Finding Joy: The Health Care Professional’s Journey to Well-being

This is “Finding Joy: The Health Care Professional’s Journey to Wellness and Resiliency.” It’s a podcast resource developed by a team of interprofessional education researchers from Washington State University Health Sciences Spokane. They’re promoting wellness among students, faculty, and healthcare professionals during challenging times. Funding is provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration.  

“Finding Joy: The H...

Andrea Durst is a Medical Social Worker at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. While focused on helping patients and families address their needs during the pandemic, many healthcare professionals are navigating ways to reestablish connection following this extended period of isolation. Creating opportunities for professional growth, reclaiming “space” to foster engagement, and empowering new ideas through community building ar...

Shauna Hill, LICSW, Cofounder and CEO of mental health media and education company, StateChange, is a Vermont-based neuroscience educator and trauma psychotherapist with decades of experience in family, community, and behavioral health. Shauna joined the “Finding Joy” podcast to discuss strategies for addressing health worker stress and burnout. Shauna offers her decades-long earned insights into the healthcare worker crisis in “Th...

Peggy Odegard, PharmD, honed a simple technique for overcoming workplace burnout in the healthcare field as a practicing pharmacist and Vice Dean at the UW School of Pharmacy. Dr. Odegard focuses on being aware of both her personal values and personal strengths while moving through her daily tasks. Aligning her values and strengths with the work she is doing allows her to consistently find joy. She shares details about her techniqu...

Shauna Hill, LICSW, Cofounder and CEO of mental health media and education company, StateChange, is a Vermont-based neuroscience educator and trauma psychotherapist with decades of experience in family, community, and behavioral health. Shauna joined the “Finding Joy” podcast to discuss strategies for addressing health worker stress and burnout. Shauna offers her decades-long earned insights into the healthcare worker crisis in “Th...

Mukta Panda, MD, MACP, FRCP-London, award-winning physician, speaker, and facilitator as well as Professor of Medicine and the Assistant Dean for Well-being and Student Education at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, brought the wisdom she gained through decades of practicing medicine in places all over the world. An author of over 60 publications, including Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-being, the m...

Practicing doctor, Jabraan Pasha, MD, FACP, talks with Finding Joy about the work he is doing around inequities in the American medical system. Dr. Pasha’s proximity to healthcare as a child led to his becoming a doctor as an adult. Among many roles, as the CEO of Lean In LLC, the Vice President of Juno Medical, and Host of the "Lean In with Dr Jabraan Pasha" podcast, Dr. Pasha’s efforts include overseeing pipeline progra...

Dr. Tessa Reinke joined the Finding Joy podcast to share what it is like to be a “country doctor.” She met her husband while in medical school on the east coast. They settled down in a small town in Washington, partially because the rural aspect allowed her to indulge in work she enjoys, “I am a full spectrum family medicine doctor. I see people from birth to hospice.” Dr. Reinke also shares her challenges with coming out of COVID,...

How would you go about designing a medical school if given the opportunity? Dr. George Novan is one of the founders of and continues to teach at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. Dr. Novan finds that the presence of mentorship is critical to building a successful healthcare community. Listen to learn why Dr. Novan worries about Covid’s impact on the role of mentorship in healthcare, why he believes h...

Dr. Nanci Murphy, a pharmacist and retired Associate Dean at the University of Washington, and Dr. Tricia Cheung, a Pharmacist at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, WA, discuss the concept of ikigai, which translates to “reason for being.” They help healthcare professionals stay connected to the reason they entered the field of healthcare and to find strong connections to other members of their healthcare communities. Listen to lea...

Working two emergency room shifts a month helps this professor keep his clinical skills sharp. Carl Heine is the Associate Dean for Clinical Education at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine and an emergency room physician at Spokane’s Deaconess Hospital. A sense of moral injury, burnout, overwhelm, and lack of enthusiasm is felt across the community of healthcare professionals. Listen to learn how Dr. H...

Is compassion-focused mindfulness the antidote to the stress experienced by health professionals? Dr. Dawn DeWitt is a Professor and Senior Associate Dean for the Washington State University College of Medicine’s Collaboration for Interprofessional Health, Education, Research, and Scholarship. Dr. DeWitt practices “Mindful self-compassion,” a process developed by Dr. Kristen Neff and Dr. Chris Germer, which teaches individuals how ...

Andrea Durst is a Medical Social Worker at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. While focused on helping patients and families address their needs during the pandemic, many healthcare professionals are navigating ways to reestablish connection following this extended period of isolation. Creating opportunities for professional growth, reclaiming “space” to foster engagement, and empowering new ideas through community building ar...

Sue McFadden is a Nurse Practitioner and Associate Professor in the Washington State University (WSU) College of Nursing in Spokane. During the pandemic, she was matched with a new group of nine students whose class time was facilitated via Zoom. Five of Sue’s students share the unique path that brought them together, how they fostered connection through their diverse backgrounds and experiences during the pandemic, and where they ...

Kay Olson, Associate Teaching Professor at Washington State University (WSU) College of Nursing, and her former students, Kate Grambihler, RN at Deaconess MultiCare and Susannah Mills, Certified Child-life Specialist at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, share their experiences applying skills learned in the classroom to practice by volunteering at community COVID-19 vaccine clinics. Kay, Kate, and Susannah discuss how the global pa...

Dr. Sara Tamarin, a pediatrician at the Everett Clinic, shares her impetus for pioneering a peer coaching program among physicians and other clinicians to address internalized self-concepts such as imposter syndrome, self-judgement, comparison, and perfectionism. Although peer coaching is relatively new in the health care industry, preliminary data from participants suggests a reduction in burnout, an increase in feeling and though...

Kelley Charvet, Chief Administrative Officer, and Alyssa Egland, Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, both from Community Health Association of Spokane (CHAS) Health, reflect on the organization’s growth since its inception in 1994 as a two exam room clinic in downtown Spokane through 2022, when employees rapidly mobilized to provide primary healthcare at its 20 locations around the Inland Northwest during the COVID-19 pandemic. The...

Health Science students Andriene Sterlington (MSW), Eastern Washington University School of Social Work and Diana Kang (PharmD), Washington State University’s College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences share their academic backgrounds, learning experiences, and professional goals for the future. They describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their learning experiences and various strategies they apply to find joy in thei...

Linda Eddy and Vicki Denson, WSU-Vancouver College of Nursing Administrators, share their journey to becoming faculty members, connecting with mentors involved in university leadership, and transitioning into leadership positions and becoming mentors themselves. They highlight how they have established work-life integration and identified passions outside of the workplace, and how these are fundamental to maintaining wellness and r...