Work, identity, burnout, and becoming again in mid-life
Healthcare spends a lot of time talking about patient experience. We build strategies, launch initiatives, create dashboards, and form committees. However, none of that matters if the people who shape the patient experience most directly, the frontline staff, are not empowered, supported, and equipped to deliver it. Patient experience does not live in a binder … Continue reading Patient Experience Lives on the Frontline
There’s a kind of work in healthcare that doesn’t have a clean label. It’s not clinical. There's no diagnosing, no charting, no medical authority. But it’s not administrative in the distant, paperwork‑only sense either. It lives in the middle, in the space where people’s emotions collide with the realities of a massive system, and where … Continue reading The Other Side of the Badge: Working with Patients Without Being ‘Clinical’
Some workdays do not feel heavy because of the tasks themselves. They feel heavy because of what it takes to show up: the emotional steadiness, the quiet regulation, the way you hold space for other people’s stress while trying to keep your own internal weather from spilling over. It is the kind of weight that … Continue reading The Unseen Labor of Showing Up: Why Some Workdays Feel Heavy
For those who watch The Pitt but don’t know much about healthcare law: In a recent episode, two ICE agents bring a woman to the emergency department after she was injured in a “fall.” Almost immediately, people scatter; patients leave, staff disappear, fear takes over the room. Robby (Dr. Michael Robinavitch, played by Noah Wyle) … Continue reading The Pitt, EMTALA, and the Right to Emergency Care
In healthcare, words matter, especially when they describe the people who help patients navigate some of the most stressful moments of their lives. Two terms that often get used interchangeably are Patient Advocate and Patient Family Relations, but they’re not the same. In fact, the distinction shapes how patients experience care, how concerns get resolved, … Continue reading Patient Advocate vs. Patient Family Relations: Why the Difference Matters More Than Most People Realize
This wasn’t a decision I came to quickly, and it definitely wasn’t one I wanted to make. I’m taking a leave of absence from school. I went back and forth on how to talk about this because there’s a tendency to soften decisions like this or frame them as something more inspirational than they actually … Continue reading When the Math Stops Working
The start of a new year always seems to come with an unspoken expectation to arrive with a plan. Big goals. Clear direction. Momentum right out of the gate. This year feels different for me. Instead of rushing to define what’s next, I’ve been spending more time paying attention to where I am. Over the … Continue reading Direction Over Speed
AI panic has taken over a lot of academic spaces lately. You can feel it the moment you start writing something for a class. Instead of thinking about what you want to say, you start wondering how it might be interpreted. Not for clarity or quality, but for whether it “sounds like AI.” It’s an … Continue reading When Everything Looks Like AI: How Over-Scrutinizing Student Writing Causes Real Harm
The longer I’ve been in school, the more I’ve realized that what we learn in class doesn’t stay in class. It spills into how we think, how we lead, and even how we handle the hard moments at work. Over the past several terms, I’ve been diving deep into management courses that cover everything from … Continue reading What School Has Taught Me About Work (and People)
When I first started graduate school, I enrolled in a Master’s in Human Resource Management. It seemed like the logical choice; after all, HR has been a central part of my career path. I’ve worked in training, development, employee relations, and policy. I’ve built programs, advocated for DEI, and supported employees through some of their … Continue reading Changing my path: Why I changed my degree program
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