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September 30, 2021
2021
Yvette Perry
Re-set

"I grew from the experience – though I think it aged me 10 years!" This is how a resident described a turning point with a specific patient when he recognized how burned out he was.

August 24, 2021
2021
Elle Klassen
Words of Silver

Although he had been through many stressful experiences in his life and recently, he always held onto his positive outlook. He took particular care to use words intentionally, paying attention to their connotations, so that his positivity extended to those that he interacted with as well.

February 4, 2021
2019
Ravenna Raven
In the Cath Lab

“I’ve always loved hearts,” she said. She was a cardiac nurse who had been drawn to a job in the catheterization laboratory. “It’s so rare to have an opportunity to immediately do something good for somebody, but it happens often in the cath lab,” she told me.

October 13, 2020
2020
Frankie Abralind
PPE

She was tired after working twelve straight days on her current rotation. It was her third year of medical school, and she was already feeling burnt out. “I have five more years like this,” she said. “My sister tells me, ‘Keep pushing, you can get through it,’ but I don’t know if I can.”

August 24, 2020
2020
Jenny Hegland
Skin

He had been thinking a lot about race over the past several months. He’s a White man with two children: a 20-year-old biological son who is White, and an 18-year-old adopted daughter who is Black.

Yvette Perry
February 28, 2022
2021

To My Daughters, Who Will Need to Know

Yvette Perry
February 28, 2022
2021

This physician had recently started a new job when the pandemic hit.

Tagged: Healthcare Staff, Association of American Medical Colleges, Yvette Perry, AAMC

Elle Klassen
January 27, 2022
2021

Decision Fatigue

Elle Klassen
January 27, 2022
2021

“I feel like I have decision fatigue,” she told me. It was normal for her to make many choices at work, but COVID had dramatically increased the number of medical decisions she had to make at home.

Tagged: Healthcare Staff, Association of American Medical Colleges, Elle Klassen, AAMC

Frankie Abralind
January 14, 2022
2020

Vibes

Frankie Abralind
January 14, 2022
2020

“I know ‘vibe’ is kind of a nonspecific term, but I think about people’s vibes all the time,” he said.“ Sometimes you come into a room and it’s just off.

Tagged: Healthcare Staff, Frankie Abralind

Yvette Perry
November 23, 2021
2021

Yosef the Builder

Yvette Perry
November 23, 2021
2021

This physician discussed being the only one in his practice network with expertise in patients with a specific type of chronic pain.

Tagged: Healthcare Staff, Yvette Perry, Association of American Medical Colleges, AAMC

Ravenna Raven
October 29, 2021
2021

So Much More to Medicine

Ravenna Raven
October 29, 2021
2021

“Our constituents are uniquely affected by the pandemic,” they said. This poemee was an educational psychologist who spoke about how much they missed working in person with med students, healthcare staff, and medical educators.

Tagged: Healthcare Staff, Ravenna Raven, Connection, AAMC

Yvette Perry
September 30, 2021
2021

Re-set

Yvette Perry
September 30, 2021
2021

"I grew from the experience – though I think it aged me 10 years!" This is how a resident described a turning point with a specific patient when he recognized how burned out he was.

Tagged: Healthcare Staff, Yvette Perry, Association of American Medical Colleges, AAMC

Elle Klassen
August 24, 2021
2021

Words of Silver

Elle Klassen
August 24, 2021
2021

Although he had been through many stressful experiences in his life and recently, he always held onto his positive outlook. He took particular care to use words intentionally, paying attention to their connotations, so that his positivity extended to those that he interacted with as well.

Tagged: Elle Klassen, Healthcare Staff, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Jenny Hegland
June 29, 2021
2021

A Kind Reminder

Jenny Hegland
June 29, 2021
2021

“There’s a constant feeling inside that I should be doing more,” she said. “But I also want to be kind to myself and recognize all that I’ve given.”

Tagged: Jenny Hegland, Healthcare Staff, Association of American Medical Colleges, AAMC

Ravenna Raven
May 15, 2021
2021

Endless Currents

Ravenna Raven
May 15, 2021
2021

These members of the Wellness team in the Department of Neurology at the University of Colorado each spoke about the importance of community and connection.

Tagged: Healthcare Staff, Ravenna Raven, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Katherine Gekker
May 11, 2021
2020

Stayin' Alive, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Katherine Gekker
May 11, 2021
2020

She said she wanted a poem about the importance of CPR. As both a nurse and a CPR instructor, she spoke about how the rhythms of certain familiar songs helped her students internalize the rate of compression required.

Tagged: Katherine Gekker, Healthcare Staff, Inova Schar Cancer Institute

Elizabeth Pringle
April 30, 2021
2021

Caregiver, Care For Yourself

Elizabeth Pringle
April 30, 2021
2021

He brought the tools of mindfulness and self-care to medical students, many of whom had been studying all this past year, 10 hours a day, day after day, in isolation.

Tagged: Healthcare Staff, Elizabeth Pringle, Association of American Medical Colleges, AAMC

Elle Klassen
April 27, 2021
2020

Change of Pace

Elle Klassen
April 27, 2021
2020

The pandemic had forced this woman to slow her life down drastically. Before, she’d travelled around every month for work, never stopping, working hard because she cared about her job. The slower pace created by social distancing had reminded her to cherish everything that life had to offer outside of work.

Tagged: Elle Klassen, Healthcare Staff, Veterans' Affairs Center for Development & Civic Engagement, Change

Yvette Perry
April 22, 2021
2021

Forbearance

Yvette Perry
April 22, 2021
2021

He had recently lost his father to COVID-19 and was reflecting on forgiveness. For the majority of his life with his father, they did not have a positive relationship. However, in the last three years of life, his father lost his memory and his personality changed into someone who was loving and kind.

Tagged: Healthcare Staff, Yvette Perry, Association of American Medical Colleges, AAMC

Ravenna Raven
February 4, 2021
2019

In the Cath Lab

Ravenna Raven
February 4, 2021
2019

“I’ve always loved hearts,” she said. She was a cardiac nurse who had been drawn to a job in the catheterization laboratory. “It’s so rare to have an opportunity to immediately do something good for somebody, but it happens often in the cath lab,” she told me.

Tagged: Healthcare Staff, Ravenna Raven, Connection, Mayo Clinic Transform Conference

Jenny Hegland
February 2, 2021
2020

home

Jenny Hegland
February 2, 2021
2020

“When you get to hear the hidden sides of people’s stories, you never look at people the same,” she said, with a noticeable tenderness in her voice. This woman was a therapist who supported physicians and residents. “Sometimes as I lay in bed at night I inhabit the stories people share with me.”

Tagged: Jenny Hegland, Healthcare Staff, Association of American Medical Colleges, AAMC

Ravenna Raven
November 27, 2020
2020

The Art of Caring

Ravenna Raven
November 27, 2020
2020

She began her career as a hospice volunteer and then worked as a critical care provider in the Emergency Department for many years. She told me she always wanted her patients to feel empowered while in her care. “This feeling has to do with quality of life,” she said.

Tagged: Healthcare Staff, Ravenna Raven, Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital, Resilience, Connection

Elle Klassen
November 12, 2020
2020

Catharsis

Elle Klassen
November 12, 2020
2020

For a long time, he had used songwriting to turn his own emotions into artwork, but in the past eight years he had turned the process into a service for others. He’d learned that listening to people’s stories and reflecting them back in an artistic format was a cathartic experience for them.

Tagged: Elle Klassen, Healthcare Staff

Jenny Hegland
October 28, 2020
2020

The VA of the Future I See

Jenny Hegland
October 28, 2020
2020

This person described himself as a dreamer. As he spoke, he painted a particularly clear and vivid vision of the future he saw possible for the VA. He worked in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and his passion for the work was evident and inspiring.

Tagged: Jenny Hegland, Healthcare Staff, Veterans' Affairs Center for Development & Civic Engagement

Jenny Hegland
October 28, 2020
2020

The Calling

Jenny Hegland
October 28, 2020
2020

“When everything else stops, we keep going,” she began. This woman had always wanted to be a physician, and as a medical school student, was about to become the seventh generation of physicians on her mother’s side of the family.

Tagged: Jenny Hegland, Medical Students, AAMC

Frankie Abralind
October 13, 2020
2020

PPE

Frankie Abralind
October 13, 2020
2020

She was tired after working twelve straight days on her current rotation. It was her third year of medical school, and she was already feeling burnt out. “I have five more years like this,” she said. “My sister tells me, ‘Keep pushing, you can get through it,’ but I don’t know if I can.”

Tagged: Frankie Abralind, Association of American Medical Colleges, Medical Students, AAMC

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Photos courtesy of Jeff Krentel Photography, Deborah Raven, A Byrdseye Photo, and Brendan Bush for The Mayo Clinic.

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