Are you saying yes to everything and wondering why you have no joy left? Dr. Santina Wheat, family physician, program director, and wellness coach, has lived that story and found her way through it. She shares what she has learned about alignment, boundaries, and how to build a sustainable career in medicine without leaving it behind.

Timestamps:

1. 2:00: The reality of family medicine: double bookings, no lunch, and being told you are not bringing in enough money

2. 4:00: How she protects her team from unsustainable scheduling and why saying no for them matters

3. 7:00: The pause: why reacting too quickly is one of the biggest drivers of burnout

4. 13:00: Losing her mom, surviving COVID as a first year program director, and finally finding coaching

5. 17:00: The one misconception that sent her into burnout: thinking availability meant immediate response

6. 22:00: How coaching changed the way she has difficult conversations with residents

3 Key Takeaways:

1. Saying Yes to Everything Is Not How You Get Ahead. Earlier in her career Dr. Wheat thought taking every opportunity was the path forward. What it actually did was fill her calendar with things she didn't enjoy and drain the joy from her career. Alignment, not busyness, is what creates sustainability. The question to ask yourself: what did the younger version of you actually want to do with this career?

2. Availability Does Not Mean Immediate Response. One of the biggest lessons Dr. Wheat learned from coaching was that she didn't have to answer every message the moment it arrived. Sometimes waiting two minutes meant someone else handled it. Sometimes the person figured it out themselves. Being responsive and being reactive are two very different things.

3. The Pause Is Everything. Whether it is a difficult conversation with a resident, a request to take on a new role, or a message that arrives at 10pm, the pause is the single most powerful tool available to any clinician. When you stop and ask how you actually want to respond rather than just reacting, the joy becomes so much easier to find.

About Dr. Santina Wheat Dr. Santina Wheat is a family physician, program director, and wellness coach helping driven healthcare professionals find purpose, set boundaries, and build sustainable careers in medicine.

Connect with Dr. Santina Wheat:

1. 🌐 santinawheat.com

2. 💼 LinkedIn: Santina Wheat

3. 📸 Instagram: @DrTinaWheat

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Charting Champions is a premiere, lifetime access Physician only program that is helping Physicians get home with today's work done. All the proven tools, support and community you need to create time for your life outside of medicine.

Learn more at https://www.chartingcoach.ca

Enjoying this podcast? Please share it with someone who would benefit. Also, don’t forget to hit “follow” so you get all the new episodes as soon as they are released.

Come hang out with me on Facebook or Instagram. Follow me @thechartingcoach to get more practical tools to help you create sustainable clinical medicine in your life.

Questions? Comments? Want to share how this podcast has helped you? Shoot me an email at admin@reachcareercoaching.ca. I would love to hear from you.

What does it take for a patient to become one of the most passionate advocates for physician wellbeing? For Kim Downey, it was losing her beloved radiologist to suicide after years of navigating her own complex cancer journey. That moment changed everything. Kim shares what she has learned from hundreds of conversations with physicians about what is really driving the crisis in doctor wellbeing, and what is actually helping.

Timestamps:

1. 1:00: The moment that changed Kim's life and sparked her calling to support doctors

2. 6:00: How a LinkedIn family became a podcast, a newsletter, and two books

3. 8:00: The hidden risk nobody warned doctors about: substance use disorder in medicine

4. 9:00: The themes that keep coming up: perfectionism, shame, and "I thought it was just me"

5. 14:00: Why medical culture teaches doctors to suppress their needs from day one

6. 21:00: Connection as the antidote to trauma and how to find it inside and outside medicine

3 Key Takeaways:

1. Doctors Are All Walking Around Thinking Everyone Else Is Fine. The shame and isolation of struggling in medicine is compounded by the fact that nobody talks about it. Perfectionism, guilt over complications, and replaying what could have been done differently keeps doctors trapped in silence. When one doctor shares their story, something shifts for them and for everyone listening.

2. Medical Training Teaches Doctors to Suppress Their Needs, and It Sticks. Not eating for hours, running on no sleep, suppressing emotions to move on to the next patient. By the time doctors reach attending level, self-neglect is so ingrained it feels normal. Kim's message is clear: just as doctors recertify in CPR every year, they should have regular access to resources that remind them how to care for themselves too.

3. You Are Never Just a Doctor. When medicine becomes your whole identity and the job gets hard, there is nowhere else to go. Having something outside of medicine that nurtures you: a hobby, a community, a person you can be yourself with isn't a luxury. It's what keeps you in the game for the long run.

About Kim Downey:

Kim Downey is a pediatric physical therapist, physician wellbeing advocate, podcast host, and author. After losing her radiologist to suicide, she founded Stand Up for Doctors, a platform dedicated to amplifying physician stories, reducing stigma, and building connection across the medical community.

Connect with Kim Downey:

1. standupfordoctors.org

2. LinkedIn: Kim Downey

Would you like to view a transcript of this episode? Click Here

Charting Champions is a premiere, lifetime access Physician only program that is helping Physicians get home with today's work done. All the proven tools, support and community you need to create time for your life outside of medicine.

Learn more at https://www.chartingcoach.ca

Enjoying this podcast? Please share it with someone who would benefit. Also, don’t forget to hit “follow” so you get all the new episodes as soon as they are released.

Come hang out with me on Facebook or Instagram. Follow me @thechartingcoach to get more practical tools to help you create sustainable clinical medicine in your life.

Questions? Comments? Want to share how this podcast has helped you? Shoot me an email at admin@reachcareercoaching.ca. I would love to hear from you.

Are you drowning in responsibility you never actually agreed to take on? Dr. Rachel Morris, former GP and founder of You Are Not a Frog, has spent years helping doctors and healthcare professionals break out of what she calls the responsibility trap, and the answer isn't just learning to say no. It starts with understanding why you can't.

Timestamps:

1. 3:00: What a day in UK general practice actually looks like and why it's become unsustainable

2. 10:00: Why trying to teach resilience to medical students never worked

3. 11:00: The responsibility trap: how good people in high stakes jobs end up carrying everything

4. 15:00: The poll that revealed why we really can't say no (and it's not patient harm)

5. 22:00: The pause: the single most powerful tool for breaking the automatic yes

6. 27:00: Why delegation feels like dumping and how to actually do it well

3 Key Takeaways:

1. You're Not Carrying Responsibility Because You Said Yes. You're Carrying It Because Nobody Else Did. The responsibility trap isn't just about saying yes too often. It's the work that quietly lands on you without anyone asking, the gaps you fill because you notice them, and the impossible targets the system expects you to meet anyway. Until you get clear on what is and isn't in your control, the guilt and overwhelm will keep coming.

2. Less Than 20% of the Time Is It Actually About Patient Harm. When Dr. Morris asks audiences what stops them setting boundaries, fewer than one in five say it's because a patient would be harmed. The real reasons are guilt, people pleasing, fear of judgment, and not wanting to disappoint anyone. Knowing that is the first step to doing something about it.

3. Wellbeing Is an Outcome, Not a Starting Point. Everyone knows what they need to do to stay well. The reason they don't do it is because they have no time or capacity left. Protecting your time and managing your energy has to come first, and that means getting honest about what you're carrying that was never really yours to carry.

About Dr. Rachel Morris

Dr. Rachel Morris is a former GP, keynote speaker, and founder of You Are Not a Frog; a podcast and training business helping doctors and healthcare professionals beat burnout, break out of the responsibility trap, and work happier.

Connect with Dr. Rachel Morris:

1. 🎙️ Podcast: You Are Not a Frog

2. 💼 LinkedIn: Dr. Rachel Morris

Would you like to view a transcript of this episode? Click Here

**** Charting Champions is a premiere, lifetime access Physician only program that is helping Physicians get home with today's work done. All the proven tools, support and community you need to create time for your life outside of medicine.

Learn more at https://www.chartingcoach.ca

**** Enjoying this podcast? Please share it with someone who would benefit. Also, don’t forget to hit “follow” so you get all the new episodes as soon as they are released.

**** Come hang out with me on Facebook or Instagram. Follow me @chartingcoach to get more practical tools to help you create sustainable clinical medicine in your life.

**** Questions? Comments? Want to share how this podcast has helped you? Shoot me an email at admin@reachcareercoaching.ca. I would love to hear from you.