“Without systems change, we get what we get.”

Truer words have not been spoken.

And they weren’t even uttered in the “real world”, but rather in the online world, where I don’t exactly know much about the person who’s “uttering” them (and in reality, simply typing them out on a popular social platform; in this case, LinkedIn), but can feel their impact.

I believe that we can come closer to accomplishing what David Dibble wants to see achieved (he recently shared my article about our being pawns within a larger corporate system, which you can read here, his own viewpoints) when we allow the workers within – the ones who actually work the healing magic – to express their frustrations.

When we listen to these valuable players & actually come up with solutions that have both sides in mind (the patient’s AND caregiver’s), with minimal lip service, we get one step closer to promoting happiness in our worker-bees and to running an amazingly well-oiled machine (“is it even plausible to achieve a well-oiled healthcare machine?” one could argue? I’m not sure that it is..)

You simply can’t just focus on one side while ignoring the other. Both sides of a healthcare interaction are human! And that sacred relationship works much, much better, when both sides are tended to.

I realize this is extremely hard to do in healthcare. We’re not running a chocolate shop, after all, or giving people scalp massages at a storefront in town. Healthcare is a behemoth, and much more complicated than that.

And even though I don’t possess the end-all, be-all solution to the burnout we all feel, I think the tools I’ve built (in doctorsonsocialmedia.com) can help. Because I already know so many physicians who are making time to take others on. And one of my jobs is to help these movers & shakers connect.

At the least, I know I’m giving this one giant effort; lending my skills to facilitating (and circulating!) open, public discussion about these issues, their solutions, and more, at doctorsonsocialmedia.com, in any communication medium that’s thrown our way; be it written, video, or audio form.

That’s that. Get in touch if you’re innovating in the space. Grow with us. And definitely if you’re a doctor looking to “do”. Or tag someone else who is.