Dr. Judi Campbell is a Clinical Instructor and Staff Physiatrist at Carolinas Rehabilitation, part of Atrium Health’s Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Program in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she practices. Dr. Campbell values the notion of physician wellbeing and studied this for her independent project for The Leadership Program in Integrative Healthcare at Duke. Campbell’s study revealed one major correlate to burnout and resiliency: Relationship. To illustrate, she shares a story:
I was recently asked to participate in a pilot program of Peer to Peer support for physicians in our organization. We gathered for a training session and introduced ourselves. I shared that I had taken a break from medicine and had returned. As the session continued, one of my colleagues, who I had not seen in some time, shared a memory. He said he was looking at me and seeing that I was in distress wondered if he should say something. He didn’t. I was briefly taken aback by the statement, but then I thought it was good he shared this. From a personal perspective, I didn’t reach out to other people and say ‘I feel this way. How do you feel?’ I didn’t do that. On the flip side, no one reached out to me to say, ‘Are you okay?’ This conversation speaks to the truth of our experience of another person. We have a choice to use that gift to inform a response.
Campbell recognizes that creating a culture of trust is therapeutic and after years of taking herself too seriously, she has begun taking comedy improvisation classes. A welcome effect has been a practical and fun way to apply The Leadership Program’s core concepts of informed mindfulness, awareness, choice and reaction to a constantly changing environment.
