Episode 1

You Can't Pour From An Empty Cup: Wellness in ENT

with Dr. Ashley Agan

BackTable, LLC (Producer). (2020, July 5). Ep. 1 – You Can't Pour From An Empty Cup: Wellness in ENT [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.backtable.com/ent

Dr. Ashley Agan and Dr. Gopi Shah talk wellness in life and practice!

Podcast Participants

Dr. Ashley Agan is a practicing ENT and assistant professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX.

Host Dr. Gopi Shah is a practicing ENT at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX.

Show Notes

In this episode, hosts Dr. Ashley Agan and Dr. Gopi Shah discuss the important topic of wellness, what it is, and how to incorporate it into our professional lives.

They begin by discussing what exactly wellness is and what it entails. Wellness can be different for different people, but essentially it comes down to taking care of yourself before you take care of others. As this can be hard to do in such a service-oriented career, dedicating time to it is important to be able to recharge, whether that be spending time with family, exercising, or just intentionally relaxing. Dr. Shah and Dr. Agan continue to talk about time management and how to incorporate wellness into busy lives in medical school, residency, and beyond. Balancing may not always be easy but taking time for yourself is just as important as the time you dedicate to others.

Our hosts then continue to speak to the impact COVID-19 has had on the physician community and wellness. One of the biggest factors it has had is regarding the human-to-human connection that is gratifying and often motivating during patient encounters. Dealing with those challenges has taken its toll, but one that both providers and patients are learning to manage together.

Lastly, Dr. Agan and Dr. Shah conclude by discussing specific examples of incorporating wellness. They speak about groups, such as Wellness in Oto, and other ways to keep in touch, whether that be with mentors or trainees, to check in on each other and make sure everyone is doing well and taking the time to take care of themselves during an otherwise challenging time. As well as keeping in touch with others, keeping in touch with yourself is just as important and reflecting is often a great way to do just that.

Resources:

Backtable ENT Twitter and Instagram handle: @_backtableENT

Transcript Preview

[Ashley Agan MD]
Yeah. What is wellness? I think wellness looks different for different people. And when I think about it, I think about just thriving, really being able to wake up every day and go spend your energy on something that you are truly passionate about. And we all enter medical school saying we're passionate about patient care. And then we get through medical school and residency and there are so many things that aren't patient care that just really can break you down. You spend so much time on other things, and sometimes you do have to do things that you're not passionate about. I think everybody has to do a little bit.

[Gopi Shah MD]
There's some peer-to-peer conversations for insurance approval you're just going to have to do.

[Ashley Agan MD]
But if you can be waking up every day and spending the majority of your time really doing something that lights you up and that you're excited about and feeling like you are looking forward to what you're doing, if you can organize your work and your life in such a way that allows you to have that, that's what I aspire to. And certainly, I have not figured it out yet, but that's what I'm working towards that. That's what I feel like wellness looks like and what I am hoping to do or trying to do every day.

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