How Mentors Can Help You Avoid Burnout with Dr. Karen Law

Karen Law, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Division of Rheumatology, the Associate Vice Chair of Education, and the Program Director of the Jay Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency Program at Emory University's Department of Medicine. Dr. Law completed her medical school from Brown University. She completed her residency, chief residency, and rheumatology fellowship at Emory University. Over the past ten years, Dr. Law has established herself as a leader in medical education at Emory, having held multiple roles at the medical school, including small group advisor and Associate Director of the Third Year Medicine clerkship. She has won Emory's Dean's Teaching Award and the American College of Rheumatology Clinician Scholar Educator Award to name a few. Most all of us will face exhaustion at some point in our training. But Dr. Karen Law shares that with the right mindset, and the proper support (enter: mentorship), we can avoid landing on the extreme end of that spectrum. Today, Dr. Law shares stories of mentors who made her feel safe, who made her feel seen, and who made her feel heard. She explains that throughout her career, like many others, she experienced varying levels of burnout. To Dr. Law, having the support from strong mentors who were able to simply listen to her and understand her feelings, was a guiding light out of that personal exhaustion. She has come to realize that while it's easy to get caught up in the details, we shouldn't lose sight of the ultimate goal: to continually develop our intellectual curiosity and love for patient care. Pearls of Wisdom: 1. We do not have to accept the belief that to be a physician is to be burned out. When we break past the stigma, shame and guilt of being burned out, and openly acknowledging our experience, we make this burnout the exception, not the rule, in residency. 2. Don’t delay your own diagnosis: If you’re asking yourself if you are burned out, it means it’s time to reach out to a mentor and start talking about these issues. 3. If you have intellectual curiosity, and love for patient care, you will find joy in whatever specialty you find yourself in.