up because I was stuck in the ER. I missed the recitals and the games and all of that. And you can't get your time back. And, you know, it's one of my deepest regrets, and I don't want any other healthcare provider to feel that way. Um, I also think that our healthcare system, you know, it it takes so much more than it gives. And I'm very blessed to be a healthcare provider, very blessed to have that education. But the way our healthcare system is set up, it is so easy to get jaded and burned out and just just over it. It's just, you know, a lot of red tape. Um, so that I started an online business that was actually somewhat unrelated to my second business of helping providers uh get out of burnout. But that first business changed my life so much. And I was like, why isn't every provider using their background and their experience to start something online so that they can have the income and the freedom, the schedule that they want, and not be burned out to truly use the the gifts that God has blessed them with that only they have their unique personalities to serve in a bigger way outside of their geographical area. And so that changed I was just you know wanted to shout it from the rooftops. And so that started my second business escape the clinic.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Wow, wow. So you you took your your life experience and the circumstances that you were given, and you know, you're right, during that COVID time there were a lot of shifts that happened, and you know, good shifts or bad shifts, healthcare has been has been a broken system for a while, but then you took the tragic loss of your sister, and you were able to self-reflect and to figure out that there was more than what you had on your planner, and I love that you had that ability in that time of tragedy to be able to to reflect on that and to move forward because a lot of people aren't able to do that, they get stuck in that loop of of grief, and it's a it's a terrible thing to feel and to not then be able to get out of it. So, how would you how would you reflect on that knowing now what you know, and for anybody who is dealing with any sort of tragedy like that, how to move forward and to try to move on from that?

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Yeah, it's such a great question. So for me, I am only here because of my faith and because of God. And I I don't know, honestly, having been through you know tragedy and loss, I don't know how people who don't have faith can make it through because it is such a horrific feeling. Um and there's just I don't know, there's just such a darkness to it. But when you are grounded in faith and you have something bigger than yourself, and you have your belief system to fall back on, your faith to fall back on, and you know that everything happens for a reason, everything happens for you know, good, that there's good in anything and that God is good, you know. I think that that makes a huge difference. And so I to answer your question, I would say faith is the only faith and God is the only reason I'm sitting here today in this position.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Yeah, that's beautiful. I know that there are people who are gonna be listening who are gonna have other faiths and you know may not have the same belief system, but I think you know what I would say to those people are you know, it's true, we are all here for a reason. We don't know what that reason is, what that source is, what that spirit is. It could be Buddha, it could be Jesus, it could be whatever your faith is, but to know that you are here for a reason and that every human is here for a reason, and we have brains for a reason, we don't know why, you know, we just have to have to know that there is a purpose. And to for those people who don't have the faith, maybe to have the support system to be able to pull them out of these you know tragedies that everybody experiences. We all have losses, but you know, it takes a strong person to be able to reach out for support or to have that inner strength to look internally and say, okay, how can I move forward? So I I love your message and how you were able to do that. So tell me a little bit more about how your program works and how you're able to help uh healthcare workers prevent burnout and to you know move on to the next step.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Yeah, sure. So um I have several different services in Escape the Clinic. One is a digital course that walks providers all the way through from having no idea what they could develop a business around to actually launching it, making their first sales. The way that I teach, I teach three online business models, um, a digital course, a monthly membership, or a coaching program. And I teach providers to pick one of those and then go all in on it. Typically, I like to start with a coaching program because it's so easy to get off the ground. Like if you take something that you love, that you have clinical experience in that you love helping others with, and you pick the one problem that that solves, and you speak to that one person, and you can literally create a coaching package in the next 30 minutes on that. All you need is a Zoom link and a payment platform and the ability to walk somebody, the people that you love to help through where they're stuck all the way to the result that you can give them where you know, where they're free of whatever that problem is. And it can be a tiny problem, it can be a big problem. That's the beauty of an online business, is that you can help somebody overcome whatever it is that you love to help them overcome with, and it can be tiny, it can be big, and it's not difficult. I think that so many uh people out there have the misconception that business is hard and you have to have this big business plan and all of these, you know, a website and all these things in place, and you do not. You need the people that you can help, and you need the problem that you can help them solve.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

I love that in that you know a long time ago when I started my first company, I didn't have a lot of options, and I think that as healthcare workers, it's really intimidating to think that you can actually have a business because you're used to working for somebody else. You're used to working for a hospital, working under a provider, you're used to a certain way, and you may have a limited belief that you can't work independently. So you creating the path for providers to do that, and you're right, there is so much experience and education that they can provide because of their experience, that that in and of itself is needed for certain people, and just to be able to focus them on that, it's like a game changer, right? Like you don't have to work for a hospital, you don't have to work for a clinic, you don't have to work under somebody else. You can do your own thing because you have expertise and that is valued.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Yeah, and two things to piggyback on that, it's so true, but we're so conditioned to believe that that's the only way. Like you get your degree and you go out and you work for a hospital system, you work for a clinic, you have your supervising collaborating physicians and so on, and that's like the only way because we're so conditioned to believe that. But there's this total other way that you can use all of your education, all of your experience and help others in such a bigger way. I mean, if you think about it, think about it, at the tip of your hand, you have millions of people that you can help all over the world. You're not confined by a geographical area of just the patients in your area who can come into your clinic. You can reach people all over the world and make such a huge impact. Not to mention that people desperately need the information that healthcare providers have. One of the biggest things missing in our healthcare system is it's such a you know, patient mill, you have 15-minute appointments, maybe 20 minutes or 30 minutes if you're lucky. That's a fraction of the time to get across the patient education and increase health literacy. But if you package all of that information up into an online format and you're able to deliver that to the people who really need it, imagine how much better their health can be if you can do that. And you're automatically seen as an expert because of your healthcare provider background.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Right, right. And that also brings up, you know, from a nursing perspective, I had no idea that that was even a thing as well. So same thing, nursing provider, you know, experience. Nurses can do the same thing. And again, we were always taught, well, you can't do anything unless a doctor orders it, you know, and that's just not the case anymore. There's so many nurse businesses out there as well, that you can totally be independent and not have to work for a clinic or a hospital, and same thing with the providers. So you provide an amazing amount of information for them that they can actually start their own company within minutes. That's incredible. That's so great.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Well, right back at you because you are the trailblazer for nurses and showing them what's possible because, just like you said, I don't think that that many know.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Yeah, yeah. It's it is so wonderful to be able to share information with other healthcare providers that are just stuck in their jobs, and it's true. There's so much burnout, and I love you giving the example of you know providing information for patients because, like you said, you get 10 minutes if you're lucky with a provider, and if you don't have a specific problem or a question, then it's driven by the provider who just wants to know A, B, C, D, E, then you're off. So if you have the education and the information that is powerful for your disease process or your symptoms, then that empowers you to be able to create your better health care because you are the driver of your bus now. You're able to ask informed questions when you didn't have those questions before because you now have a provider who's kind of on your side that's helping to educate you even before going into the doctor. Absolutely. That's so great. So, Katie, tell us about how people would be able to reach out to you and find you on social media.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Yes, so on Instagram, I'm uh at Escape the Clinic and TikTok at Escape the Clinic, and then my podcast is Escape the Clinic Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Awesome, so great, and I love the name that you came up with because it's like like an escape room, like you can do this. You can do this, we can just figure it out together, right? I'll give you the please. Thank you, yes. So great. Well, I I am so thankful that you're a guest on the podcast, and I really value all of the information that you gave myself as well as our listeners, and I hope that everybody can reach out to you to find out more information. And I look forward to more of your podcasts coming up.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Well, thank you so much, Kieran, and right back at you. I'm so inspired by you, and thank you for having me. All right, Katie. Thanks so much. Take care.