Minimizing Medical Burnout: Dr Anna Flores Locke Of Charlandra Counseling Services On How Hospitals and Medical Practices Are Helping To Reduce Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout
An Interview With Dan Rodrigues
The reduction of physician and healthcare worker burnout, from the mental health perspective, relies on providing a healing space, where emotions can be validated and metabolized through physical movement, mindfulness, and connection to community.
The pandemic was hard on all of us. But statistics have shown the pressures of the pandemic may have hit physicians and healthcare workers the hardest. While employment is starting to return to pre-pandemic levels generally, the healthcare sector is lagging behind with a significant percentage of healthcare workers not returning to work. This is one of the factors causing a shortage of doctors. Some experts say the US may soon be short almost 124,000 physicians. (See here for example.) What are hospitals and medical practices doing to help ease the extreme mental strain of doctors and healthcare workers? What are they doing to help solve the scourge of burnout?
To address these questions, we are talking to hospital administrators, medical clinic executives, medical school experts, and experienced physicians who can share stories and insights from their experience about “How Hospitals and Medical Practices Are Helping To Reduce Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout.” As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Anna Flores Locke.
Dr. Anna is an international award-winning author and educator who has worked in the mental health profession for more than 15 years. She holds a doctorate in counseling and is a licensed professional counselor in multiple states, including Puerto Rico. She currently owns Charlandra Counseling Services, a virtual infertility counseling center; and was an assistant professor at Nyack college. Dr Anna is an active leader in the American Counseling Association, and author of “Body Betrayal: Living and Understanding Infertility” and “Introduction to 21st Century Counseling: A Multicultural and Social Justice Perspective”. From her personal and clinical experience with infertility, Dr Anna created the Fertility Clarity © approach to infertility counseling. She is a Latina twin mom from Chicago, currently lives in New Jersey, and enjoys dancing and going to the beach. Dr. Anna is available for seminars, consulting, group book discussions, and speaking engagements.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! I know that you are a very busy person. Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
I was raised in a working-class household in an urban environment with Puerto Rican parents. I was the oldest of two, went to Catholic schools, and was the first in my family to earn a doctorate.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
At the age of 11, my uncle committed suicide. That was my first experience with death and mental illness. I remember seeing him, the day before his death, sitting on the front stoop looking sad. At the time, I didn’t know that this intuition was indicating that he was suffering in silence from depression and would take his own life to end the emotional pain. This early experience, along with the integral role that my school counselor played in my academic success, inspired me to become a mental health counselor. I wanted to understand human behavior and why we make the decision we do, so I can help save lives and instill hope in those suffering from mental health challenges. More recently, because I struggled to conceive for three years and experienced depression, anxiety, and isolation along the journey to becoming a parent, I have turned my pain into my life’s passion. Now, I specialize in supporting others along their family building journey by gifting them hope and a validating community.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
My most exciting project that I am working on right now is developing a specialized mental health counseling program using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to provide emotional relief to those struggling to conceive. My goal is to create a training program for other mental health providers who want to support this community and need the specialized therapeutic skills to do so effectively.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
My dad loves telling me this story about the day I was born. He shares that when I was born, I grasped the medical wires and that he never saw a newborn have such strength. He knew, from my birth, that I was going to take this world by storm and do great things. For me, this story signifies my three character traits that make me a successful leader. The first trait is tenacity — when I am passionate about a goal, I commit to action, and make it my life’s purpose to achieve it. When I decided to start my small business, I committed to getting it done, which I did; and now it is my life’s purpose. The second is persistence — I don’t stop until I meet that goal and find the resources to get it done. When I struggled to conceive for three years, I didn’t give up on becoming a parent, I researched my options that led to my twin pregnancy through IVF. The third trait is ambition — I strive for more because I can do more in this world, and I dream of the many possibilities available to me that will help me help others. My ambition has led me to open Charlandra Counseling Services and to develop a infertility counseling program; while also pursuing my career in academia as a doctoral level professor.
Ok, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview about minimizing medical burnout. Let’s begin with a basic definition of terms so that all of us are on the same page. How do you define “Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout”? Does it just mean poor job satisfaction? Can you explain?
For me, burnout is manifested when the healthcare worker dreads going to work, makes mistakes, lacks passion in their work, treats patients rudely or is curt with them, and incessantly complains and is pessimistic. It often means poor job satisfaction and poor patient care provision because the healthcare worker is depleted, fatigued, and unable to provide compassionate care. When a worker is in this state of functioning, intervention is required.
How would you define or describe the opposite of burnout?
The opposite of burnout is described when the healthcare worker can enter into a sense of flow during the work day. Flow happens when the worker is fully engaged and present in their work that time flies, and they feel invigorated from their workday. They may feel tired at the end of the day, but mentally and emotionally they feel fulfilled and look forward to the next day. Living into fulfillment feels joyous and leads to compassionate patient care that builds long-lasting relationships.
From your experience, perspective, or research, what are the main causes of Physician and Healthcare Worker Burnout?
I focus on helping fertility doctors-of-color maintain their stamina and joy despite facing racialized medical systems that contribute to health disparities in communities-of-color. For them, one of the main causes of burnout is working with patients-of-color who are directly impacted by health disparities (such as lack of access to care, financial stressors, and employment instability) and feeling helpless to do anything about it. These doctors are working with patients, who look like them, and share in their racialized experiences as people-of-color; yet are powerless are effect systemic change to reduce the health disparities. Knowing of the oppression, being powerless to change it, and working within the medical establishment that contributes to the health disparities is emotionally taxing on fertility doctors-of-color. This leads to burnout — facing racism on a daily basis and having to navigate it in order to survive within the oppressive system makes it a challenge to find joy and fulfillment.
Have you seen burnout impact your own organization? Can you give a first hand description of how burnout can impact the operations of an organization?
No comment
Does your practice currently offer any mental health resources for providers or clinical staff? We’d love to hear about it. Not applicable
In my work I have found that streamlining operational efficiency with digital transformation and automated processes helps to ease the workload of providers and clinical staff. Has that been your experience as well? Do you think that streamlining operational efficiency can be one of the tools to minimize medical burnout? We’d love to hear your perspective. Not applicable
Fantastic. Here is the main question of our discussion. Can you share 5 things that hospitals and medical practices can do to reduce physician and healthcare worker burnout?
The reduction of physician and healthcare worker burnout, from the mental health perspective, relies on providing a healing space, where emotions can be validated and metabolized through physical movement, mindfulness, and connection to community.
When I provide the Fertility Doctor’s Oasis, my gift to the participants is to provide space for their emotions, through music. I play emotionally evocative music to facilitate the participants’ experience of their emotions related to health disparities and oppressive systems. This is a powerful and healing tool to give space for the emotion, while honoring it, so the emotion can be validated and processed. The participants are encouraged to engage in body movement, while the music plays, to help metabolize the emotion.
The next part to the wellness oasis experience is noticing and honoring one’s hands, not only as the tool through which they heal others, but also as a physical manifestation of their ancestral roots. When the participants explore their hands, they are invited to see features of their hands that are similar and different than their ancestors (this could be their parents, grandparents, or other relatives). This exploration facilitates an appreciation for the hands that do the manual labor of healing and the connection they provide to the ancestors. It also helps the participants reflect on the manual labor that their ancestors endured with their hands, for some this labor was through enslavement or servitude that forced their ancestors to toil the soil under the hot sun.
Through this connection to the strength and resistance of their ancestors, and to the power of touch to heal, the participants have a mindset switch. This mindset switch allows them to shift their perspective related to their healing work for others as a gift they provide, and a manifestation of their passion to help others. This perspective reframing reignites their life’s purpose and compassion for their patients, for themselves, and for one another.
All these activities are done within community, which builds their connection to one another. Through connection, physicians and healthcare workers no longer feel alone in their struggle to stay afloat amidst health disparities and the rigor of medical practice. Through connection, burnout is reduced because it is dispersed amongst the group and all members can share in the healing process together. Connection is motivating, inspiring, and energizing; thus leading to reduction of burnout.
What can concerned friends, colleagues, and life partners do to help someone they care about reverse burnout?
Label it, notice it, and provide comfort. Let the healthcare worker know that you are there for them when they need support and comfort, and that to ask for support is not a sign of weakness; but rather a sign of strength and courage.
What are a few of the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they try to reverse burnout in themselves or others? What can they do to avoid those mistakes?
Some common mistakes are believing that reversing burnout happens quickly and only requires a one time approach. Instead, reversing burnout requires a lifestyle and mindset switch that requires repetition. Often times, we regress on the journey, and have to reset to stay the course towards joy and fulfillment. Another common mistake is judging our experiences during the journey. Instead simply being present in the moment and surrendering to it is the best approach.
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?
“This too shall pass” As I was going through my family journey building to conceive my twins through IVF and surviving a high risk twin pregnancy, the life lesson quote, “this too shall pass” ensured me that I will get through it. This quote reminded me that everything comes to an end, which means that I can endure it and embrace the experience as it was happening. It also reminds me to be in the present moment because that moment will never come again.
Ok, we are nearly done. Because of your role, you are a person of significant influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
My movement would be to open doors for authentic and heartwarming conversations on the topic of infertility within communities-of-color. We are the invisible within the invisible community of people fighting to have a baby, and need open and honest conversation through connection. Going through infertility is such an isolating experience, and being a person-of-color, heightens the sense of isolation. My passion is to use my pain of infertility to inspire others to speak freely, without shame, about their struggle because it is not their fault that their body has betrayed them. Rather, they are infertility warriors fighting to have a baby despite having a medical condition making it a challenge to do so.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://linktr.ee/charlandra_counseling
This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!
About The Interviewer: Dan Rodrigues is the founder and CEO of Kareo, a Tebra company, a leading provider of cloud-based clinical and practice management software solutions for independent healthcare practices and billing companies. Rodrigues is known for his visionary leadership in the healthcare technology industry. Rodrigues’ future-forward expertise has led companies such as Scour and Skematix. He is highly committed to providing patients with a seamless, digital experience in healthcare. Rodrigues’ business insights have been featured in publications including Forbes, Fierce Healthcare, and AP News.
Minimizing Medical Burnout: Dr Anna Flores Locke Of Charlandra Counseling Services On How Hospitals was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.