INTRODUCING The Only Life You Could Save Podcast!

Cassie Ferguson, MD, is a pediatric emergency physician, professor, medical educator, and nationally recognized advocate for physician and trainee well-being. She serves on the faculty of the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children's Wisconsin, where she has spent nearly two decades caring for patients, mentoring students, and leading educational innovation. 

Throughout her career, she has developed pioneering programs in medical student well-being, professional identity formation, quality improvement, health systems science, and health equity, including the REACH curriculum and the MKE Health Scholars Program. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards for teaching, humanism, leadership, and educational excellence, including the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award and designation as a Master Teacher. 

A sought-after speaker and scholar, Dr. Ferguson has presented nationally on physician well-being, burnout, self compassion, professional identity formation, and the culture of medicine. Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals including Academic Medicine, JAMA Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Academic Psychiatry, and BMJ Open Quality. 

Drawing on thousands of conversations with students, trainees, colleagues, and patients, Dr. Ferguson explores the intersection of medicine, psychology, storytelling, and contemplative traditions. Her debut book, "The Only Life You Could Save," reflects a career devoted to helping future physicians navigate the emotional complexity of medicine without losing their humanity in the process. 

She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and three sons. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Cassie Ferguson. I'm a pediatric emergency medicine physician, professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and host of The Only Life You Could Save. This limited series podcast explores the emotional life of being a physician in training and how you might tend to the emotions that come up in the learning and practice of medicine skillfully with awareness and compassion. Each episode is based on a series of lectures focused on well-being that I have been giving to first and second year medical students since 2018. They're now delivered as part of what is called the Good Doctor Course at the Medical College of Wisconsin. You may be wondering what credentials I have that qualify me to teach medical students about well-being, and that's fair. Statistically speaking, physicians are not a well group of people, and who's to say that I'm not burned out, depressed, and anxious like the rest of them? Well, I would argue it's precisely because I'm burned out, depressed, and anxious that you should consider listening. I've been a physician for over 15 years, and before that was in training for 10. I've tried all the things to deal with the consistent threats to my well-being that a life in medicine harbors therapy, lexapro, days at the spa, sabbaticals, eating my weight and protein, improving my sleep hygiene, journaling, intermittent fasting, and everyone's favorite, hot yoga. I've tried all of those things, plus many others I'm embarrassed to mention, only to realize that none of them, none of them will change what is fundamentally true about being a physician or a physician in training, which is this. It is our job to expertly tend to and compassionately witness the pain and suffering of other human beings, and most of us are never taught how. Instead, we're left to struggle with all kinds of questions on our own. How do we metabolize death and dying or the grief that follows? How do we exist in between the high stakes and responsibility of our profession and the uncertainty that's part and parcel of being and caring for imperfect human beings? How do we allow the full range of experiences that we encounter in the learning and practice of medicine to shape us without taking their shape? I've spent the better part of a decade trying to answer these questions for myself and sharing what I've learned with students, trainees, colleagues, somewhere along the line gaining the name of chief feelings officer. I've been trained in mindfulness-based stress reduction and brought the training to our children's hospital. I've attended workshops and weeklong intensives on mindful self-compassion. I've served as the chair of the professional health committee at our hospital, delivered umpteen grand rounds on physician well-being across the country, and curated a bookshelf that now looks like the self-help section at Barnes Noble. I've designed curricula to teach healthcare professionals about well-being. I've done research on well-being in medical students, published articles on this research in medical journals, and was awarded a sabbatical to write a book on medical student well-being. Talking about and thinking about and teaching about well-being in the learning and practice of medicine has become my purpose as a physician and as an educator, and it gives my career meaning. But I suppose in the end, y'all are going to have to decide for yourself if these credentials are enough. Before you decide, I want to say this. The driving reason behind why I teach medical students about well-being is not because I think I'm uniquely qualified to do so. It's not for promotion or recognition. The driving reason is love. I love the profession that I'm a part of. I love the patients I care for, and I love all of you out there hustling to be a part of it. And because I love all of you, I want you to have the tools that you need to navigate the complexities of caring for other human beings in a sustainable way, in a way that keeps both your and your patients' humanity at the center, that accommodates the full range of emotions that accompany a life in medicine. Before we jump in, a quick reminder I'm a doctor, but I'm not your doctor. And this podcast isn't medical advice. If you're hurting, burned out, anxious, or just feeling off, please reach out to a counselor, a friend, or by calling or texting nine eight eight for the suicide and crisis lifeline. Please remember that the grace we give everyone around us is meant for us too. And now I'm so proud to share the only life you could save. I'm grateful that he reached out to ask whether I might record these lectures, and grateful for his talents that made it possible to do so. Thank you also to Dr. Ashley Pavlik, a friend and colleague, and the course director of the Good Doctor at MCW, who makes space for this content in our curriculum. To Dr. Dave Marcolis, the chair of the Department of Pediatrics at MCW, who pays for my time to teach medical students about well-being. To my pediatric emergency medicine colleagues who take exceptional care of kids and of one another. To my family who reminds me that medicine comes second. And to my students, past, present, and future, for keeping me honest always. Finally, thank you to Alex Brown for creating our theme song, Cam Collins for his sound production skills, and to Madeline Sturm for her brilliant art and design work.