In this episode, Serpil Erzurum, MD, draws on her vast experience at health care systems across the country to discuss the importance of compassion as a mentor and trainee when paving the path for others, breaking the cycle of self-doubt and learning from disappointment and failure in our careers.

• Intro :01
• The interview :18
• Who is Dr. Erzurum as a person? Passions, interests and childhood 1:13
• What have been your favorite parts of working in health care across the country? 5:22
• How do you juggle and find balance between the many different roles in health care? 9:53
• The importance of enjoying life above all 11:50
• Erzurum on surrounding yourself with people that respect your life choices 15:00
• Paving the path for others; being a good mentor and leader 16:35
• Erzurum on trusting and communicating with your mentors 20:00
• Working through ‘imposter syndrome’; dealing with failure and self-doubt 21:45
• Times when Dr. Erzurum faced disappointment and failure. 25:32
• What do you do for fun? 28:15
• Have you inspired your daughters? 30:12
• Why don’t we expose specialists and trainees to specialties outside their own institutions? 31:44
• What skillsets should trainees work to improve during Fellowship? 36:02
• Final thoughts 39:15
• Outro 41:18

Serpil Erzurum, MD, is the chief research and academic officer at the Cleveland Clinic. She is also the chair of Lerner Research Institute.

We’d love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Bhardwaj at podcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @HealioPulm @abhi_bhardwaj99.

Disclosures: Bhardwaj and Erzurum report no relevant financial disclosures.

We all will be at the receiving end of critical illness for ourselves or our loved ones. It is almost guaranteed. A family’s needs are the blind spot of the overstretched and dysfunctional health care system that needs to be addressed. Here, Kristin Flanary, also known as Lady Glaucomflecken, shares her experience, hoping to highlight the challenges of the families who are at the revived end of critical illness for their loved one.

Take-home lessons for health care professionals: While clinical excellence and focus on the patient is an absolute given, what sets a great HCP apart is clear and frequent communication, empathy and kindness. Let’s do better.

• Intro :00
• The interview :39
• Tell me a bit about yourself. Where did you grow up? What was life like before and now? 3:40
• Having to do CPR on your loved one 13:01
• Can you share with me what exactly happened when your husband went into cardiac arrest? And what can we do better? 20:47
• The experience of being in the hospital 28:42
• How did you manage being kicked out of the hospital? How long was he in the ICU and in the hospital for? 47:25
• The struggle starts for patients and families when they come home because now they don't have the same support system. Can you share some of those struggles? 55:10
• We are almost 21 months out from the cardiac arrest at this point. How are you both doing now? 1:02:14
• Spreading the message about sudden cardiac arrest and learning to do bystander CPR. 1:05:32
• Can you share a happy moment or memory since the cardiac arrest event? 1:11:15
• Flanary’s message to listeners 1:16:15
• Thank you, Kristin Flanary 1:18:32

Kristin Flanary, MA, is administrator and communications manager at Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education & Talent Development at the University of Iowa.

To read Flanary’s article in Journal of Cardiac Failure, click here: https://www.onlinejcf.com/action/showPdf?pii=S1071-9164%2821%2900403-6.

We’d love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Bhardwaj at podcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @HealioPulm @abhi_bhardwaj99. You can follow Kristin Flanary on Twitter @LGlaucomflecken.

Disclosures: Bhardwaj and Flanary report no relevant financial disclosures.