Hey guys and welcome back to the Medical Entrepreneur podcast.
My name is Adam Sewell, and this is where we teach you how to break free from traditional medicine, carve the career of your dreams, and still do what you love.
Working in the mainstream healthcare system can be a very rewarding experience. But due to long working hours, heavy workloads, and a big influx of patients on a daily basis, it can also be very exhausting and stressful. Because of this, an alarming amount of healthcare workers are reporting experiencing symptoms of burnout.
However, there are two women who are trying to combat these alarming trends – Michelle Troseth and Tracy Christopherson. Michelle and Tracy have started the coaching and consulting company MissingLogic to help healthcare organizations and healthcare leaders combat burnout. Today on the Medical Entrepreneur podcast, we are highlighting not only their contribution to improving the healthcare system but also their incredible entrepreneurial journey.
Health Worker Burnout
As per the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 54% of nurses and physicians suffer from burnout.
Burnout is a worrying mental condition that occurs when a person is exposed to high levels of stress and exhausting work for prolonged periods of time. The symptoms of burnout negatively impact the mental and physical health of the exposed worker and decrease their job performance. The most common symptoms are:
- Chronic fatigue
- Headaches
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Mental exhaustion
- Depersonalization
- Reduced sense of accomplishment
Burnout among healthcare workers negatively affects their personal lives and also their job performance, which can lead to a decrease in the quality of care their patients receive. Addressing burnout in this sector is therefore crucial to ensuring high-quality patient care.
MissingLogic and Their Approach to Fighting Burnout
MissingLogic is a coaching and consulting company founded by Michelle Troseth and Tracy Christopherson.
Michelle and Tracy have known each other for over 30 years and what sets them apart from others in this field is the fact that they have experienced health worker burnout themselves while working in a hospital setting. Michelle started out as a critical care nurse and Tracy as a respiratory therapist.
Thanks to their work experiences, they understand exactly what it’s like to be very passionate about your work but also feel very overwhelmed by the demands and pressures of the job. So, to take care of the health of people who put their health on the line for the health of others, they started helping organizations create healthy work cultures.
Polarity Intelligence
One of the main approaches they use to help healthcare organizations and leaders create healthier environments for their workers is polarity intelligence. This is a framework-driven approach that leverages polarities.
Polarities are tensions that exist in all types of relationships, both business and personal. These tensions are often identified as problems for which the answer lies in one of the poles. If there are two perspectives, only one is correct.
But what Michelle and Tracy are teaching is that not all situations are either/or situations. A lot of the time we need both perspectives to form a whole. So, with polarity intelligence, we learn to differentiate between actual problems and polarities. And unlike actual problems, polarities can be solved with meaningful dialogue.
Mission and Margin
A common polarity within healthcare is mission and margin. Most health workers enter this field in order to help people with their skills and knowledge. However, they still need to make money to survive. And this polarity is the same as all other polarities – there are benefits to both poles.
If we focus too much on one pole, there will always be negative consequences. For example, if we focus too much on helping people and neglect our salary, we will put ourselves in a stressful financial situation. And if we focus too much on money, the quality of the care we provide to patients will fall. So the answer doesn’t lie on one pole, but in the balance between the two.
And this is exactly the mindset that Michelle and Tracy guide their clients toward through their consulting and coaching work. By leveraging polarities, they are changing the mindsets of healthcare workers so that they are less prone to stress and burnout.
How MissingLogic Turned Into a Succesful Business
With such a good idea and value provided, it is not hard to see how they managed to turn it into a successful business for themselves. However, there is something very special and unique about how Michelle and Tracy run their business.
As coaches focused on improving workspaces in the healthcare industry, they were in an excellent position to establish the kind of working environment they wanted for themselves.
If you’re interested in how these two amazing women leveraged their knowledge and skills to build the business of their dreams, tune in to episode 31 of the Medical Entrepreneur podcast, where we talk in detail about their journey, how they are fighting burnout in the healthcare industry, and how they have managed to turn this into a successful business.
I hope this was an interesting read for you If you think you’re ready to start your own journey as a medical entrepreneur, make sure to follow us on social media and subscribe so you never miss an episode!
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Medical Entrepreneur is a podcast dedicated to those who are trying to escape mainstream medicine and start building the healthcare business of their dreams.
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