Success In Medicine

My interview with prenatal genetic counselor and researcher Lauren Westerfield is a fantastic lesson in how to approach challenging career decisions. The framework and approach to impending burnout that she describes in this episode is very thoughtful and analytical--and has proven effective.  Ms. Westerfield works in both clinical practice and research as the research study coordinator for an NIH-funded multicenter study. She is based at Texas Children's Hospital and the Baylor College of Medicine. One of the things that struck me about her conversation, and that she highlighted, is that many of the discussions about burnout are on "how do you move onto the next thing". By contrast, her approach provides an option for staying in a position in a more sustainable way, because that’s also an option for resolution of burnout. She wanted to stay in a great institution, doing work that she loves. She describes how she was approaching burnout at a specific point in her career, during which there wer